The Harry Potter films have continued to improve with each film. The first two with their generic, flat direction by Chris Columbus captured the story of the books without capturing the flavor—it was like eating a blandly seasoned steak while the meat was there the meal wasn’t exactly memorable. With “The Prisoner of Azkaban” Columbus was gone replaced by a real director who managed to imbue the film with a sense of style. The fourth film although more episodic than the previous three continues the movement towards a more visually memorable film. Film is, after all, about visual narrative as much as it is about the story itself. The fourth film depends much more on the knowledge of the readers of the book to fill in the background and gaps in the story an, from that perspective, Steve Kloves screenplay is a failure.

Nevertheless, Potter fans will be pleased with the way the story is told even if those who haven’t followed the books will be forgiven for occasionally scratching their heads and wondering about certain story elements that seem to be missing. The focus on the story here should have been less on remaining faithful on a page-by-page basis to pivotal scenes and more on the trio of characters that anchor the Potter saga—Harry, Hermione and Ron. Hermione is reduced to a bitchy sidebar as is Ron. Nothing of consequence happens to either of these two characters. It’s as if we’re being presented with a “Cliff notes” version of the Potter book without any sense of continuity (in fact the film that this most closely resembles in terms of structure is the disjointed narrative of Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odysey” but then that covers everything from the evolution of man from ape to traveling in space). “Goblet of Fire” isn’t a bad film just a miniature version of the book without the chance to breathe and allow natural character development to occur over time. Still, the film isn’t without its charms and Potter fans will be pleased with the adaptation. ---

Image & Sound:

“Harry” isn’t quite as magical in this anamorphic transfer from Warner as it would be. . While I would have liked to see better detail and crispness in the transfer, overall the look of the film is quite pleasing. The colors are nicely reproduced although the lack of contrast impacts the amount of detail visible in the film. The 5.1 transfer sounds quite good with nice use of directional sound and dialogue comes across crisp and clear.

The second disc has the extras. Sadly there’s no commentary track from director Mike Newell or screenwriter Steve Kloves. It would have been interesting to hear about some of the directions in the screenplay that could have been taken but weren’t.

“Harry and the Horntail: The First Task” is a featurette on the staging and creation of that sequence.

“Meet the Champions” offers a glimpse behind the curtain focusing on the actors that play the Triwizard Champions.

“In Too Deep: The Second Task” focuses on the second Triwizard challenge where Harry and his competitors must swim in hazardous waters to rescue their friends.

“The Maze: The Third Task” is the shortest of the featurettes running ust under 7 minutes. This brisk featurette focuses on the effects challenges in creating the maze sequence in the film.

“He Who Must Not Be Named” discusses Lord Voldemort and Ralph Fienes the actor who plays him.

“Preparing for the Yule Ball” shows that many of the actors in the film have two left feet.

“Conversations with the Cast” is a half hour of interviews with the stars of the film discussing the challenges of making the fourth Potter film.

“Hogwarts Castle” rounds out the featurettes giving us inside information on the marvelous sets and shooting the film. We also get deleted scenes that should have been reintegrated into the film much as Peter Jackson did with the “Lord of the Rings” films. It would have improved the film dramatically. We also get the original theatrical trailer, DVD-ROM content and a pair of games which like the first set for the other films are pretty dismal. ---

Final Words: