With
the last instalment, Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban, and now this latest chapter, Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the emphasis seems to have
shifted from the magical, mystical and eye-popping, to the deranged,
dark and nightmare inducing (at least, for those 11-year-olds).
In Mike 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'
Newell's Goblet of Fire movie,
our bespectacled protagonist (Daniel Radcliffe, ageing by the
minute), has been chosen by some numinous unknown force to be the only
underage contestant in the Triwizard Tournament, a game in which a
batch of young trainee wizards compete in trios, challenging each other
in deadly tasks. Will Harry make it through each
task? Who did nominate him for this game anyway? Who's the guy he's
having nightmares of (any reader of the books knows that this is the
one where Lord Voldemort makes his screen debut), and are we right in
assuming Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Radcliffe) are crushing
on each other?? While Azkaban
was a breath of fresh air, and a genuinely captivating instalment for a
series that suddenly decided adults were a viable audience too - Goblet
is the opposite. It's simply more of the same, too
dark for it's own good (the wonderment of it all seems to have
disappeared from the franchise entirely), and most notably, it runs
longer than a top-of-the-range VCR. And with so
many dull bits - anything to do with the Triwizard Tournament,
basically - even little Johnny's going to get a little fidgety in his
seat. Writer Steve Kloves did have a task on his
hand in having to condense such a brick-of-a-book into a couple of
hours, but did he even try? Or did he just blindly open pages randomly
and select a batch of unconnected scenes to string together? There just
doesn't seem to be much logic or better still, much emotion, on show
anywhere. Granted, there is still a lot to like
about this latest Potter. The performances are good
- they actually seem to be getting better - and the effects, despite
looking a little too video game-ish, are quite good, and the other
production values are sweeter than homemade iced tea. Just
don't expect to go strutting around after watching the film
with as much faith in cinema as you did with the previous three films -
the force just isn't as strong with this one. DVD
Extras You've got to give it to the folks in Potter
land. They sure know how to package special features! There's a
substantial amount of extra material here, although, not all of it is
worth forking out for. I’ve
never much liked the navigation system on these “Potter”
DVDs, and this one is no exception. Why can’t they just lay out
the items for us straight-up directly-in-front-of-you, and not send us
on a wild goose chase to find the bonus bits? One grows tired of that
after a few minutes. Still,
if you can be bothered searching for all the extras beyond the
razzle-dazzle multiple menu screens, you’ll find some good stuff:
numerous featurettes on how the film was made, several games,
interviews, additional scenes and a featurette on the making of the
film, as a whole. Conclusion:
Movie 75% Extras: 60% 
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