I actually saw Goblet of Fire at the movie theater with one of my exes and his family. At the time, I still was weary of the films because I didn't want my mom to know that I was seeing a movie she had forbidden. I remember not really watching the movie. I looked at the wall; I looked around the theater; I went to the bathroom more than once. I did anything I could to not watch the movie, but that wasn't a big deal. Goblet of Fire is my least favorite book and the second-to-last favorite film. Really, Goblet and Chamber just flip places for me, I guess.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry and his friends are introduced to what life was like when Voldemort was on the peak of his Dark Wizard career through the Dark Mark and Death Eaters are spotted at the Quidditch World Cup terrorizing people, especially Muggles and Muggle-borns; Professor "Moody's" unconventional teaching methods which include using the three unforgivable spells and turning students into ferrets; and parts of Professor Trelawney's prophecy about the Dark Lord's (Vodemort's) return. At the same time, however, life still continues at Hogwarts. This year, the Triwizard Tournament has been brought back after several year hiatus, so students from the Durmstrang Institute and Beauxbatons Academy of Magic join the students at Hogwarts to compete for the Triwizard Cup. Three students, one from each school, are chosen to participate in the challenges, but everything goes wrong when Harry Potter is chosen as the fourth competitor when he didn't even sign up to begin with.
Director Mike Newell (Mona Lisa Smile, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time) takes a different approach to the Harry Potter film industry. Chris Columbus started the series by infusing Sorcerer's Stone and Goblet of Fire with the awe and wonder from the books while also bringing the much loved series to life. Alfonso Cuaron continued Columbus's work in character development while encouraging the actors to bring their own individual style to the characters they portrayed. Cuaron also brought in a darker tone to the series, acknowledging that the series was heading toward a darker, more intense place. This tone should have continued in Goblet of Fire, but Newell wanted to do something different. He chose to focus on the fact that Harry and his friends are becoming teenagers and going through changes in their bodies as well as starting to have crushes and the first inklings of love.
I question his reasoning in this choice because the series plot was slowly working it's way towards a more intense, darker shade of color. Newell should have pushed this a little further because this is the movie that Voldemort is resurrected; however, this could be the reason Newell wanted a lighter film because he knew it was going to get worse from there.
But whatever his reasoning was, however, I'm good with it because he did an excellent job introducing the other schools to the Hogwarts students as well as the audience. He even managed to do it making the different schools do a new style of magic than Hogwarts uses.
The students from Beauxbatons have a light, gentle, more feminine magic. They gently shrug their shoulders and sigh and all the sudden, floating blue butterfly looking things appear.
Durmstrang, however, uses staffs to hit the floor and spin around; the style is marked by brute force and strength.
With new magic styles, there must also be new characters: Fleur Delacour, Viktor Krum, and Cedric Diggory (Cedric goes to Hogwarts, but this is the first time the movie-only audience sees him), the three Tri-Wizard Champions (excluding Harry who was never supposed to be a champion in the first place).
Fleur Delacour may appear to be just a pretty face (thanks to her veela grandmother), but she is stronger than she looks. As Moody says, "Miss Delacour is as much as fairy princess as I am" (or something like that). I'm just not sure Clemence Poesy captures the essence of Fleur. Yes, Miss Poesy is beautiful, however, she is unable to supplement her looks with strength. Instead, it seems like Fleur exists solely for the purpose of having a girl compete for the Triwizard Cup, but not because she is talented or strong.
Stanislav Ianevski, on the other hand, had a much easier job compared to Poesy. As Hermione says, "Viktor is more of a physical being." Therefore, Ianevski had to stand there and look like a tough Quidditch player. The easiness, however, does not negate his performance. It was perfect (though it's hard not to be when all you need to do is walk around scowling).
The true Hogwarts champion, Cedric Digorry, is played by . . . let me plug my ears first . . . Robert Pattinson. While "R-Patz" is more known for playing Edward Cullen in the sad-excuse-for-a-vampire-series, Twilight, I prefer to look at him as Cedric or Tyler Hawkins from Remember Me or Jacob from Water for Elephants or ANY other character he's has played or will play in his life as long as it's not bad-hair Cullen. Anyway, he played Cedric just as Rowling wrote him to be -- a genuinely nice, good-hearted boy who is also heartthrob to many Hogwarts girls. So at least there's that.
And because I can't resist . . .
Three other characters are also introduced to Rita Skeeter, Mad-Eye Moody, and Voldemort.
While I know that Rita Skeeter, the infamous Daily Prophet reporter bent on twisting any fact to get her own story, is a minor character, I am extremely impressed with Miranda Richardson's portrayal. Not only does Richardson capture and bring life to every facet of Skeeter, but the costume and make-up designers deserve props for recreating the image we were provided by the series' illustrator, Mary GrandPre, in chapter 18 "The Weighing of the Wands."
PERFECTION
Mad-Eye Moody, on the other hand, has much more screen presence than Skeeter. Brendan Gleeson takes on the role and does so brilliantly. Moody is paranoid, irritable, rough, scarred, and definitely at least three-quarters of the way to residing in Crazy Town. Plus, in Goblet, he is not even Moody -- he is pretending to be Moody when he is really someone else, thus taking on two personalities. Gleeson blended the fake Moody with real Moody seamlessly. It's brilliant. I do, however, have to question Gleeson's sanity. No one can act like a crazy, paranoid person that well without being slightly unhinged themselves.
I question his reasoning in this choice because the series plot was slowly working it's way towards a more intense, darker shade of color. Newell should have pushed this a little further because this is the movie that Voldemort is resurrected; however, this could be the reason Newell wanted a lighter film because he knew it was going to get worse from there.
But whatever his reasoning was, however, I'm good with it because he did an excellent job introducing the other schools to the Hogwarts students as well as the audience. He even managed to do it making the different schools do a new style of magic than Hogwarts uses.
The students from Beauxbatons have a light, gentle, more feminine magic. They gently shrug their shoulders and sigh and all the sudden, floating blue butterfly looking things appear.
Durmstrang, however, uses staffs to hit the floor and spin around; the style is marked by brute force and strength.
With new magic styles, there must also be new characters: Fleur Delacour, Viktor Krum, and Cedric Diggory (Cedric goes to Hogwarts, but this is the first time the movie-only audience sees him), the three Tri-Wizard Champions (excluding Harry who was never supposed to be a champion in the first place).
Fleur Delacour may appear to be just a pretty face (thanks to her veela grandmother), but she is stronger than she looks. As Moody says, "Miss Delacour is as much as fairy princess as I am" (or something like that). I'm just not sure Clemence Poesy captures the essence of Fleur. Yes, Miss Poesy is beautiful, however, she is unable to supplement her looks with strength. Instead, it seems like Fleur exists solely for the purpose of having a girl compete for the Triwizard Cup, but not because she is talented or strong.
Stanislav Ianevski, on the other hand, had a much easier job compared to Poesy. As Hermione says, "Viktor is more of a physical being." Therefore, Ianevski had to stand there and look like a tough Quidditch player. The easiness, however, does not negate his performance. It was perfect (though it's hard not to be when all you need to do is walk around scowling).
The true Hogwarts champion, Cedric Digorry, is played by . . . let me plug my ears first . . . Robert Pattinson. While "R-Patz" is more known for playing Edward Cullen in the sad-excuse-for-a-vampire-series, Twilight, I prefer to look at him as Cedric or Tyler Hawkins from Remember Me or Jacob from Water for Elephants or ANY other character he's has played or will play in his life as long as it's not bad-hair Cullen. Anyway, he played Cedric just as Rowling wrote him to be -- a genuinely nice, good-hearted boy who is also heartthrob to many Hogwarts girls. So at least there's that.
And because I can't resist . . .
Three other characters are also introduced to Rita Skeeter, Mad-Eye Moody, and Voldemort.
While I know that Rita Skeeter, the infamous Daily Prophet reporter bent on twisting any fact to get her own story, is a minor character, I am extremely impressed with Miranda Richardson's portrayal. Not only does Richardson capture and bring life to every facet of Skeeter, but the costume and make-up designers deserve props for recreating the image we were provided by the series' illustrator, Mary GrandPre, in chapter 18 "The Weighing of the Wands."
PERFECTION
Mad-Eye Moody, on the other hand, has much more screen presence than Skeeter. Brendan Gleeson takes on the role and does so brilliantly. Moody is paranoid, irritable, rough, scarred, and definitely at least three-quarters of the way to residing in Crazy Town. Plus, in Goblet, he is not even Moody -- he is pretending to be Moody when he is really someone else, thus taking on two personalities. Gleeson blended the fake Moody with real Moody seamlessly. It's brilliant. I do, however, have to question Gleeson's sanity. No one can act like a crazy, paranoid person that well without being slightly unhinged themselves.
While the other characters were introduced for the first time in this movie, the most important addition to the Harry Potter cast and film industry in Goblet of Fire is Lord Voldemort. We did catch a glimpse of his face in Sorcerer's Stone, but this is the first time we get to see him as a full-bodied figure. I have heard many people say that they were highly disappointed in the portrayal of Voldemort because he was not scary enough. I, on the other hand, feel differently. While Voldemort should still be scary, he needs to be as human as possible even though he had created several Horcruxes at this point. This is why his eyes are blue in the film when they are red in the books. In fact, by making him more human-looking, I feel like Voldemort is much scarier. After all, Voldemort is not some horror-film monster; he is, and always will be, human, no matter how much he tries to escape it.
Scary or not, the actor cast to play Lord Voldemort had big shoes and expectations to fill. Ralph Fiennes, however, does a spectacular job exploring and displaying the inner workings of Voldemort on the big screen. He mastered the way Voldemort carries himself: he has true presence on the screen; he's confident; he's obviously a little crazy on the outside, but more so on the inside; he's everything Voldemort should be. I can't imagine him any other way.
Also, the true reason Voldemort kills Cedric, the spare, is this.
Though he should have let Cedric stay alive to spare him and the rest of us from Cullen.
After saying good-bye to the students from Beauxbaton and Durmstrang, Hermione joins Harry and Ron with a smile on her face. She asks, "Everything's going to change now, isn't it?" Well, yes. Yes it will. With Voldemort returning, the books (and therefor movies) become darker and more serious through the end of Deathly Hallows. So, really, Hermione is hinting (though not in a very subtle manner) that things won't be the same from this point on. My only question is, if Hermione knew about the changes to come, would she have been smiling when she said that?
* Props to Dan for doing all his own stunts during the second task in the lake.
** Because it makes me laugh: http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/virtuous_sinner/2uo50mf.jpg
*** Also because it makes me laugh
* Props to Dan for doing all his own stunts during the second task in the lake.
** Because it makes me laugh: http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/virtuous_sinner/2uo50mf.jpg
*** Also because it makes me laugh
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