Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
[SOM #27]
This is the fourth of eight movie reviews of the Harry Potter films.
Sharon Shaw of Gonzo Planet, Leah Haydu of GamerDork, James Batchelor of GameBurst and Neil Taylor of GameBurst and KDS 2.0 all return, and this time the De fence against the Dark Arts teacher is James Carter of Cane and Rinse.
This installment surprised me as I’d always thought Azkaban a superior film, and that may still be so. Film four may be less of a faithful adaptation by virtue of the huge amount of non-essential plot that had to be left out to conserve the running time, or it could be more faithful in terms of thematic delivery. Either way, The Goblet of Fire is now my personal favourite of the opening quartet of Harry Potter films.
This episode, we go in-depth on the upside and downside of the trimmed down story, we talk book sales figures, Quidditch, unforgivable curses, endangering children, frivolous lawsuits, teenage awkwardness and Lord Voldemort’s first full appearance in the series.
All of this is scored with some choice quotes and the wonderful arrangements of the often-overlooked Patrick Doyle.
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July 1, 2013
I feel the need to say this much about the whole “magically binding contract” aspect of the book/movie: I don’t think age was a fundamental element of the contract. I don’t remember the specific line in the book, but I think Dumbledore (or maybe McGonagall) says something along the lines of “due to the dangers presented by this tournament, we’ve decided to restrict participation to only seventh year/seventeen year old students…”
Basically, age wasn’t part of the goblet’s contract, it was a specific “you’re not allowed to enter” rule imposed by Dumbledore and the school (and probably the other schools), which means that any contracts formed by the goblet itself have nothing to do with that restriction.
Not meaning to get hung up on what is, essentially, a plot contrivance, but it may explain away some of the sketchy plotting involved. =D