Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire Review…

Righty ho then… Mad Harry Potter anorak credentials established long ago (see HERE and HERE and don’t even get me started on my collection of foreign language HP editions…) I saw all 2 hours and 40 minutes of the new movie with my son tonight (his review to come.)

It was fairly surreal to have to walk down a red carpet thingy between two sets of barriers crowded with people (times like that I’m relieved no-one knows what I look like!) It got even more so when I had to pass a security guard holding back an elderly gentleman insisting he had to pick up his tickets inside:

“I’m sorry sir, what’s you name?”

“John Boorman”

Ah….

The legendary director of such films as Excalibur, The General, Deliverance and Point Blank passed by unaccosted…

Real huge buzz about the new Movies @ Dundrum (not a usual spot for these events) with the movie running in at least 2 screens that I saw. Bumped into Steve Curran and Helen Leonard from TV, Ryan T, my mate Jonathan McC and loads of other faces I usually only ever see at movie previews! It was my first time there and it all seems very new, plush and nice… They trailed out Devon Murray who plays Seamus Finnegan to loud applause for a few kind words and the on we went…


My problem with adapting book 4 to movie for was always going to be that because of its length there was going to have to be so much you’d have to leave out but fortunately I think that might be my only gripe with the whole thing…

It fairly rattles along at breakneck pace (the whole Quidditch World Cup sequence from leaving the Weasley’s house to finish can’t be more than 8 or 9 minutes), maintains and builds on Alfonso Cuaron’s dark, edgy visuals from the last movie and really doesn’t let up until Ralph Fiennes’ almost unrecognisable turn at the end of the movie when the Dark Lord returns…

Brendan Gleeson is, of course as always, the star of the show although I do think the actors playing the short lived Defence Against The Dark Arts teachers always have the greatest licence to chew the scenery (Ian Hart, Kenneth Branagh, David Thewlis…)

*Anorak hat on again* I couldn’t help but notice the common factor with almost all of the actors playing the new incidental characters… Miranda Richardson as Rita Skeeter, Roger Lloyd-Pack’s Barty Crouch, Eric Sykes brief turn as the riddle handyman Frank Bryce, Jeff Rawle’s Amos Diggory And Frances De La Tour as the giant Madame Maxime…

All prominent graduates of British TV sitcoms… Blackadder, Only Fools & Horses and The Vicar Of Dibley, Sykes, Drop The Dead Donkey, Rising Damp… Check out the brain on Rick… 🙂 Weird too to see the new Dr. Who David Tennant in a brief but important role…

There’s probably almost as much of the film left on the cutting room floor as you see but at nealy 2 and 3/4 hours that’s probably a good thing as even the most devoted little one starts to wain after 2 and a half… This does mean no start at the Dursley house and one or 2 sections of the film that feel a bit empty and gutted – I’m sure we’ll see more on the DVD next year…

This movie marks 2 more turning points too. The next movie will be directed by a relative unkown David Yates (most recently known for the G8 themed Richard Curtis written TV movie The Girl In The Café) and finally Steve Kloves takes a temporary break on screenwriting duties after 6 long years (he will be back for HBP apparently after adapting and directing Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time) to make way for Michael Goldenberg whose biggest credits are the adaptations of Contact and Peter Pan… Hmmm……

My son’s review? “5 out of 5!!” Would have saved you all that reading if I’d told you at the beginning… Sorry… 🙁

R

2 thoughts on “Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire Review…

  1. Sorry Rick. Based on comments from Fiona Shaw, no start at the Dursley house was even filmed. However since the Dursleys are a major plot point in Book 5 (the reason for the trial, and why Harry has to go back), the family have to feature in book 5.

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