Having read all the Harry Potter books and seen all the films I was greatly looking forward to this film, despite being 54 years old then. I am sorry to say I was rather disappointed. I have watched it again in the two years since its release and have come to appreciate it a little more.

As with all books, I feel, your imagination means the books win out against the film in 99% of cases. The Harry Potter books start out quite childish and increase in maturity style and thrill with each successive offering. They are after all a children's read but the later books are not for the very young.This culminates in the last book , The deathly Hallows, being a thoroughly good read, if not a little scary for the younger readers.

The Goblet of Fire is based on the fourth book and is therefore a bit darker, more fantastic and thrilling. I know it is quite a long book and obviously needed condensing for the cinema, but unfortunately a lot of the best aspects seem to have been cut out. This left the film seeming disjointed and a bit bland for me. For the uninitiated, however, there are still plenty of thrills , special effects , characters and plot to hold your attention .

**********************************************************
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire-Beware Spoilers
**********************************************************

Before the title we see a large serpent Sliding out of a skull and slithering between gravestones in a graveyard. The scenery is dark and the usual music is played in a somewhat darker way. The Harry Potter theme tune is consistent with all the films .

We move to a caretaker's home, a little distance from the old Riddle house which is supposed to be empty. The caretaker, played by Eric Sykes, sees a light over in this house and sets off to investigate. The empty house is where Tom Riddle, the young Lord Voldemort lived in childhood. He is the darkest and most feared wizard in the magical community.

We move to Harry Potter who wakes suffering extreme pains in the trademark scar on his forehead. This Z shaped scar was received during a fight between his parents and Lord Voldemort, when he was a baby. His parents died in this attack .

As these strange headaches start to be more frequent and debilitating we are left wondering who or what's causing them.

Harry travels with the Weasley family and friends to the Quidditch world cup. The magical world's major sporting event of the year.They travel via portkey, a new experience for Harry and ourselves. The scenery is good here and it is quite atmospheric. The journey and arrival are way out of the ordinary. The appearance of Lord Voldemort's Dark Mark, at the world cup causes pandemonium ( Thankfully this is the only Quidditch of the film - the game which I find is boring to watch )

The plot of this film revolves basically around a Triwizard Tournament which is to be held at Hogwarts School of Wizards and Wizardry. There is to be a champion from one of each of the three schools participating, to be selected to compete for the Triwizard Trophy. There are to be various challenges to determine a winner .

The champions for these challenges are to be selected by each candidate putting their name into a goblet , which will then pick the three champions. This is The Goblet of fire .

It is protected by an age line, created by a spell , and no-one under seventeen is able to enter the competition. This is due to the possible dangers, and level of magical expertise needed .

The schools are Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. More detail here will spoil it for new Harry Potter fans but suffice to say all does not go to plan. The stage is set and the tale unfolds.

As always there is a sub plot which is full of intrigue and mystery . This should leave you surprised if you have not read the book. All is not happy ever after at the end and there is a death among the students.

**************************************************************
SPOILERS GONE
**************************************************************

Although , as an ardent Potter fan I felt this film was a bit of a let down, the special effects, and a couple of characters, saved the day :-

Frances De La Tour as the gigantic teacher Madame Maxim,Krum .
The Merpeople who live in the lake .
The special effect dragons .
The Veela were excellent.
This was also true of the arrival of the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang schools. One school arrives on a giant galleon which appears from under the sea, the other on a giant flying carriage drawn by enormous horses . These horses only drink single malt whiskey ! Lucky devils.

There are some exciting scenes such as the Dragon scenes and the water ones , in the challenge . The maze task which is exciting and thrilling, is also fairly strange and a bit scary .

Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) as always was brilliant . The character of Mad eyed Moody is excellent both in the book and film . I didn't think this character could be played well but he is, and is believable .

On the down side the film started, having missed out a whole section of the book, and gave that feeling constantly throughout . The exclusion of Dobby and Winky, the house elves, left a hole in a large part of the plot. These characters enhance the magic in the story, providing a lot of humour and it's a pity this part of the book was not kept in .

The finale of the film however did manage to be fairly spectacular and spell binding. It was also scary and unpredictable if you had not read the book.

The first films were more a children's watch but were somehow more enjoyable. Also this is the first of the Potter films to incorporate a romantic element. .

The fact that the child stars are quite grown up now was hard to ignore. I can't imagine what they are going to do with them in any further films and I only hope that, as all the books seem to be getting increasingly long, they are not completely decimated when transferring to film. Also it will be awful if the characters start to look as if they have grown-ups playing children.

***************************************************************

There are plenty of well known stars as well as those already mentioned .
Michael Gambon as Professor Dumbledore .
Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall .
Alan Rickman as the nasty Professor Snape .
All of these give great performances and the weak ones are by a few of the child stars .

The musical score is as always appropriate.

I imagine to watch this as a one off without having read the books , or watched the other films , it is probably a good / great experience with enough tension to keep you guessing . Kids will love it and so will some adults . As an all round entertaining film you should enjoy it , but watch out for the little ones .

***************************************************************

Our DVD had two discs in a hard A5 cover, book type opening, case

DISC ONE
This disc plays the movie, has scene selection and language choice - 51 in all.

DISC TWO
Has a choice of 7 languages
It begins by flying into the trwizard arena .
From here you can travel to the dragons arena , the lake , the maze or Hogwarts castle.

!) Dragons Arena- Triwizard Dragon tournament, Harry versus the Horntail-the first task, Meet the champions
2) The Lake - Triwizard Tournament lake challenge , In too deep the second task
3) The Maze - Triwizard Tournament Maze challenge , to the Graveyard and back challenge , the Maze the third task, He who must not be named
4) Hogwarts Castle additional scenes - Preparing for the yule ball , conversations with the cast , reflections on the fourth film.

This second disc provides bags of entertainment value whether you are a Harry Potter fan or not.

******************************************************************


It is a Warner Bros. production
Directed by Mike Newell
Produced by David Heyman
Based on the book by J K Rowling

CAST:-
Daniel Radcliffe - Harry Potter
Rupert Grint - Ron Weasley
Robbie Coltrane - Hagrid
Francis De La Tour - Madame Maxime
Alan Rickman - Professor Snape
Maggie Smith - Professor McGonagall
Michael Gambon - Professor Dumbledore

With as usual many more including Timothy Spall, Jason Issacs, Gary Oldman. Ralph Fiennes and Brenda Gleeson

Unusually, for the Harry Potter films, music by Patrick Doyle .

Certificate 12 - moderate fantasy, violence, threat and horror .
Running time is 151 mins
Hearing impaired English
Subtitles - English Arabic ,Greek and Icelandic
Audio 5.1 Dolby Digital
Audio descriptive - 2.0 Dolby surround
Aspect Ratio - 16:9 Widescreen colour

Has DVD ROM interactual included .

Copyright Eiley 07

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12