Just when I protect good ‘ole Harry from the jowls of bloodthirsty Pharisees and legalists I go and watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and come away wondering how this movie made any money. 
I know the unsavory Puritans’ penchant for book burnings and the failing of a silver screen boy hero sequel to captivate are two completely unrelated phenomena… so instead of loquacious babble allow me to retreat into meaningful discourse.
With the marketing industry being at the top of its game, and the wild popularity of J.K.Rowling‘s books to begin with, and with the relative enjoyability of the first three movies… OF COURSE this one was going to make the mad duckets (lots of money). But, although I enjoyed the first three Potter films I had some trouble with this one.
It wasn’t the darkness by any means… I rather enjoyed the small departure from pure sugar candy. It wasn’t the lack of good special effects, because they were excellent… the dragon climbing on the castle looked really good to me. What it was, in my best estimation, was trying to squeeze a huge book into a little 2-hour movie.
The plots were many, varied, and unrelated. At several points during the movie… even as far as two thirds of the way through, I’m wondering when the main plot of the movie is going to start! A couple times… just when I thought things were gettin’ a move on… a completely unrelated subplot would take full-reins of the film for 15 to 20 minutes. I was sitting their bewildered. I was confused that three of the six characters on the cover of the DVD (the ones besides Harry, Ron, and Hermione) had they been put in a ranking by plot-importance and/or screentime would have ranked more like 12th, 17th, and 20th. I was confused that Harry never smiled or acted with any male impetus… and in fact I was beginning to get sick of his whining.
Now, was it a fun movie? Sure. But, unlike my esteemed Pixar flicks, this one will leave adults’ common sense nerve hurting a bit. It may still be good fun for the kiddies (and indeed some of you may wonder why I have not left it as such)… but for the so-called grown-ups… instead of this DVD, I’d throw one of Tolkien’s in my DVD player if I were you. 