(c) Warner Bros.

Harry’s fourth year commences with the announcement that Hogwarts will be the site of the “Triwizard Tournament�?, a competition pitting a champion from each of three schools against each other in a series of highly dangerous contests involving dragons and mermaids and such - not your typical interschool activities. Complicating matters are the budding hormones of these adolescents, with the expected crushes, jealousies, rivalries and mood swings that accompany such a formative time, plus the continuing opaque chicanery that preoccupies all the adults present. And, oh yeah, Harry’s archenemy, the Big Bad “who must not be named�? (Voldemort for us muggles) finally appears in the flesh.

Goblet of Fire the book was twice the size of its predecessors - at one time, it was even considered splitting it into two separate movies (graciously, wiser heads prevailed) - necessitating a streamlining of the script (once more provided by Steve Kloves, who adapted the first three books as well). I’ll leave the post mortem of what was and was not excised in the transfer of mediums (for better or worse) to those more versed in Rowling’s prose, but as a moviegoer, I could tell a lot was lost in the translation. The characters dazedly veer from one extreme to the other from sequence to sequence as the story somehow simultaneously barrels and lumbers along to the inevitable anti-climax. (On the plus side, we are thankfully spared another redundant visit to Harry’s awful relatives and catch only a glimpse of yet another Quidditch match.)

The film is so intent on cramming in every possible detail that the large cast (most returning from previous episodes) is mostly left to fend for themselves. And while such old pros as Maggie Smith (matronly McGonagall), Alan Rickman (sinister Snape) and Michael Gambon (a deliciously daffy Dumbledore) are able to still sparkle even with drastically truncated screen time, it is the main trio of young actors (Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione Granger and Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley) who suffer most from this neglect. Without firm direction from Newell, they, for the first time, come off as shrill and false, smothered by all this exposition. They at least fare slightly better then poor Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, who is relegated once again to the sidelines, this time saddled with a silly subplot involving an odd couple romance with a horse-faced giantess.  Composer John Williams, who scored all the previous films (netting two Oscar nominations in the process) has sat this round out, and his fanciful themes are sorely missed. Replacement Patrick Doyle’s work mostly tries to not call attention to itself.

(c) Warner Bros.

Livening up the proceedings a bit are even more new characters: Miranda Richardson is a campy hoot in the smallish role of Rita Skeeter, a bewitching gossip columnist, and Ralph Fiennes, entering briefly towards the end of the film, only hints at the menace he will most likely bring to the serpentine Voldemort. (One comment about his previously unrevealed appearance: where did his nose go?) However, it is Brendan Gleeson who practically walks away with the whole picture as the latest occupant of that revolving door of a position, Hogwarts’ Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor. As Alastor “Mad Eye�? Moody, wearing a creepy false eye seemingly with a mind of its own, Gleeson adds a loopy malevolence to the proceedings. Less notable are a pair of future “Teen Beat�? cover boys added to the student body: Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory) and Bulgarian newcomer Stanislav Ianevski (Viktor Krum), who portray two of Harry’s opponents in the Triwizard Tournament.