I finally made the time to watch the fourth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight. Have to say the film didn’t come anywhere near to it’s potential. JK Rowling provided an excellent book which Mike Newell turned into a mediocre film. There are those who say it’s fabulous and so forth, I have to wonder what commission they are on or whether they saw a different movie to me. There are also those that say it is a travesty and worse, I can’t say I agree with those people either because the film had some excellent moments and aspects that should not be ignored.

Before I go any further I’ll have to put my hand up and say that I am a fan boy and that as far as I’m concerned the best possible Potter film would be one that sticks 100% to JKR’s plot, regardless of whether that results in a 4 hour film. However, we don’t live in an ideal world so I know that is not really on. Film is a very different medium to print so the director and screen play writers have to make changes to mold the book into a good film. They also have to go further than that and make it into a popular film because WB have spent an absolute fortune making it and want to get their money’s worth. Again, an unfortunate feature of reality. In aid of making the film easier to sell to the masses I can forgive things like the dragon scene as necessary sacrifices to the god of commerce. However, what I cannot forgive is blatantly missing the point of some of the key characters. But before I get into what’s wrong I think I need to give the creators fair credit for what they did well.

The Right Sound

The first and most obvious success in my view was the music, it was phenomenal and really set the right tone. I bought the sound track months ago and thought it was perfect before even seeing the film and now that I have seen the film I’m even more certain it worked (see my comments on the soundtrack). Yes, it was a new composer and yes the style is different in parts but it works and there are enough common elements in it to make it fit with what has gone before too. Mr Doyle, I take my hat off to you!

I also have to say that although it deviated massively from the book the scene in the maze was very well done and the scene at the end when Harry returns with Cedric’s body is just perfect. Basically the nearer the end of the film the better the scenes are.

New Faces

There were also some new characters that I thought were very well done, Rita Skeeter topping the list. Miranda Richardson nailed the character perfectly. I was also impressed with Barty Crouch senior and Amos Diggory, we don’t see much of Diggory but what we see is really believable, you can really see himself and Arthur chatting about plugs over tea at the ministry! Having said that some of the new characters were a bit of a let down but none were terrible. Moody is a hard one to place, at times Brendan Gleeson hit the character perfectly yet at others he missed completely but over all he was certainly passable.

The Old Guard

The old reliables were also excellent as ever, Maggie Smith was perfect as ever when portraying Professor McGonagll, Alan Rickman was again excellent as Snape and Jason Isaacs again captured the evil Lucius Malfoy wonderfully. Robbie Coltrane also did a great Hagrid, in fact he did a much improved Hagrid compared to some of the earlier films, the first one in particular. I was also impressed with how much the trio have come on over the four films. They had some really rough spots in the first film but I didn’t notice any in this film at all. Having said that Hermione’s character is still being wrongly enhanced but that’s more down to the script than anything else. From the films you get the impression that Hermione is hip and popular which just doesn’t tally with the books at all. Mind you that’s far from new in this film, it was really bad in the second and third films but actually a bit better in this one.

There were also a few nice little touches thrown in for the die-hard fans but fewer that I’d have liked. The one that I was really surprised at was the subtle inclusion of the school song during the celebrations after Harry beat the dragon. I hadn’t expected that at all and it really impressed me.

And Then it all Goes so Wrong

So, what really lets the film down? The most obvious let down is the first few scenes which are horribly rushed and the dialog painfully wooden. It’s almost like watching 15 minute Hamlet at times, they are saying all the right lines but in such fast succession that the whole scene looks forced and wrong. The scene in the side room after the champions are picked is a perfect example, the dialog is almost straight out of the book yet the scene is almost cringe-worthy and totally unbelievable. The Quidich World Cup was also a complete disaster as was the scene with the dark mark. We didn’t see a single second of action at the world cup and they didn’t bother with any of the important plot since house elves were totally written out. You have to wonder why they bothered with the world cup at all! The simple fact is that about 20 extra minutes, a few seconds of world cup play and some house elves would have made all the difference in the world and turned this from a disappointing film into an OK film.

Apart from the half-hearted opening to the film and the rediculously rushed scences the really un-forgivable aspect of the film is the total mess made of two of the main characters, Professor Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort. Both are supposed to be the greatest wizards of their time and one is an emotionally unstable babbling wanna-be-Irishman and the other is a ballerina. I’ve never liked Gambon’s Dumbledore because he just doesn’t fit with the Dumbledore we get to know and love from the books at all but in this film the director and the script writers just didn’t give him a chance at all. He looses his temper, he shouts, he even goes to pieces and ends up sitting on the floor of his office looking like an emotional wreck. That’s not Dumbledore! This one really gals me because Dumbledore is by far my favorite character so seeing him so terribly portrayed is so so disappointing. However, regardless of the script Gambon just doesn’t do a convincing Dumbledore, he speaks too fast and his body-language is all wrong. He is supposed to radiate an aura of power and Gambon just doesn’t portray that at all. I’ve always said Ian McKellen should have followed on from the near perfect Richard Harris but sadly I don’t get to cast the films!

Then we come to the Dark Lord. What a let down. The most evil wizard in the entire magical world, a wizard feared almost universally and responsible for an 11 year reign of terror the likes of which had never been seen before and he prances around as if he wants to be in the ballet! What ever Mike Newell was aiming for it’s safe to say he missed. The only thing that was even passable was his appearance, makeup were doing their job but I don’t think anyone else was. The body-language was terrible, the voice, a disaster. He didn’t come across as frightening at all. Simply put, he just wasn’t believable. The grave yard looked great and I thought the scene had potential but Voldemort ruined it.

Conclusions

So, bottom line, what would I give it out of 10? I’ll give it a pass, nothing more nothing less. Here in Ireland that’s 40% so 4 out of 10. Great potential, let down by poorly portrayed characters, badly rushed scenes and pointless penny-pinching. Worst HP film of the 4 we have seen so far, which is really disappointing considering it is following on the heels of the best.