Goblet of Fire Has Me All Fired Up For More Harry

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out this year. I hope. Profusely. Of course, once it does, that means there will be no more Harry Potter books left, and I will most likely find myself in a state of depression after I finish the concluding volume. But that's all months away, so I'm much more occupied with the anticipation than the looming specter of the eventual letdown, though it's probably just as well if I must wait until summer because if I had to juggle Smallville, LOST and Harry Potter all at once, my head would probably explode. That being said, it's nice to have a little something to whet my appetite, and that came in the form of a Christmas present that arrived belatedly in the mail last week. The goods: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Which, true to my unfortunate tradition, I never saw in the theater. So I was in for a treat.

Goblet of Fire is a long book. I remember when I got it, after much rigamarole due to the fact that we accidentally had it sent to my grandpa when we ordered it on Amazon; it was well into the summer when we collected it, just before embarking on a week-long trip to Ocean City, Maryland. Whenever we piled into the van, I read aloud to my brother Nathan, though I made him take the reins whenever a house elf was speaking. I missed those elves in the movie, but only when I stopped to think about it. So many details were left out, subplots drastically shortened or cut entirely, and upon reflection I ruminated that it was a shame they couldn't be included. But the film centers on the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the overblown competition uniting Hogwarts with magical schools Beauxbatons and Durmstrang for the year, and I think it was in the best interests of the movie for screenwriter Steve Kloves and director Mike Newell to keep that fairly narrow focus.

Not only are the elves missing here, there are no Dursleys whatsoever, but I can't say I miss them, though Mrs. Weasley's absence is sadly noted. (At least there are hints of her in the dreadful dress robes Ron is forced to wear.) Instead of watching Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) suffer through another miserable summer with his inhospitable relatives, we see him whisked away to a massive Quidditch match with the Weasleys. Hogwarts has a very ancient air about it, so it's strange to witness an event so filled with modern touches, such as the fanfare with which the teams arrive and the elaborate profile of star player Viktor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski) that flickers across half the stands at one point. (Later scenes have a more contemporary feel to them as well, like the end of the Yule Ball, when the sedate classical music gives way to the hard-rocking tunes of a popular young wizarding rock group.) The score in these Quidditch World Cup scenes is especially nice, all Celtic-flavored to go with the Irish team the Weasleys so ardently support, and the whole proceedings tingle with joy and exhilaration until Voldemort's cronies come in and ruin everything, setting a dark tone for the rest of the film.

Goblet of Fire has an epic feel to it, what with the three Herculean tasks the students must perform, but it also seems more ordinary than the others, largely because there are many scenes in which we see Harry and his friends in regular clothes rather than robes. They're growing up before our eyes, most notably gangly Ron (Rupert Grint) and luminous Hermione (Emma Watson). Teenage emotions run rampant as Ron spends close to a third of the movie furious with Harry, thinking he somehow maneuvered his way into the Tri-Wizard Tournament and kept it from him. Ron, who is rendered a babbling nitwit whenever he nears Fleur Delacour (Clemence Poesy), the seductive siren serving as the Beauxbatons champion, feels like enough of an also-ran as it is; he's not enthusiastic at the prospect of sitting in the sidelines while Harry attains eternal glory. He and Harry make up eventually - just in time for him to have a falling-out with Hermione over her acceptance of Durmstrang champion Viktor's invitation to the Yule Ball (which Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) amusingly describes as an evening of "well-mannered frivolity"). Poor hot-headed, misguided Ron... Harry's got his eyes on someone too: Cho Chang (Katie Leung), who happens to be the girlfriend of the other Hogwarts champion, golden boy Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson). (Looking back over the fourth and fifth books fresh off five seasons of Smallville crammed into one year, I find this relationship incredibly similar to Clark's and Lana's. We see so little of Cho in the film, though, that we tend to forget she exists.)

Speaking of reduced roles, Snape (Alan Rickman) gets precious little air time, though his few scenes are memorable, particularly one in which he boxes Ron and Harry's ears for chattering in class. McGonagall's dancing lesson with Ron is another shining moment, as is the shot of crusty groundskeeper Argus Filch (David Bradley) waltzing contentedly with his cat, Mrs. Norris, at the Yule Ball. Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) remains fairly prominent, mostly cultivating a romance with Beauxbatons headmistress Madame Maxime (Frances De La Tour), while Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) has the helm in many scenes, though I can't get used to this new, robust version of a wizard I see as wise and ethereal, with an ever-present twinkle in his eye. He seems to bark out much of his dialogue, coming across as more intimidating than understanding, especially when he demands to know whether Harry put his name in the goblet somehow. Other characters - most regrettably Nearly Headless Nick (John Cleese) - don't make an appearance at all.

Of the younger set, Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) doesn't show up a whole lot, though he is the centerpiece of a most amusing little scene involving the inappropriate use of Transfiguration. Moaning Myrtle (Shirley Henderson) shares a rather uncomfortable scene with Harry, and Parvati (Shefali Chowdhury) and Padma Patil (Afshan Azad) giddily anticipate spending the Yule Ball as Harry and Ron's dates until they realize what wallflowers the two are. Fred and George Weasley (James and Oliver Phelps) actually are fairly prominent here despite the lack of Quidditch matches, which is grand because those two scallywags always bring a smile to my face. I'm also a fan of nebbish Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis), so it's nice to see him have some time in the spotlight as well.

Several new characters are introduced, most notably Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), the cantankerous but ever-so-helpful Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. His methods are sometimes dubious, but he seems to be incredibly competent despite the rumors that he has lost his mind. We also meet prominent wizard Barty Crouch (Roger Lloyd-Pack), who carries a dark secret under all his professionalism, and Rita Skeeter (Miranda Richardson), an exceptionally irritating journalist who is milked for much comic relief, though her role is also significantly decreased, which is rather a shame. Then, of course, there is Voldemort, who we see for the first time in this form, a supremely sinister, noseless, scarcely human incarnation whose raspy vocals are nonetheless clearly recognizable as Ralph Fiennes'.

It's a perpetual problem with Harry Potter that Rowling has so many incredibly well-realized characters, and they just can't all be fleshed out in the course of a few two-and-a-half-hour films. We get little sprinkles of side characters here and there, but the primary focus is always on Harry and, to a slightly lesser extent, Ron and Hermione. Because so much attention is paid to the Tri-Wizard tournament, which Harry must handle on his own, we don't have nearly as many scenes featuring the three of them together as we do in other installments. Frankly, I always thought the tournament was a rather silly idea, throwing three schools' worth of students into a tumult so that three individuals (or, as it turns out, four) can perform ridiculously complicated and dangerous tasks, mostly unseen by spectators, in order to attain everlasting fame. Dumbledore puts it into perspective at the end of the film, stressing the value of the experience as a way for students from all three schools to build relationships with one another, but I still think the tournament itself is a little over-hyped. Still, we get to see a lot more of the competition than the students do, and the three tasks, particularly Harry's death-defying, largely aerial battle with the Hungarian Horntail, make for absolutely exhilarating cinema.

The film is darker and more grown-up; it earns the PG-13 rating with a smattering of profanity (usually coming from Ron) but mostly with violence and frightening images. If not for the climactic showdown with Voldemort, Goblet of Fire probably could have squeaked by with a PG, but as devastating as that scene is, it is beautifully realized and a crucial midpoint to the series. Voldemort is gaining strength, but there's hope for Harry yet. I do think that just what happens to Harry when he locks wands with Voldemort is explained poorly, if at all; just when Dumbledore seems about to provide some essential insight, we're on to the next scene, and this was a bit of exposition that probably should have been provided to those who are coming into the film without having read the book. Otherwise, however, the movie comes to a satisfying but bittersweet close, setting us up for the oppressive Order of the Phoenix. That was my least favorite of the books, so I don't know how much I'll like the movie. Goblet of Fire, however, is golden and just what I needed to remind me how much I'm looking forward to the final installment in J. K. Rowling's brilliant series.