Film Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Part 4

We’re almost at the end of this series of Goblet of Fire blog posts now. Things are getting quite dark and exciting.

Last week’s post involved Harry’s first task which he made it through fairly unscathed and task 1.5 which involved trying to get a date to go with him to the Christmas dance which he was less successful with. Oh and Neville likes to dance.

91. Hermione and Harry are hanging out on the bridge. She’s telling him off for not having figured out the egg and now there’s only two days until the next challenge. Apparently she’s not discussed it with Viktor, he’s more of a ‘physical being’ although she corrects this to meaning he likes to watch her study, which she finds a little bit annoying. Harry’s wishing he could unhear this and I’m giggling because I’m the sort of person who comes out with random statements like this without thinking about how they’re going to sound until after I’ve said them, then have to backpedal.

92. They’re interrupted by Cedric who tells Harry that the Prefect’s Bathroom is a good place for a bath. Before Harry can think that Cedric is hitting on him, Cedric clarifies that Harry should take his egg there to think about things.

93. So the next thing we see is Harry taking a bath, watched by a stained glass mermaid window. The bath doesn’t help much though, the egg still screams when he opens it.

94. Moaning Myrtle shows up to suggest he put in the water, then mentions a little clue, though we probably won’t notice it as such; she spotted some Polyjuice Potion down the loo the other day and it made her think of him.

95. Underwater the egg looks beautiful and there’s a pretty song about finding what he’s looking for underwater. Harry figures it out, there are merpeople in the lake.

96. Myrtle’s a bit of a pervert, trying to peak at Harry through the bubbles. She’s basically fifty years older than he is, even if she is still a teenager.

97. Hermione and Ron are in the library trying to help Harry to figure out how Harry can stay underwater for an hour without needing to breathe. Their research is not going well. Moody shows up to send Ron and Hermione to see McGonagall and asks Neville to help Harry pack up to go to bed. Neville happily tells Harry about a plant called Gillyweed which’ll help him to breathe underwater.

98. So they head down to the lake, Harry accompanied by Neville who has given him some gillyweed. Harry’s wondering where Ron and Hermione had got to.

99. The champions all dive (or in Harry’s case, fall) into the water where Harry discovers he has grown gills and webbed feet and hands. For a moment Neville panics that he’s killed Harry Potter but Harry gets the hang of his new anatomy and starts swimming.

100. It’s quite eery underwater. We see Fleur for a brief moment and something seems to get her. A moment later we’re above the surface where we can hear that she’s withdrawn from this task.

101. Meanwhile Harry is swimming deeper and deeper. The mermaids’s homes aren’t the way I pictured them either, then again the water is murkier and it’s just generally more creepy than I imagine it when I’m reading the book.

102. Harry wants to rescue Ron and Hermione but the mermaids stop him. He’s almost taken out by a shark, which is revealed to be Krum who swims off with Hermione, leaving Harry alone with Ron and a little girl, both of whom are unconscious under the water.

103. Cedric and Krum return to the surface with Cho and Hermione but Harry’s still underwater and the gillyweed is wearing off. He’s got Ron and the little girl but he’s being attacked by grindylows who seem intent on dragging him down. Ron and the girl break the surface but Harry seems to be drifting downwards until he uses a spell to fire himself out of the water.

104. No one seems too concerned about wrapping Ron in a towel. He doesn’t really care anyway because Fleur has just kissed him for helping to safe her sister. And Harry’s awarded second place for ‘Outstanding Moral Fibre’ which Malfoy’s none too pleased about.

105. Harry’s taken aside by Crouch once he’s back on dry land. Moody shows up and warns Crouch about filching Harry for a summer internship. Something about Moody shakes up Crouch, could it possibly be the way he keeps darting out his tongue.

106. Hagrid, Ron, Hermione and Harry are strolling through the Forbidden Forest. And we get a brief chorus of the Hogwarts School Song which doesn’t last long as Harry stumbles upon Crouch’s dead body.

107. Harry heads up to Dumbledore’s office where Fudge and Dumbledore are arguing as Moody stands beside them. They all leave Harry in the office alone. Dumbledore has invited Harry to try a liquorice snap, they’re like little leeches and Harry drops his handful.

108. At that moment the cupboard contain the pensieve opens and reveals a sparkly blue shimmery light which is obviously going to be irresistible to a teenage boy. The next thing he knows, Harry’s fallen into a memory where Dumbledore looks much younger and Harry is apparently a ghost.

109. In the centre of the room is Karkaroff, held in a cage. All round the outside on benches are Crouch, Dumbledore and Moody. There’s a lot of paperwork too. Oh, and Rita Skeeter is there as well, looking a little bit younger and sans Quick Quotes Quill.

110. Dumbledore speaks up for Snape, saying that he was working for their side as a spy. As Karkaroff starts to name the person who tortured Frank and Alice Longbottom Doctor Who gets up to leave, he’s just now named as Barty Crouch Junior. Oh and he does this funny snake like thing with his tongue.

111. Then Harry’s pulled back out of the memory to find that Dumbledore is back in his office. He’s surprisingly not in trouble for his nosiness. Dumbledore seems annoyed about his inability to be able to figure out exactly what it is that is bothering him.

112. Harry reveals at this moment that he’s dreamt about Doctor Who Crouch Jnr. Dumbledore tries to get Harry to forget about his dreams, but he doesn’t look like that’s what’s best. He looks shocked at what he’s been told. Ooh, the plot thickens.

113. On the way back, Harry walks past a room where Karkaroff and Snape are arguing, with the former showing the latter a tattoo on his arm that looks suspiciously like the Dark Mark. Snape takes Potter into his potions store and threatens Harry with Veritaserum because he suspects that Harry has taken something from his stores, accusing Harry of brewing Polyjuice Potion. All the little clues are coming together now.

114. And we’re at the final challenge now. I don’t think they’ve actually done any real schoolwork all year, you know. I like the music in this scene and the instruments that the children are playing, they’re rather Seusian. I don’t think that some of those instruments would be very practical to transport around though.

115. There’s a big maze which the students will be going into and Dumbledore warns them that they will have to be careful not to lose themselves because ‘people will change in the maze’. Ooh, this is all getting very dark.

116. I love the way Dumbledore goes ‘On the count of three’, Filch sets the canon off and then kind of shrugs at Dumbledore, like ‘oops’.

And I’ll stop here so we can get all the really dark and dramatic stuff out the go next week. That post will be a little bit longer than these four so far.


In that epically long post we’ll see Harry and the other champions try to get through the maze, the discovery that the Cup is a portkey and the Return of the Noseless One.