Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

 As we move into the fourth entry in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the series continues to grow and mature, but also find new challenges for our characters, especially Harry as he finds himself roped into a wizarding competition he really wanted no part of. 

As we begin this film, we join  Harry (played by Daniel Radcliffe), Hermoine (played by Emma Watson) and Ron (played by Rupert Grint) as they attend the Quidditch World Cup along with Ron's Dad Arthur (played by Mark Williams) and Ron's brothers Fred and George (played by James and Oliver Phelps). The fun doesn't last as the games are attacked by the Death Eaters, Voldemort's followers, causing chaos and marching around in robes and hats like an even creepier version of the Ku Klux Klan (if such a thing were possible). Harry witnesses one of them, Barty Crouch Jr. (played by David Tennant) causing the sky to be marked with the dark mark, the sign of the Death Eaters, marking the beginning of the return of Voldemort. As the kids return to school, they find out that the school will be host to guests from two other wizarding schools, Durmstrang from Bulgaria and Beauxbatons from France. They are there to compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament with one wizard from each school to compete in the year long series of events. Anyone interested in competing is to place their name in the cup and then three will be chosen to compete. The three competitors wind up being Cedric Diggory (played by Robert Pattinson) from Hogwarts, Viktor Krum (played by Stanislav Ianevski), and Fleur Delacour (played by Clemence Poesy). Much to everyone's surprise, a fourth name is ejected from the cup: Harry Potter. Despite there obviously being something afoot, Dumbledore (played by Michael Gambon) and the other teachers decide to let Potter compete and see how the events plays out, to let whoever put his name in the cup reveal themselves.

For the fourth entry in the series, the director's chair passed to Mike Newell, who took cue's from the previous film while adding his own flair to the series. The plotlines of the series continue to get darker and the film gets a desaturated color scheme to match. There is also a continuing maturity to the film, once again showing the films growing along with their characters. Steve Kloves had to jettison a lot of J.K Rowling's narrative in order to fit one two and a half hour film, but manages to keep enough to create a satisfying narrative the keeps a strong pace throughout the film from the beginning all the way to the climax of the film. Patrick Doyle picks up the scoring duties from John Williams and holds his own nicely, mixing his own themes in with John Williams' main Potter theme. 

The acting continues to be great, with all the familiar faces doing quite well. We also get some new faces mixing in starting with Brendan Gleeson as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher Alastor "Mad Eye" Moody, a former Auror (someone who chases dark wizards and witches) and it is immediately clear the years have taken their toll. We also have Miranda Richardson as Rita Skeeter, a gossip journalist covering the Tri-Wizard tournament and exploits Harry as a source of constant, and frequently exaggerated, headlines. Then we have Frances de la Tour as Beauxbaton's headmistress Madame Olympe Maxime, who becomes a bit of a love interest for Hagrid (played by Robbie Coltrane). Finally, we have a pre-Doctor Who David Tennant showing up as Voldemort right hand Barty Crouch Jr. and he gives a suitably deranged performance that is a million miles away from the affable Doctor.    

Overall, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is another step in the maturation of the series as the overall series starts to grow darker as it goes along, while also finding ways to keep things fresh, exciting and inventive. While it's not my favorite in the series, it certainly ranks up there as one of the best in the series. Then again I love them all, so how can I possibly really be objective?