“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” much like the book that the film was adapted from, is a much darker chapter in the series.
In the first few moments of the film, it’s evident that the premise no longer resembles a cute children’s fable like the previous four films.? The mythical world that surrounds Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) has evolved into a more ominous backdrop.? It will no doubt please the older Harry Potter addicts who delight in reading about and watching the fantasy world of the boy-wizard unfold.
Ultimately, the PG-13 rating is quite fitting, for the film is not only steeped in a darker setting, but in violence and in hormones.As the film develops, it appears the days of solving the sinister plots that plague Hogwarts School with his magical cohorts seem to have ended for the English orphan. Instead, Harry is beset with more perilous challenges in this darker picture.
The Triwizard Tournament is the obstacle that the now full-blown adolescent must face.? The tournament involves conquering a fire-breathing dragon, saving classmates from a murky lagoon, entering an enchanted maze, and just to complicate the life of the overwhelmed teenager, an unexpected visit from Harry’s mortal nemesis, Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) awaits him.? This is the first time we see Voldemort in full screen, and he has the ability to scare the 5-year-old, as well as the 20-year-old crowd, for the Dark Lord appears to resemble a very ungainly Nosferatu.
Like most of the adventures young Harry encounters, Harry becomes a finalist in the tournament out of his recurring misfortune.? During the selection ceremony, Harry’s name unexpectedly erupts scribed on a piece of parchment from the Goblet of Fire as the fourth finalist.? This is against the rules of the tournament, since you have to be 17 to enter, and Harry is still only 14.? But, the faculty reluctantly decides to let Harry compete as they are unable to ignore the magical binding contract created when Harry’s name flew out of the Goblet.
The other finalists that the Goblet has chosen are seemingly over-prepared, with the exception of Hogwart’s pretty-boy contestant Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson) who befriends Harry now and then.?Viktor Klum (Stanislav Ianevski) is the Aryan finalist from an overseas magic academy that appears as if he is ready to go to war with his fellow contestants. The lovely Fleur Delacour (Clemence Poesy) is the quiet, yet agile Beauxbaton siren from France who first appears fierce enough in the first few stages of the tournament, but unravels near the end of the treacherous competition. Aside from the introduction of the bizarre contestants, who are the types of intriguing new characters that often arise in the Harry Potter series, Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody (Brendan Gleeson) makes his debut as the new professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts.
The character is a bit unsightly with a ridiculous large glass eye and an ever-present mysterious drinking problem.? Alastor, who compares to everyone’s degenerate uncle, has a very dubious role in the film, but lends Harry some welcomed aid in the tournament. In Harry’s fourth year of Hogwarts, he must face not only a fire-breathing dragon but the seemingly death defying act of asking out a girl.? Most of the action Harry and his friends encounter in this picture involves the trials of coming of age. Although Harry himself never makes any real progress with Cho Chang (Katie Leung), the apple of his eye, other courtships are more successful.
The bookish Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), who is brimming with hormones in this installment, latches onto the arm of the brutish Aryan lad Viktor much to Ron Weasly’s (Rupert Grint) disgust. The film may involve hormonal angst, but it doesn’t transform the film into a typical high school teen flick. Although the film is set with teens and is mass-marketed to a dire extent, it doesn’t have a heavy degree of superficiality.? The film has the same heart and originality as the previous films, and much of that is not owed to the director and producers, but to the work of Joanne Kathleen Rowling.