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HARRY POTTER AND THER GOBLET OF FIRE / Mike Newell (2005)

November 20th, 2005 by Scott Marks

Emma Watson in Mike Newell’s HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (2005)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Directed by: Mike Newell

Written by: Steve Kloves, J.K. Rowling

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Maggie Smith, Brendan Gleeson, Eric Sykes, Timothy Spall, David Tennant, Mark Williams, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Bonnie Wright, Jeff Rawle, Robert Pattinson, Jason Isaacs, Tom Felton, Stanislav Ianevski

Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1

Running Time: 157 min.

Genres: Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Mystery

For years I successfully avoided the Harry Potter franchise. Fantasy films were never my drug of choice. After a screening of the original Star Wars I remember turning to a friend and asking, “Who the hell wants to see this?” A bunch of midgets in garbage cans with laser beams spouting dialogue that would embarrass the Bowery Boys.

So much for having my finger placed firmly on the pulse of popular taste

The problem with most contemporary fantasy films is their inability to establish and sustain a fantasy universe. That filthy puppet E. T. is able to strap a full grown boy to his bicycle and pilot him past the moon, yet he can’t figure out how to phone home.

So much for suspension of disbelief…

In the Harry Potter films magic presents an escape hatch that the filmmakers, and audiences eager to buy in, jump through whenever logic rears its ugly kisser. Continuing plot points notwithstanding, the one thing that perplexed me throughout was the noticeable absence of electricity. The kids appear dressed in contemporary garb, yet everything is lit by candles. If these kids are so smart can’t they figure out how to plug in a lamp? Didn’t their parents inform them of the horrors of reading in low light levels? A friend’s son informed me that electricity is beneath the kids of.Horwart’s. When asked why a band complete with an electric guitar and amplifier was able to rock out, his response was, “Magic!”

The production design is appealing and the special effects enormous, but in service of what? Another joyless blockbuster, void of wonder and geared for 7-year-old boys that whisks us from one “adventure” to another. Stylistic flourishes and any form of personality on the part of the filmmakers are discouraged. As far as film is concerned, this is a vision-proof series. Don’t you find it odd that directors come and go, but all four films were written by the same screenwriter? Were it not to remain unflinchingly loyal to the text, there’d be more in-theater shootings than at a thirty-plex with all screens showing Get Rich or Die Trying.

There is one addition to the story that almost made it worth the two-and-a-half hours. As Alastor ‘MadEye’ Moody, Brendan Gleeson steals every scene he’s in. In an era where everyone wants to be a star, Gleeson is content to plug away as one of the most reliable character actors at work today. It doesn’t hurt that ‘MadEye’ earned his nickname from a transplanted left eye that resembles a floating-ball car compass gone wild.

Fortunately, this one is beyond criticism. Whether reviewers love it or hate it won’t put a dent in the cinematic coffers. Given what I saw, unless trapped with one on an airplane, there is zero chance that I’ll be checking out the first three installments in this lifetime.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

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Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical