When I was growing up, for the longest time everybody’s favourite Harry Potter book was Goblet of Fire. Despite being an avid reader I’m quite slow at reading and as a result often get intimidated by big books. So, considering Goblet of Fire was 636 pages, as a child that was quite an intimidating size. As a result, I didn’t get around to it for a long time, just shy of the film releasing in fact, but once I had read it, I understood why people loved it and as a result couldn’t wait for the film. Now 15 years after the films original release, I can say that Goblet of Fire is still my favourite Harry Potter book & film.
Whilst Harry, Hermione, and the Weasley family are attending the Quidditch World Cup, Death Eaters descend on the sporting event and kill dozens of the attendees. Shortly thereafter when the trio return to Hogwarts they are informed that the Tri-Wizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts this year, and they will be joined by a handful of students from Bauxbatons Academy, and the Durmstrang Institute. The tournament involves three witches or wizards chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete in three difficult and dangerous tasks set to test their magical prowess and survival skills. Due to the nature of the tasks only wizards over the age of 17 may enter their names for selection. Come the ceremony where names are drawn, Harry is selected as a fourth name by the Goblet, despite him never entering his name and being below the age limit. Regardless he is made to compete in the tournament and fight for his life, all whilst being completely unaware of Voldemort’s immanent return.
I’m going to start off with the things I don’t like, because overall the film is great so I want to get the negatives out of the way first. The biggest issue I have with the story is that Harry is forced to compete in the tournament against his will, despite rules being in place to stop this from happening. Firstly, the Goblet of Fire should only be able to draw three names. Harry is the fourth name it draws so immediately Dumbledore and the organiser of the event, Barty Crouch, should know that something is wrong with the Goblet. Secondly, if contestants can only be over the age of 17 then why is Harry still allowed to compete, against his will at that too! Thirdly, these first two issues are addressed by Dumbledore to Barty who just shrugs it off and states that Potter must compete because his name was drawn and them’s the rules...but the Goblet has evidently been tampered with and his participation breaks so many other rules! It’s like the organisers of the event don’t care what rules they follow or break!
The other big issue I have with the film is in relation to Viktor Krum, the Durmstrang champion, and his age. In the opening of the film we see that he is the seeker for Bulgaria in the Quidditch World Cup. But he’s still at school? I mean he’s not exactly the brightest spark, but to be a professional Quidditch player in a world cup final you must be too old to be at school, right? On top of this he takes Hermione as a date to the school ball, and Hermione is fourteen. It’s implied by Ron that Krum is significantly older than Hermione in a passing line, but why is this not addressed in greater detail? Why is Krum dating children? How old even is he? I mean he must be over 18 surely? So many questions and no answers!
The final issue I have is that Harry and Ron are massive arseholes in this film for the most part. Particularly surrounding their views of women, and how irresistible they think they are to women, and yet seemingly unable to get girlfriends. It feels awfully out of place for these characters and can put a dampener on the whole experience.
Whilst Harry, Hermione, and the Weasley family are attending the Quidditch World Cup, Death Eaters descend on the sporting event and kill dozens of the attendees. Shortly thereafter when the trio return to Hogwarts they are informed that the Tri-Wizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts this year, and they will be joined by a handful of students from Bauxbatons Academy, and the Durmstrang Institute. The tournament involves three witches or wizards chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete in three difficult and dangerous tasks set to test their magical prowess and survival skills. Due to the nature of the tasks only wizards over the age of 17 may enter their names for selection. Come the ceremony where names are drawn, Harry is selected as a fourth name by the Goblet, despite him never entering his name and being below the age limit. Regardless he is made to compete in the tournament and fight for his life, all whilst being completely unaware of Voldemort’s immanent return.
I’m going to start off with the things I don’t like, because overall the film is great so I want to get the negatives out of the way first. The biggest issue I have with the story is that Harry is forced to compete in the tournament against his will, despite rules being in place to stop this from happening. Firstly, the Goblet of Fire should only be able to draw three names. Harry is the fourth name it draws so immediately Dumbledore and the organiser of the event, Barty Crouch, should know that something is wrong with the Goblet. Secondly, if contestants can only be over the age of 17 then why is Harry still allowed to compete, against his will at that too! Thirdly, these first two issues are addressed by Dumbledore to Barty who just shrugs it off and states that Potter must compete because his name was drawn and them’s the rules...but the Goblet has evidently been tampered with and his participation breaks so many other rules! It’s like the organisers of the event don’t care what rules they follow or break!
The other big issue I have with the film is in relation to Viktor Krum, the Durmstrang champion, and his age. In the opening of the film we see that he is the seeker for Bulgaria in the Quidditch World Cup. But he’s still at school? I mean he’s not exactly the brightest spark, but to be a professional Quidditch player in a world cup final you must be too old to be at school, right? On top of this he takes Hermione as a date to the school ball, and Hermione is fourteen. It’s implied by Ron that Krum is significantly older than Hermione in a passing line, but why is this not addressed in greater detail? Why is Krum dating children? How old even is he? I mean he must be over 18 surely? So many questions and no answers!
The final issue I have is that Harry and Ron are massive arseholes in this film for the most part. Particularly surrounding their views of women, and how irresistible they think they are to women, and yet seemingly unable to get girlfriends. It feels awfully out of place for these characters and can put a dampener on the whole experience.
That being said I’m going to swiftly move on to the good things. First of all, the opening is great. It’s sad we don’t get to see any of the actual Quidditch match, but it sets up the higher stakes and significantly darker tone of the film perfectly with what is essentially a terrorist attack at a sporting event. You then have the fact that the film only really concerns itself with the central plot. Where previous films spend a lot of time dwelling on the day to day life of Hogwarts students, Goblet of Fire drops all of that in favour of fleshing out the main story of Harry competing in the tournament. Whilst it means that some side characters don’t play as much of a role as they perhaps should, like Cho Chang for example, it does mean the film is always moving and doesn’t linger on unnecessary things for too long despite it being one of the longer films in the series (looking at you Chamber of Secrets).
The film is also one of the funniest in the series and this does ultimately come down to the whole dating politics. Now sure I have issues with how Harry & Ron act, and that Hermione is potentially being groomed, but the way the character dynamics shift now that attraction to the opposite sex is coming into the picture is incredible and it allows for some truly hilarious moments.
Each of the tournament challenges are also great to watch. The first being a game of cat & mouse with a dragon to try and capture a golden egg. The second being a puzzle to work out what the challenge even is, and how to complete it, before rescuing someone from the bottom of a lake. Then the final challenge being navigating a maze that’s constantly shifting and filled with dangers. These lead to a fantastic finale where Harry and Voldemort come face to face properly for the first time in a scene that is absurdly dark and one of the most disturbing sequences in the entire series.
Director Mike Newell really relishes in this grittier tone over the whole film but goes all out during Voldemort’s rebirth and it’s gloriously frightening and really does shift the films out of the child friendly category for the rest of the series.
The performances from the younger cast members improves again, mostly because a lot of the naff actors who landed supporting roles aren’t really in this one. But the main trio really get a lot of time to shine and grow. They are the main focus of this story and nobody really takes the scene away from them at any point save the graveyard finale.
Yes, when Ralph Fiennes joins the fray as Voldemort it is quite something to behold and whilst he doesn’t have much presence in the grand scheme of things his mark is most certainly made.
There’s a lot to love in Goblet of Fire. But it does surprise me that it isn’t one of the more divisive entries in the series due to its sudden and quite drastic change in tone from fairly whimsical to simply terrifying at times. The story problems also cause issues but these may have been addressed more in the book, the film had to cut an awful lot of content to make it under the three-hour mark so it’s likely that these finer details that slipped through the net are what answer my criticisms. But they aren’t in the film so that’s the end of it.
Goblet of Fire is great and, in my eyes, the best film in the entire Wizarding World franchise, but from here on out things certainly get a bit more complex.
The film is also one of the funniest in the series and this does ultimately come down to the whole dating politics. Now sure I have issues with how Harry & Ron act, and that Hermione is potentially being groomed, but the way the character dynamics shift now that attraction to the opposite sex is coming into the picture is incredible and it allows for some truly hilarious moments.
Each of the tournament challenges are also great to watch. The first being a game of cat & mouse with a dragon to try and capture a golden egg. The second being a puzzle to work out what the challenge even is, and how to complete it, before rescuing someone from the bottom of a lake. Then the final challenge being navigating a maze that’s constantly shifting and filled with dangers. These lead to a fantastic finale where Harry and Voldemort come face to face properly for the first time in a scene that is absurdly dark and one of the most disturbing sequences in the entire series.
Director Mike Newell really relishes in this grittier tone over the whole film but goes all out during Voldemort’s rebirth and it’s gloriously frightening and really does shift the films out of the child friendly category for the rest of the series.
The performances from the younger cast members improves again, mostly because a lot of the naff actors who landed supporting roles aren’t really in this one. But the main trio really get a lot of time to shine and grow. They are the main focus of this story and nobody really takes the scene away from them at any point save the graveyard finale.
Yes, when Ralph Fiennes joins the fray as Voldemort it is quite something to behold and whilst he doesn’t have much presence in the grand scheme of things his mark is most certainly made.
There’s a lot to love in Goblet of Fire. But it does surprise me that it isn’t one of the more divisive entries in the series due to its sudden and quite drastic change in tone from fairly whimsical to simply terrifying at times. The story problems also cause issues but these may have been addressed more in the book, the film had to cut an awful lot of content to make it under the three-hour mark so it’s likely that these finer details that slipped through the net are what answer my criticisms. But they aren’t in the film so that’s the end of it.
Goblet of Fire is great and, in my eyes, the best film in the entire Wizarding World franchise, but from here on out things certainly get a bit more complex.