Review of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) by Jefff. — 21 Nov 2005

I had a great time watching this film. I'm always concerned that book-to-film adaptations will lose a lot of the finer points of the book, but that's not the case here. The writing team very nicely trimmed the fat of the book and even enhanced it as they realized there are six distinct acts of narrative, and the rest is non-essential.

The only noteworthy plot "changes" are that Barty Crouch Jr appears in the first scene, and the third task is modified a bit (no cloud, skrewt, or sphinx). No house elves either, so anything that Dobby or Winky did was assigned to someone else.

They also chopped a ton off the introduction (gimme more Mr. Weasley!) A couple other quick complaints: Hermione is definitely getting around (Ron, Harry, and Krum all seem to be getting some) and Dumbledore has an explosive temper I don't recall reading about (Richard Harris is still missed).

The leadup to and the Yule Ball scene were hilarious - boys and girls are so dumb at age 14. The new cast additions are all great: Mad-Eye Moody is magnificent, Rita Skeeter is correctly abominable (but underused) and you can't help but have a huge crush on Cho Chang.

The tournament tasks are appropriately breathtaking and the final showdown is equally creepy and exhilarating (what a surprise, Ralph Fiennes is great). I'm thrilled they got this one right; good luck making a movie of the 5th book.