Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Movie Info

This goblet is pretty fiery!

The Triwizard Tournament is one of the Wizarding World’s most acclaimed events and Hogwarts is hosting it.  Despite being too young to enter the tournament, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) finds himself thrust front and center into the battle when his name mysteriously shows up in Goblet of Fire.  With much of the school against him including his best friend Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), Harry must find a way to defeat the three challenges of the Triwizard Cup.  As Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) finds romance with a visiting competitor named Viktor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski), Harry finds help from Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and new Defense Against the Dark Art’s teacher Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody (Brendan Gleeson).  Harry knows that something is happening in the tournament and his enemy Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is plotting something that could change everything for Harry and his friends.

School sucks

Directed by Mike Newell, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is based on the J.K. Rowling novel from 2000 and the fourth entry in the Harry Potter story.  Following Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004.  The film was well received and one of the highest grossing films in the series.  It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Goblet of Fire was the Harry Potter novel coming out when I first read Harry Potter (I was able to catch-up before its release).  The novel was the first real Harry Potter to have some real length to it…leading to questions on how it would be adapted when the films started being made.  Despite the novel’s length, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire does move (though it was the longest entry in the series).

Thanks, Harry! I feel I have a big future due to you!

The story is the first film that really starts to break the formula of the other films (mostly for time).  The Dursleys are skipped and other aspects of the Triwizard Cup are also ditched.  The film also takes a noticeably darker turn (at the end especially) and starts to indicate that not everyone is “safe” in Harry Potter’s world.  It is this darkness which helps move Harry Potter from the dismissive title of “kids lit” to fantasy that feels dangerous.  It is a nice turn that is good for the story, but in the big picture of Harry Potter this dark turn also ends up not entirely paying off at the end of the series as a whole (in my opinion).

The cast continues to grow and strengthen.  The previous film had the characters jump from being kids to being teens who have raging hormones.  Here this is more evident with rising tensions between Rupert Grint and Emma Watson’s characters.  The role of the teachers played by Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, and Alan Rickman seem much more cutback and Miranda Richardson’s Rita Skeeter never seems to be fully rounded out as a character.  Brendan Gleeson is a good addition as Mad-Eye (sort of…with Doctor Who’s David Tennant).  The film features Robert Pattinson as the doomed Cedric Diggory and officially introduces Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort.

Nice to meet you sort of for the first time, Mr. Voldemort, sir.

The first two Harry Potter films were classical fantasy whimsy in appearance and didn’t feel very real.  Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban gave the world of Hogwarts real depth and texture.  Here, the set designs continue and stand about par with the previous film (though the students’ rock & roll dance party with the wizard equivalent of Christian rock was a little hard to take).

Behind Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, this is my second favorite Harry Potter film.  It gets the balance right between teen melodrama, action, humor, and fantasy…and despite being rather long it keeps moving.  The next entry in the series continues the dark slide set up in this film.  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was followed by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2007.

Related Links:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 1 (2010)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2 (2011)

Lego Harry Potter:  Years 1-4

Lego Harry Potter:  Years 5-7