Salocin

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

If past experience were anything to go by, expectations should have been low when I went to see the latest installment of the Harry Potter franchise. The films (especially the first few) have been for the most part uninspired and uninspiring to any but the youngest members of the audience. By the same token, were the fifth book to be the measure of the franchise, there would have been no sixth book. Fortunately, Mike Newell does for Harry Potter IV what Christopher Nolan did for Batman Begins, bringing a dark and brooding atmosphere and a sense of complete immersion to the Hogwarts experience.

I have little time for the constant barrage of new nouns that charaterises some of the written Potter franchise, but Goblet managed to do away with much of that, assuming early on that the audience knew what it was about, and wasting no time explaining either the rules of Quidditch, or the relevance of the individual constantly referred to as "he who shall not be named". Instead, it focuses on the dangers, the action, and the rites of passage faced by the main characters.

Although the young heroes have clearly become better at playing their parts since the last film, much of the acting (or at least most of the talking) is left to the adults. This results in a few strange scenes where I was left wondering if they have lost their voices. The film's weaknesses are, however, nothing compared to it's strengths, the greatest of which are the amazing special effects. Not for a single moment do we doubt that the dragons are really there, or that it really is an awfully long way down when you're flying around on a broom.

If I had a complaint, it would have to go back to the original story, which has much of this chapter out of the control of the heroes. They appear buffeted by events planned and co-ordinated by others. Caught in these rapids, they go where the current takes them, bruising and gasping for air as they go. Even the initiative taken at the end is due largely to the guidance of others. This is how the story was written, and while the action may at times seem to be guided by outside forces, there is no doubt at all that the characters are changed by their experiences, and more than ever before, we can really relate to the coming of age of the story's heroes.

In the interests of saving space for the story itself, the movie does away with Harry's foster family, as well as much of the noise and background that give the book texture but distract from the story when you only have so much canvas to paint on. Gone are the shots of ghosts wandering about the castle, or the lingering views of characters in paintings going about their daily business - only the magic that is pertinent to the story is here, and there's easily enough to have children and adults alike leaving with a pleasant overdose.

The producers, director and special effects teams on this project have taken J.K.Rowling's imaginative setting, and used it as the starting point for a visual spectacle far more wonderous than what I originally envisaged when I read the book. Hogwarts and the surrounding countryside are more spectacular, the creatures and magical artifacts more realistic and impressive, and the detail more precise than ever before.

How they're going to film that dreadful fifth book is anyone's guess.