Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
"Dark and Difficult Times Lie Ahead"
Book Release: 2000 / Movie Release: 2005
(Unlike other reviews on the site, the 'From Book to Movies' feature has to reveal spoilers to make sense.)
Introduction / Brief Movie Thoughts
The Harry Potter series was already intensely popular by the time the book was made into a film, and they continued in the smart notion of following the book faithfully and closely to please fans of all kinds. Starting with the fourth installment, both the books and movies start walking darker paths as they release a present day tragedy and death and bring back the villain the main characters have been officially dreading.
After reading the book, it was too fresh in my mind to be as impressed with the film. The special effects were brilliant for the dragon, Mad Eye's costume, Voldemort, and the mermen people, but it lacked the same emotional depth and oomph.
One of my favorite parts of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was the intensity and interaction with Mad-Eye Moody in the classroom. They kept the scene with the weasel and Draco but so much was minimized and sped up for the scenes with Moody. I know they had to content with time length (the book was huge and the movie had to work with that), but they kind of seemed to shorten some scenes that I enjoyed in book form a little too much in the movie.
I have to say the movie was lacking by removing the house elves completely since they played a large role in the book through Hermione, Winky and Dobby. The movie had a lot of changes from the book, not following it nearly as faithfully as other movies did previously.
Biggest Differences
- I'm mentioning this difference just because it was strange - in the book only Wormtail and Voldemort are seen in Harry's mind, but in the movie they also put Barty Crouch in there too.
- Harry doesn't start out in the Dursley's residence and all that is skipped, including his first nightmare and then writing Sirius about it.
- During the attack at the Quidditch match celebration in the tents, in the book all three kids are separating, but in the movie Harry is sent alone and passes out.
- Winky is blamed for the dark mark in the book and is a rather lengthy scene, but they took this out in the movie and just had Crouch blame the kids in anger. They sped this scene up considerably.
- They changed Fred and George in the movie with trying hard to enter their names into the goblet cup - in the book they go through trials and when it fails, are not upset. The movie skips over this and just shows them angry they didn't get in with scenes not shown after the fact.
- A big different is Dumbledore is calm in the book when Harry's name is called and believes in him. In the movie they made him angry, handle Harry roughly, and disinclined at first to believe in him.
- When Moody shows the spells in the book on spiders, he shows them on three spiders, has longer intense scenes about how they affect the students. In the movie it's brief and he uses all three spells at one time on the spiders.
- They removed Rita Skeeter's articles on Hermione's love ttriangle with Harry and Krum and Mrs. Weasley's annoyane with Hermione over the misunderstanding.
- Dobby gives Harry the gillweed to win in the book, but they changed it to Neville in the movie. I didn't like this change.
- They changed the memory of Crouch Jr. a lot. In the book he pleads innocence and begs his father, who is happy to punish him. In the movie it shows him happy to be caught, not sorry, and his father as the sad one in the courtroom.
- Cedric saves Harry from the thorns in the book, but in the movie Harry saves Cedric.
- In fact, Dobby and Winky were left out of the movie entirely, as is Hermione's scheme to save house elves, compare them to slavery, and show the kitchen scenes, Winky's distress, and all the relationships with Dobby. Took a lot from the movie.
- Hermione doesn't catch Rita's secret ability and blackmail her with it.
Glad the Movie Kept
I'm glad the movie decided to keep the tragic scene with Cedric a similar way, although it changed them with the cup briefly and bargaining on who should have it as much. The graveyard scene was pretty faithful, as was the scene at the end when the body is brought back for the grieving father.
I'm glad they mainly remained faithful to the events of the tournament, although again so much was rather rushed.
Who is the Big Winner?
The book definitely, I can't say that enough. This movie was one of the most rushed feeling of the series, and while I understand that it's hard to compress a book in a movie's running time length, I think they trimmed some of the wrong things.
Movie Trailer
Movie Poster
