goblet of fire

harry potter 4 is totally good, given two conditions. first, that you’re already a fan of the movies and the books, and second, that you’re willing to look past the innumerable small things that get lost in the condensation from a sprawling novel to a brisk two and a half hour movie.

the first two movies got by on charm and good casting, despite relatively poor adaptations from one medium to another. the third took those strengths and added some more interesting cinematography and, most importantly, took us outside the castle on a regular basis to show the surroundings. finally, hogwarts was in a place, and not just a field somewhere.

the fourth movie makes good use of the new areas introduced in azkaban, and adds to the mix some nice new ones, like the insane quidditch world cup stadium. unfortunately, being that book four was even more sprawling than the previous one(god help the small details in the next movie…) the pattern of glossing over everything other than the major details continues unchecked.

you don’t get to see any of the world cup, for example. they went to a great deal of trouble to build a fantastic set for the weasley’s tent there, but we only get half a scene inside it. same with their home, which is nearly a character in its own right in the books. and there’s nary a house elf to be seen at any point in the movie.

nothing new about this versus the previous three, and the stuff that IS in here is all uniformly excellent. the potter movies only real flaw, when you get down to it, is that they ought to be a series of miniseries. if anything, they should be expanding on rowling’s universe, not glossing over some of the really good bits. if they put the same attention to detail, casting, set design, and everything else, and a worthy budget, and just made a seven season tv show, maybe 13 hour long episodes per book, they’d have one of the highest rated shows ever made.

i can only hope that there’s somehow enough quality cut footage to make extended cuts someday. another hour or two for each of these movies would dramatically improve things all around.