Book-Movie Comparison: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

As a film, The Goblet of Fire is probably in my top 2 or 3 of the series, but as an adaptation, it’s more of a mixed bag.  The first adaptation of one of the longer books, it has the tough job of cutting the story down to a more manageable length, and while it mostly does well, there are definitely places where certain plots/characters get the short shrift (spoilers.)

There is just a lot of book in this book, and the movie’s streamlining is pretty reasonable.  Cutting Ludo Bagman isn’t much of a loss, nor is the whole plot about Hermione and S.P.E.W. – the latter loses that dimension on house elves, which is an important continuing demonstration of the wizarding world’s relationship with non-humans, but the S.P.E.W. stuff is so much more annoying than I remember, so I don’t miss it too much (more on that another day.)  It would’ve been nice to see the scenes with Sirius sneaking back into England and hiding out, but it’s not a must; the same goes for Rita Skeeter being a secret Animagus.  Different cuts necessitate certain plot changes – the twins running bets on the Triwizard Tournament instead of betting on the Quidditch World Cup, Harry getting the gillyweed from Neville instead of Dobby – and it mostly works well.

Inevitably, though, there are some cuts that I feel much more strongly about.  That’s a hard problem to avoid, since pretty much every scene is going to feel essential to someone.  I know mine aren’t necessarily vital to the story, but that doesn’t make me want them any less.  Personally, I miss the more complex story about Barty Crouch and his son, as well as Percy’s involvement in that plot – virtually everything about Percy is excised from the later films, and that begins here.  I also wish we could’ve gotten more with Viktor Krum/him liking Hermione.  He’s an interesting character to me, and he’s a virtual non-entity in the movie (so is Fleur for that matter, but I like Krum better, so I feel his shortchanging more keenly.)  I would’ve liked to see the stuff about Rita Skeeter’s exposé on Hagrid being half-Giant (again, it shows the wizarding world’s prejudice,) and, since I enjoy Bill and Charlie Weasley, I wish we’d at least gotten to meet them here.

Some nice standout scenes in this film, with pride of place going of course to the graveyard scene.  I also really like some of the scenes with Moody (especially teaching the Unforgivable Curses and turning Malfoy into a ferret,) and the Yule Ball drama is probably some of the best teen-romance stuff in the series.  Besides that, I just enjoy the relatively-breezy feel that much of the film has, with the script and Mike Newell’s direction playing up some good humor, especially with the twins.

The usual strong additions to the cast.  Ralph Fiennes is just fantastically evil as Lord Voldemort – so, so good – and Brendan Gleeson is pitch-perfect as Mad-Eye Moody, covering the very different sides of the character well.  (Side note:  I’m not sure if it was him, David Tennant, or Nichols who came up with Barty Crouch Jr.’s weird tongue-flicking thing, but it cracks me up.)  Additionally, Miranda Richardson, who’s awesome as Rita Skeeter, is clearly having a ball.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)

The first of the “door-stoppers,” The Goblet of Fire isn’t far off from doubling the length of its immediate predecessor.  For me, it’s the one out of the long books that I remember feeling mostly earns its length, and that largely holds up on reread.  It’s also quite the game changer – while the earlier books of course have lots of danger and scariness in them, this book gets incredibly dark in a pretty visceral way.

There is unrest in the wizarding world, with Voldemort’s old followers, the Death Eaters, starting to make noise again, and Harry keeps having dreams about the dark wizard restoring himself to his full power.  However, for much of Harry’s fourth year at Hogwarts, his attention is instead on the Triwizard Tournament, an international magic competition pitting Hogwarts against two other European schools of wizardry.  The foreign visitors turn Hogwarts upside down; everyone is invested in the tournament, interschool rivalry, and maybe a little canoodling.  Each school is supposed to have a single champion over 17 years old, but of course Harry gets in on the action – for reasons unknown, someone enters him into the competition, setting him up as an unprecedented fourth champion and putting him in serious jeopardy over the course of the dangerous tournament.

I really enjoy the expansion of the wizarding world that comes with the Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament.  Of course, the forays into other wizard cultures bring some of J.K. Rowling’s blind spots to the forefront – the phonetic spelling on the foreign characters’ dialogue bugs me, and I never realized how incredibly stereotypical-British all the food at Hogwarts is until the kids are gaping at the French and Eastern-European-possibly-Bulgarian-but-we-don’t-really-know? food at the welcome feast for the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students.  But still, I like this angle and would’ve been interested to see even more on how wizards from other countries practice magic differently.

I also like the Triwizard Tournament itself.  Obviously, Harry being entered into the contest against his knowledge makes for a neat mystery, but the tasks are also exciting and interesting, I enjoy the angle of Rita Skeeter and her gossip-mongering in The Daily Prophet (even if she appears way too strongly out of nowhere,) and it’s cool to see how the goings-on at the tournament tie into the larger mystery at hand.  Oh, and the whole thing offers an entertaining outlet for the newly-emerging teen-romantic-drama side of the series via the Yule Ball – poor Ron and his dress robes!

It all ends in a very strong climax.  The “graveyard” scene includes a number of iconic moments, and it really kicks the series into high gear.  There’s the epic hero-and-villain stuff that’s all really well done here, but we also get the implications for the larger wizarding world and some good setup for things to come.

And finally, let’s touch on some new characters (other than Rita, who I’ve already mentioned.)  I like the addition of Viktor Krum, 18-year-old Quidditch phenom who’s a fawned-over world-famous athlete but who also comes off as reserved and sullen when he actually shows up at Hogwarts from Durmstrang.  I enjoy that people continually come to the wrong conclusions about him.  Fleur Delacour, I like less, because she’s depicted so flatly.  Also, with the whole part-Veela thing, I feel like an opportunity was missed to at least touch on how she feels about quasi-mesmerizing guys just by being near them.  And while Bill and Charlie Weasley are characters who’ve certainly been brought up before, this book is the first time Harry (and we) actually meet them.  I like them both, although I’m left wanting more Charlie and it makes me laugh a little that Harry’s description of Bill being cool is so basic (even though, again, I do like Bill.)  He has long hair!  And dragon-skin boots!  And an earring!  Oh, Harry.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005, PG-13)

The first PG-13 film in the franchise – the story is growing up alongside the characters.  The dangers are more severe, the stakes are higher, and on the lighter side, the interpersonal stuff is more adolescent.  Overall, this is one of the more consistent in the series; though not as good as my favorites, it’s fairly even and, in my opinion, doesn’t have many major issues.  (If anyone needs the disclaimer, there’s one major spoiler for this movie that impacts the rest of the series.)

Despite unrest in the wizarding world, Harry isn’t too focused on Voldemort or his followers, the Death Eaters, for much of his fourth year at Hogwarts.  Rather, the big attraction is the Triwizard Tournament, an international magic competition pitting Hogwarts against two other European schools of wizardry.  The foreign visitors turn Hogwarts upside down; everyone is invested in the tournament, interschool rivalry, and maybe a little canoodling.  Each school is supposed to have a single champion over 17 years old, but of course Harry gets in on the action – for reasons unknown, someone enters him into the competition, setting him up as an unprecedented fourth champion and putting him in serious jeopardy over the course of the dangerous tournament.

This was an enjoyable book for me and, for the most part, the movie captures that.  Director Mike Newell captures a lot of fine humor, understanding that these kids are wizards/witches who can do magic, but they’re also teenagers with ordinary teenage problems.  The romance stuff manages to be fun without taking over, and the Triwizard challenges are well-executed.  There’s a lot of great student interaction, not just among the trio, but throughout the school and its visitors; it really makes Hogwarts feel like an actual school, not just a fantastical backdrop for the story.  While plenty is cut for time, there’s not much that feels critically absent.

Michael Gambon’s Dumbledore continues to top the quibbles list.  Additionally, while a lot of the humor is great, I find a few bits too over-the-top – much of Filch’s characterization comes to mind.  I can’t fault the film for the next point, since it’s rooted in the book, but I also don’t like that the French school is filled with frosty babes and the eastern Europeans are big, brutish, and suspect.  For a story that opens up the greater wizarding world outside the U.K., the foreigners are characterized pretty lazily.  Similarly, the film does a disservice to Viktor Krum, who’s mainly framed as a hunky meathead.  I imagine it’s partly time constraints and partly to serve the Ron/Hermione ship, but as someone who likes Krum and his relationship with Hermione, it’s disappointing (and the constant potshots about the brainless lunk of a sports star are boring.)

Finally:  new cast member time!  This film has Brendan Gleeson in a great turn as the irascible MadEye Moody, a hilarious Miranda Richardson (Queenie!) as gossip-mongering reporter Rita Skeeter, and a pre-Who David Tennant in a brief role (plus a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson as Cedric Diggory.)  The real draw, though, is Ralph Fiennes in his stellar performance as the resurrected Voldemort.  He looks haunted and half-formed, his intensity radiates off the screen, and whether he’s eerily hushed or full-on seething, you can’t take your eyes off him.  Just a sublime job, and the graveyard scene is the highlight of an already-pretty-fine film.

Warnings

Some definitely frightening sequences, magical violence (including torture,) and mild swearing.