Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

3/12/06

Saturday: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The fourth Harry Potter movie begins with what can best be called a 'terrorist attack' on the Quidich(sp) World Cup. This event marks the re-emergence of the forces of Lord Voldemort (Ralph Finnes) as an active presence in the magical realms. Infact Voldermorts 'specter' is felt more heavily throughout this film then in any of the others, and for good reason as the viewer will see. The lest bound to form of any of the 'Potter movies', Goblet of Fire focus most of its plot time on Harrys involuntary participation in the prestigious though dangerous 'Tri-Wizard Tournament'. The tournament is a compatetion pitting young wizards against various obstacles to prove their superior magical abilities. Harry is one of two participants representing Hogwarts (an unusual occurrence), with the others coming from a visiting French girls school and a boys school in Romania or Bulgaria or some such place.

Radcliffe, Watson and Grint are strong as always in their signature roles as Hogwarts most trouble prone students, but the real standout of this film is a new character. In what is now an established yearly tradition Hogwarts has a new 'defense against the dark arts' teacher, in this case its the gruff Alastor 'MadEye' Moody (Brendan Gleeson), who looks and acts like just like John Wayne in True Grit. Also Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) gets something of a love interest in the form of Madame Olympe Maxime (Frances de la Tour) the dean(et?) of the girls school, who looks like Allison Janney if she where a giant and slightly mutated. With the exception of Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) who is becoming increasingly less mystical, all the usual players on the schools staff have been seemingly reduced to bit parts. Gary Oldman however does enjoy one of the most unusual cameo appearances ever brought to the screen as his Sirius Black character from the 3rd film. Goblet of Fire is probably the best Harry Potter film so far, thought I'd say that Mike Newells direction is not quite as strong as Alfonso Cuarons was on Prisoner of Azkaban. This film stuck with me longer then I thought it would and I find myself incressingly excited for number five.