Review of Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire

Well Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire was special movie for me...for it was released on my birthday....dat 18th November..in India release date was 18th for the folks thinking which of the 3 dates it was...well i had pre booked my ticket to this dark sequel from the JKR renowed and famous book series and was preety much excited about it.

To add touch to it, i had booked the tickets for IMAX dome. So watching the movie in IMAX format was a totally different experience as to seeing it on a normal theatre screen. Anyways, enough of the boring talks about me and lets get down to reviewing this sequel, for i liked it and would like to share it with you.

It is Harry Potter's fourth year at Hogwarts, and the big event of the semester is the perilous and prestigious TriWizard Tournament. Harry is too young to enter, but somehow his name is selected by the magical Goblet which puts forward the contestants, an act that forces him to partake.

His nomination causes consternation among his fellow pupils (in particular best bud Ron), but the reckless new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Alastor "MadEye" Moody (Brendan Gleeson) offers sound advice for the competition.

Meanwhile Harry is plagued by suspiciously realistic nightmares about evil dark lord Voldemort, and finds himself engaging in his first teenage crush.

As Alfonso Cuaron proved with the last Harry Potter film, the series benefits greatly from a director willing to infuse a little grit and personally into an adaptation. The first two movies, directed by Chris Columbus, were superficially competent, but undeniably flat in tone and lacking in wonder.

Now we have the fourth film, directed for the first time by a Brit (Mike Newell, helmer of Donnie Brasco; Four Weddings and Funeral and Pushing Tin) who thankfully leans closer to Cuaron's sensibility than Columbus'.

He may not quite possess the perceptive grasp of pubescent interaction that Cuaron lent Prisonor of Azkaban, but Newell does an excellent job of building an ominous tone around Hogwarts; shoots the action scenes with flair and creativity and unleashes the scarier scenes with an admirable lack of restraint.

These and other elements help make Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire the most enjoyable of the series so far, although it's becoming a bit of a cliché to say that with each new instalment. Pity the director who drops the ball.

But this latest film is the most fun, not just because of the attributes listed above; or the inevitable (albeit slow) maturing of its young characters, but also because it features some supremely cool set-pieces and standard-setting special effects.

For a fantasy series, the special effects in the Harry Potter have always felt lacking, but the dragon on display during the Triwizard Tournament is one of the best ever committed to screen. And the underwater component featuring some nasty mer-creatures is deliciously unsettling.

The young leads have very much settled into the skin of their characters, but this doesn't prevent the occasional false note, particularly as this film begins to delve into awkward teenage issues which required perhaps a lighter directing touch. John Hughes, Mike Newell ain't.

It's weird watching all the returning supporting cast members succumb to the physical throws of puberty, and Ron's scoundrel older twin brothers get far too much face time this time. Their schtick ain't getting any funnier.

Brendan Gleeson makes for a lively MadEye Moody, but the best new addition to the cast is definitely Ralph Fiennes, who masterfully embodies Voldemort for the climax. Underneath a skilled (apparently CGI-enhanced) make-up job, he is impressively scary in both speech and action, a feat all the more admirable considering the hyperbolistic build up the character has had over the series.

It's not hard to see why the film garnered an M rating, but that said, any younger Potter fans should be fine if they have a sturdy hand to grasp during the darker bits.

With more to offer non-readers of the series than ever before, and the world of the books becoming all the more richer for the fans, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire gets the job done well.

Recommended.