It's hard to know where to start with a movie that left me somewhat satisfied, but with a churning ball of disapointment in the bottom of my stomach as well.
All in all, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire was a good film, in and of itself. The plot worked, the characters were entertaining and endearing, and almost every shot left me wanting to see just a little bit more than what the camera was showing me - just one more inch of the magical world of J.K. Rowling that has translated so well onto the big screen.
Unfortunately for sequels, they are never (and can never) be measured solely on their own. We movie-goers always have to stack up and compare, so that the next time we're in the coffee room at work we can say things like: "Well Leprechaun 4: In Space was obviously a superior film to Leprechaun 2!"
This is where Goblet of Fire falls a little bit short. Mike Newell (whose film, Donnie Brasco, is a wonderfully refreshing look at the mob) had the difficult task of following up Alfonso Cuaron's much improved Prisoner of Azkaban. In fact, up until Goblet, every installment in this series had gotten progressively better.
The film opens strong with a recurring nightmare that Harry has been having, in which he sees Lord Voldemort conversing with two of his followers inside the Riddle family mansion. This dream seems real enough, and peaks the interest of the audience, until Harry is told about 17,000 times "not to dwell on dreams". At that point, the average viewer will probably make up his or her mind "not to dwell on dreams" either, taking the only real mystery of the film and shoving it into the background.
In the foreground we suddenly have "The Tri-Wizard Tournament!" which apparently is a really big deal. I spent about ten minutes of the movie, however, trying to figure out how often this tournament was held and how many schools were involved. Certainly it couldn't go on every year with the same three schools participating, because then Hogwarts would have hosted it three years before, which (if my memory serves me right) would have been around the same time Harry was stealing precious rocks from men wearing turbans. But, since J.K. Rowling is pretty much God, I let it go and listened as Michael Gambon (playing Prof. Dumbledore) explained to me that Harry Potter was too young to enter the tournament.
Well Shucks! Fortunately, since we already knew from watching the previews that Harry was going to be in the competition anyway, I was able to sit back, eat some popcorn, and wait to see how he managed to throw his hat into the ring. When a piece of paper with Harry's name on it flew out of the goblet (which looks like a glorified birdbath) even though he didn't put it in, I was hardly surprised.
"How did he do that?" My friend turned and asked me, obviously as confused and alarmed everyone onscreen
"He's Jesus," I said.
And I guess that sort of sums up my basic problem with the whole film. I was never worried and I was never scared. Of course Harry was going to win the tournament, of course he was going to save Ron from the ugliest mermaids in the history of cinema, and of course he was going to live through his eventual encounter with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named which took place (hold your breath for this one!) IN THE SAME GRAVEYARD THAT HARRY HAD BEEN DREAMING ABOUT ALL MOVIE! Thankfully I had been warned that dreams don't matter earlier in the film, so I knew that this was mere coincidence.
When we finally do find out that a Death Eater (who had been merely posing as an alcoholic Brendan Gleeson) was responsible for putting Harry's name in the Goblet, I don't really much care. Then my friend reminds me that this same Death Eater must have killed his father, and I suddenly remember a 4 second long scene from earlier in the film where there was an old man dead in the woods. I don't really much care. In fact, the only times I was really emotionally invested through this entire film was when Harry was trying to talk to his fellow student Cho Chang. Apparently he has a crush on her, and that just infuriates me. Number one: Cho Chang sounds like the name of a panda bear at the Washington D.C. zoo. Number two: Hermione Granger is ten times hotter than that chick will ever be, but Harry and Ron let her go to the Yule Ball (think Prom minus alcohol + ugly giants) with some foreigner which reminds me of all those guys in high school that got hot girls just because they had accents.
If one of the two of them does not go all the way with that girl before they graduate, I will be very disappointed. Unless Neville Longbottom gets to her first. Now there's a sex scene I am dying to see.
It probably sounds like a really hated this movie, but I honestly didn't. I even saw it twice. It, like all of the Potter movies is magical, captivating, and brilliantly creative. I just felt like I needed a little something more to keep me on the edge of my seat than a dragon egg that made loud noises and a love interest for Hagrid the half-breed.
The Verdict: B+