Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire (**)
review by Jon
Waterman
It’s his fourth year at Hogwarts and young Harry Potter
is starting to grow up. Some aspects of his budding adulthood
are voluntary, such as his romantic feelings towards a particular
classmate and what can safely be assumed as being his first
date. Other aspects are forced. His name gets entered and then
selected to participate in the Tri-Wizard tournament; an extremely
dangerous competition designed to act as the be all and end
all (sometimes literally) to determine the best student wizards.
Since Potter is the first underage sorcerer to participate
in the contest reserved for elite near graduates, one can only
assume that outside forces are interfering…but what…or
whom?
“I love magic,” says a wide-eyed Harry Potter
as he stands in sheer amazement that a tent that looks so tiny
on the outside can actually be as palatial and spacious on
the inside. This simple statement essentially sums up the status
of this series of movies. We’ve seen it all before, but
they try to play it off as new. It should be obvious to everyone
that the tent will be able to easily accommodate the ten or
so people as they enter clown car style, yet for some reason
the person who should be least surprised is the most.
And unfortunately, he really is the most excited about everything.
The films have gotten to be so formulaic, it’s ridiculous.
We’ve had four movies. Each time, there’s a new
teacher that might be a bad guy or he might not. There’s
always Voldemort trying to get Potter through some intermediary
at the school. There’s always a new part of the school
that pops up to accommodate the storyline. And there’s
always the exact same revelation at the end. It’s boring.
The only thing left to hang on to is watching the magic. But
if that offers nothing special either, then you’re forced
to turn to the horrible acting and the lack of character development
and the still pretty lousy special effects before you just
give up all together.
I can only assume fans of the book will undoubtedly enjoy
the book more as it is very thick and is bound to add a great
deal of depth and richness to the pared down, predictable storyline.
Then again, I haven’t read it, so maybe it’s really
just 400+ pages of fluff. Whatever the case may be, I enjoyed
this installment the least because everything was stripped
down and the excitement and that new magic smell has all but
worn off. Instead of upping the ante, it was actually reduced.
All I can say is that I hope this is just a turning point for
when the series gets really good.
respond to jon@filmbrats.com
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