Film Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Part 5

And so we’ve reached the last of the posts about Goblet of Fire. This is a long one, so grab some popcorn and get ready to come face to face with pure (noseless) evil.

In the last post we saw Harry take a dip in the lake, demonstrate his hero complex by trying to rescue everyone, Crouch turns up dead but nobody makes much of a fuss about it because they’re distracted by Harry snooping around Dumbledore’s memories. And then it was time for the third task to begin.

117. Once Harry enters the maze it closes behind him and all sound is cut off. It must be kind of boring for everyone outside, because I don’t think that they can see in so they’ll just be sat outside waiting for something to happen.

118. Actually, considering we’ve gone into the maze with Harry I’m not really much wiser about what’s going on. It’s all really dark so most of what I can see is the odd glimpse of Harry or Cedric, a bit of blue light from an opening at the top of the maze and then the reflection of my living room. It’s a nice living room with a coffee table with some rats on at the moment, but it’s not really what I’m supposed to be focussing on while I write this review.

119. I’m interrupted by Fleur screaming. Harry runs towards the sound and it all gets a bit dark before Krum appears, his eyes are all cloudy like he’s got cataracts or something. The maze seems to be eating Fleur so Harry sends up red sparks to save her and the maze sort of opens up with a big tornado kind of effect so Harry has to run to avoid being thrown out. In a way it would be better if he did get sucked out would certainly put a spanner in Voldemort’s plans.

120. Krum appears just as Harry and Cedric sight the Cup and Harry stops Cedric from finishing Krum off, pointing out that he’s been bewitched. Boy boys race for the cup and the maze itself sets out to slow them down. Ever the hero, Harry can’t leave Cedric to get pulled into the bush so he goes back and helps Cedric up. Both of them half expect Harry to leave Cedric behind, which is a nice little moment. By saving Cedric’s life, Harry inadvertently killed him.

121. They both grab the cup and are transported out of the maze. And find themselves in that graveyard that we saw earlier in Harry’s dream. Cedric’s quite pleased to find that the cup is a portkey, but it’s a bit too late. Wormtail appears carrying baby Voldemort and Cedric has a go at being all heroic. It doesn’t work and Wormtail Avada Kedavras him before tossing Voldemort into a boiling cauldron.

122. The spell they do here is quite cool. Pulling up a bone from the grave they’re on, Wormtail chops off his hand (though you’d think it’d be easier for him if he saved chopping off his hand until after he’d taken Harry’s blood). The way the cauldron sort of melts away into a naked embryonic Voldemort is very effective, it’s like the whole film has been building up to this point and they’re going all out. Which is part of the reason why I think it would have worked better as two films with the World Cup and maybe the first Triwizard event in the first one and then the second and third events in the second.

123. While I’ve been waffling Voldemort’s been examining his new face. Someone should tell him that he left his nose behind. He uses Wormtail’s remaining arm to summon all of his Death Eaters while Harry watches on helplessly, at least I assume that’s what’s going on, it’s all very dark.

124. Voldemort’s disappointed with all his followers who haven’t really tried too hard to find him. Malfoy’s really quite slippery as he tries to defend his lack of searching for Voldemort. Meanwhile Wormtail gets a shiny silver new hand as reward for his recent help.

125. Voldemort’s monologuing a little bit here. He explains how Lily’s love saved Harry, using old magic to keep her son alive. I’m sure in the book it’s Dumbledore who explains this to Harry. By using Harry’s blood to regenerate himself Voldemort’s now able to touch him but it hurts Harry so there’s a fair bit of screaming here.

126. And now it’s time of a duelling session, but first Voldemort has to torture Harry a bit first. If he really wanted to kill him, you’d think he’d just Avada Kedavra him and get him out the way. Instead he wants to have a bit of sport with him first and it’ll be his downfall.

127. Then there’s a the meeting of the wands which I do like. It’s very cinematic and quite similar to the way I pictured it in the book. I think it’s also interesting here the way that Harry’s spell is red and Voldemort’s is green, respective colours of their houses and kind of the opposite way round for good and evil. The ghosts appear from Voldemort’s wand giving Harry instructions and encouragement before swarming Voldemort and so letting Harry get away. And that’ll teach Voldemort to try keeping his enemies talking when he really should just get on with killing them.

128. When Harry shows up with Cedric everyone celebrates before Fleur screams and everyone realises that something has gone horribly wrong. Fudge is more concerned with everyone seeing what has happened, such a good leader.

129. Moody leads Harry away back into the castle, leaving everyone else staring at Mr Diggory crying over his dead son. And so Harry ends up in Moody’s office where he rather suspiciously locks the door.

130. Harry tells Moody that the cup was a portkey but Moody starts asking questions that he shouldn’t really know about because Harry’s not really told him everything yet. Meanwhile Moody’s hands are shaking and he keeps gasping. Harry twigs onto the fact that he never mentioned a graveyard which stops Moody in his search for whatever it is he’s looking for, momentarily.

131. Moody starts explaining to Harry how he orchestrated all of Harry’s successes in the tournament, revealing himself as a thoroughly bad guy. Quite the turn up for the books. And Harry is now trapped in a locked room with him.

132. Despite Moody not having the same predilection for monologuing as his master, Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall arrive just in time to save Harry from certain death. Dumbledore’s figured out that Moody is not who he says he is.

133. In the trunk which was shaking earlier in the film, which is a bit of a Tardis really as it seems to go down quite a way, is the real Moody. Back to the fake Moody and his face seems to be melting as he turns back into Doctor Who Barty Crouch Jnr. He might be pure evil but he has such a sexy accent.

134. Presumably it’s now the next day because it’s daylight and Dumbledore is sitting in the Great Hall, speaking to the students about the loss of Cedric Diggory. The tables have gone and everyone is sitting in rows. Dumbledore tells everyone that Cedric was murdered by Voldemort; at this Hermione looks pained but Harry looks quite numb and then looks at though he’s wanting to say something about what Dumbledore is saying. Dumbledore carries on speaking as the camera pans up to the ceiling and the music gets all sad. Poor Cedric.

135. Dumbledore visits Harry in the boys’ dormitory, telling him about how he set fire to the curtains round the bed in his fourth year. Harry should be like “well in my fourth year I fought a dragon and saw Voldemort come back!” He doesn’t. Instead he tells Dumbledore about the weird effect of his wand meeting Voldemort’s, Dumbledore explains this is Priori Incantatum and reassures Harry that he’s not alone. Yeah, right before sending him back to Privet Drive for a summer of wondering what’s going on in the wizarding world.

136. And so we’re at the end of term. Krum’s given Hermione his address to write to him, Fleur’s given Ron a kiss. Everyone looks quite happy to be leaving. Can’t really blame them.

137. Ron wonders aloud if they’ll ever have a quiet year at Hogwarts, the answer to which is a resounding No! Hermione sadly realises that everything will change now, before making both boys promise to write to her. Ron says he won’t but Harry says he will, every week. Doesn’t sound like he means it though. And together they watch the Durmstrang ship and the Beauxbatons carriages leave. The music swells and the film ends.

138. Then it’s the end credits which try their best to be funky and cool like the last ones but they don’t quite manage to be as good. This time everyone’s names float about like slips of paper from the Goblet of Fire. The main credits roll up with flames licking the edge of the paper and holes slowly scorch through. It looks clever but it’s not as fun as the end credits from the last film.


And so the fourth film ends. Next week we’ll move on to the fifth film, Order of the Phoenix.