Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth movie in the franchise. It was released in 2005 and brings back all of the major characters (and actors) and has a few additions. First, Ralph Fiennes is added to the cast to play the adult version of Voldemort, and Robert Pattinson is added to the cast as Cedric Diggory. The other new cast members include Miranda Richardson, David Tennant, Brendan Gleeson, and Clemence Poesy. This is the movie where the dark part of the story takes hold. It is also the book where they had to cut the most out. The book is over 600 pages long, and they would have had to split the movie into two parts (something that was considered) to get it all in. Eventually, they just decided to cut the ancillary storylines and just tell the story following Harry and nobody else.
The Ultimate Edition set is another 4-disc set that also includes collectible cards and a hardcover book with behind-the-scenes pictures and information. The first disc just has the theatrical version of the movie, which can be played with a picture-in-picture in-movie experience that has interviews with the cast and crew members. There is no director's cut/extended edition, which as I said in my review for the Prisoner of Azkaban, UE set, it should have had. While the deleted scenes are available in the extras, it is far better to see them incorporated into the movie than just throwing them together out of order. The other extras include Part 4 of the Creating the World of Harry Potter documentary, with this segment (which is nearly an hour long) devoted to the music. Then there are more cast interviews, over two hours of TV specials, trailers, and the legacy DVD features.
The movie is very good, even though a lot was cut out from the book. One thing that I think the movie suffers from that is we do not get to see enough of the character of Cedric, and thus, the emotional impact later on in the movie is lessened because his character is barely on screen for a lot of the film. Aside from that, the big reveal at the end of the movie when Voldemort finally returns in the flesh was great. Ralph Fiennes does a wonderful job bringing Voldemort's sinister aspect to life. He is not on the screen for a long time in the movie, but for the amount of time he is, he gives the sense that he is going to be the perfect "big bad" the rest of the way. Brendan Gleeson does a great job playing Mad-Eye Moody. In this movie, he has to play a character who is playing a character. The version of Mad-Eye he plays in this one is more over the top than in the later films. Miranda Richardson is wonderful, playing the slimy journalist Rita Skeeter, who is a gossip columnist who plays fast and loose with the truth.
Ultimately, as is the case with the other UE versions (especially for the first two movies), the extras are great and provide hours of great content. If you like going through the bonus content and can live without having an extended version of the film (and do a little price shopping), this is a great addition to your collection.
No comments:
Post a Comment