Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

This past weekend I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with some friends, including fellow bloggers Wheezing Girl and Earth Mystic, who has already posted his Top Ten list of things he liked most about the movie. I really enjoyed the movie, although the large Diet Coke I drank left me with an aspartame headache halfway through it; I need to see it again, “unimpaired.”

This fourth installment continues the somewhat darker tone set by the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and it is definitely driven more by story and character than by special effects – although the effects are spectacular, especially the scene in which Harry is pursued by an angry dragon after Harry has taken its golden egg. There are a lot of funny moments, too, and moments in which we see the magical Harry and his friends as normal, sometimes-awkward 14 year olds.

I was disappointed by the very small role played by Professor Snape (the delightfully dismal Alan Rickman) in the movie, although his role in the book Goblet of Fire was also small. Brendan Gleeson's scene-stealing performance as “Mad Eye” Moody, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, was hilarious and at times moving.

The best review of Goblet of Fire that I’ve seen so far comes from an unlikely source: Christianity Today magazine. I agree with their reviewer that the portrayal of Lord Voldemort (played by Ralph Fiennes) could have been stronger and less like “a whiner, a bald man in a cape with a bad nose job.” I do find it appropriate, though, that the evil Lord Voldemort was played by the same actor who played Martin Luther.

Darrell
www.WildFaith.com