Hey folks, Harry here... no, not that Harry, just regular old me. I'm very much looking forward to Mike Newell's HARRY POTTER flick, specially since I absolutely love the pegasi chariot, the emerging galleon and those merpeople in the trailers... the latter being very very Lovecraftian, making me think that Dagon isn't far behind... And how cool would that be? Heh. Anyway, here's a spoiler free review that calls it a great film, but then due to what the reviewer feels was unnecessary humor, he gave it a B+... so I suppose it's a B+ GREAT MOVIE! Heh -

Hey Harry,

Groover checkin' in from SoCal. Been a looooong time since I've written in. Anyhoo, got into a publicity screening of Goblet of Fire at the WB lot and had to write in.

Warning: no plot spoilers. If you're looking for them, no can do. Better you should enjoy the ride.

And what a ride it is. Clocking in at 2.5 hours, this is a great film - unquestionably the best of the series thus far. Personal opinion - it's also the best book of the series. I could have watched another hour and not gotten bored.

Potter fans will note there is A LOT missing from the book. But c'mon, it's about 700 pages. Of course they're gonna have to chop some stuff, otherwise the movie would be five hours (I wouldn't complain, myself). But while many things have been left out, nothing feels like it's missing. The movie stands on it's own very well.

It's really interesting to see how - as the material gets darker from movie to movie, the child actors get better and better. They're really confident in the roles. Also big ups to Miranda Richardson and Brendan Gleeson (especially) for their performances. And Michael Gambon is so good as Dumbledore, you scarcely wish for Richard Harris anymore (sacreligious as that may sound).

Also - and I know there've been other posts commenting on this too, but I gotta as well - the CGI is incredible. You'll totally believe it's a real dragon that Harry is fighting. And the Quidditch World Cup scene is outrageous.

The one downside is it seemslike the makers took every opportunity to inject humor in. While I can understand why they felt it necessary (it is a kid's movie, after all), and a lot of it does work, there are some little tidbits that seem to be there with no other purpose than to provide a light moment, which kind of takes you out of the intensity of the movie. Some of those could go, but I get why it was felt they were needed.

And seriously, that's my only criticism. It's a great film. Gotta give it a B+ easily. Lose just a bit of the unnecessary humor, and it's totally in the A range.

Groover, out!