HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

3/5
stars daniel radcliffe, emma watson, rupert grint, robert pattinson

after much dodging, i finally saw the movie on dvd. i admit that it was better than i expected; from the hype for the movie, as well the huge popularity of the books, i was understandably sceptical. i had seen the first film and thought it pretty dry and then didn't have much hope for the subsequent ones.

so anyway... for those who haven't seen it or read the book, the film takes a more serious approach to what goes on at hogwart's. the triwizard tournament is the sort of thing you'd want to put your worst enemy through, but at hogwart's its all part of inter-wizard school competition, where the worst that can happen is someone dying.

three representatives get chosen from their respective schools, and somehow harry's name is drawn from the hat (or, explodes out of the goblet of fire).

i think the real magic of this film is showing what its like to be at highschool; harry is constantly being given shit by the other students for being the favourite, the rocky nature of friendship, the issues of finding a date for the ball (which, would you believe it, involves dancing!), and just the general 'group' mentality that always exists at highschool regardless of how unique or blase they seem to be.

as i've heard, this film is much darker than the others (which i haven't seen, apart from the First) and i liked that. the film explores more than just spells and dragons, but rather highlights a real sense of loss and tragedy by its clever, if not a little bit formulaic, use of characters.

acting-wise, i think radcliffe (who plays harry) still needs a bit of work to be fully believable. other cast gave decent performances, although the guy that plays Dumbledore's accent constantly switched from english to american which kept drawing me away from the story. directing was a bit sloppy too i thought, but may have been an improvement from previous films.

anyhoo, i guess overall this film is worth watching, but i'll be picking up the book as soon as i get the time.

- LOki