English and German pilots shoot each other down, and later find themselves at the same cabin. In order to survive the tough winter in the Norwegian wilderness they have to stand together. It's the start of a long and unlikely friendship. From: IMDb.com
Directed by: Petter Næss
Starring: Florian Lukas, David Kross, Stig Henrik Hoff and others
(Review originally written at 6 June 2008) *** This review may contain spoilers ***
No, I'm not a big Harry Potter fan and probably never will be but I can appreciate the qualities of the movies. Definitely for a children movie this movie is of course of very high class, with fabulous looking sets, a whole load of well known British actors and an highly experienced crew involved. The movie forms a nice first set up for the future series of Harry Potter movies. Still I'm glad the movies and its characters have matured a lot since this movie. Probably also has to do with the fact that this movie and the second were directed by Chris Columbus who is an experienced children movie director, while the other Harry Potter movies were directed by more 'serious' directors. Yes, it makes this movie a good children's movie to watch but also sort of makes this movie look and feel more outdated than any of the other Harry Potter movies, which also goes at the expense of its re-watchable value. Nevertheless, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" remains good quality- and fun film. It knows to create an entire new world of its own with lots of often strange characters in it. The movie is of course a set up and the first establishment of a long running series of movies. This means that the movie consists for a big part out of character introductions. Yes, this results in the fact that there are a bit too many characters in the movie, also since some of them don't even seem to serve a purpose at all for the story but this got resolved in the later movies, by simply leaving out some characters but by introducing many new ones as well. So its sort of problem solving with another problem. Also a bit of a shame that the movie is lacking a real central villain. Professor Snape is treated as a villain, even though we learn by the end of the movie that he's not such a bad guy after all. The real main villain if the movie is of course Voldemort but he gets mostly only mentioned by name and basically doesn't do an awful lot in the movie and only sort of shows up in the very end of the movie. Not the way to treat a villain in my opinion, even though its of course clear from this movie on that he is going to play a much bigger and more important role in the future Harry Potter movies. I however in a case like this feel that they should had putted in a new and different villain besides Voldemort, since this movie is definitely lacking a sense of danger, excitement and action, even though the movie never bores, despite its quite long running time (for a children's movie anyway.). The movie its quality is also surely being uplifted by its presence of well known and respected actors, such as Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane and Alan Rickman among many others. Each of them are giving fine performances but it are mostly Harris and Rickman that catch the eye with their performances. The child actors are also managing fine, although its definitely and luckily true that their acting improved throughout during the later movies. The movie is great looking and knows to create a magic new world, with its set, costumes and make-up. It's not hard to see that this was a costly movie to make. The special effects are also mostly fine, though not really during the game of quidditch, or any other 'flying' sequence for that matter. The movie gets also greatly supported by the musical score from John Williams. Sort of a waste for the series that Williams only scored the music for the first 3 movies. A good and fun enough start of the series, though luckily the movies improved more over the years. 7/10 Watch trailer
Lots of people at the time praised "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" for its dark approach and atmosphere. Well, if "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was a dark movie, than this is an ultra-dark movie. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was a semi-dark children/fantasy movie that never really dared to cross the line. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is not afraid to this though. I must say that this movie is actually closer to horror than fantasy in my opinion. It had an incredible atmosphere, with also some classic build up horror moments. There is little room left for fun in this movie and it's all very serious. Yes, perhaps a bit too serious though. I felt that the movie could had used some relieving humor at times, something all of the other Harry Potter movies were still loaded with.
No, I'm not a great Harry Potter fan and never will be probably, but I have to give it credit for some thing. The series perfectly adapt to the maturing of the main characters as well as the viewers/readers. In other children book series the readers/viewers of course mature over the years, but the stories don't mature with them and everything remains just the same as the first book/movie. I praise the Harry Potter series for not doing so.
So the movie is quite different from any of the previous other Harry Potter movies. It has a new style, which provides the movie with a different atmosphere. This is being empathized all the more by the different musical score from the still unknown Nicholas Hooper. I liked this idea. A new approach calls for a new style, also in the music. None of the themes sound familiar or reminds us of any of the other previous Harry Potter movies.
The movie is more political than fun. The whole taking over Hogwarts thing by the ministry was done quite nicely and interesting. Harry and friends need to face some serious grown up difficulties now. Voldermort is back, no doubt, which means that there now needs to be fought in a battle between life and death. So no giant spiders, house elves, games of quidditch, brewing potions behind closed doors or snakes this time, but a real murderous evil villain, with dangerous followers, that needs to be stopped.
I'm sort of fed up though with all of these new characters that constantly get introduced in every new Harry Potter movie. It's of course not that any of those characters are bad, or being portrayed by horrible actors, but it just goes at the expensive of already some fine and established actors, such as Minerva, Dumbledore, Snape and Hagrid, who are now all being pushed more to the background. The movie is now filled with literally dozens of characters, that are not all getting the attention they need and deserve.
This is a very recommendable movie, especially if you thought that all of the Harry Potter movies were still too childish.
Although the previous 3 Harry Potter movies were good as entertainment, I probably never was the biggest fan of the movie franchise. The previous movies all had their flaws, mainly with the pace and character treatment. However "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" seems to do everything right, what the previous did wrong. I was surprised as well as impressed with this fourth Harry Potter establishment.
The main characters in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" are maturing and luckily so is the movie and its story. Harry Potter and friend face beside the usual problems (Voldemort, the Malfoy's, some evil school teachers) also a whole new different sort of problem; puberty. Hermione has her occasional mood swings and easily gets agitated and Ron seems to be more interested in the girls at school (especially the French) than in brewing potions. It all gives the main characters a totally humane face and suddenly makes us look differently at them and we realize that they're growing up fast now. It makes the movie a whole lot more realistic and it's easier for the viewer as well to identify with the main characters.
There were several problems with the previous three Harry Potter movies. One was occasionally the pace. It was offbeat at times and there were some unnecessary characters and subplots in them. The pace in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" however is fantastic. It doesn't waste any time and everything happens very quick and the movie feels very consistent. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" had the problem that it took itself far too serious. It was a good movie but there was little fun and things to enjoy in it. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" however is far more humor filled and in fact is the Harry Potter movie with the most humor in it as of yet. It are not childish jokes but instead consist out of very well constructed and realistic comical situations and dialogs. It makes the movie very entertaining and pleasant to watch, even though the movie itself is just as dark, if not darker, as "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban".
Yes, this really is a PG-13 rating movie. There are some scary moments in it and finally also Lord Voldemort transforms into a far more threatening, convincing and scary, almost horror-like looking villain. He also is perfectly scary and villainous portrayed by actor Ralph Fiennes.
There was always a big difference between the adult cast and young cast. Both seemed like a different separated class and they never really felt completely as a whole. This time however the young cast perfectly blends in with the adults, which is I think mainly due to the way of directing by Mike Newell. I have the feeling that previous Harry Potter directors tried to impress the viewers with the big well known adult cast that had many well known names in them. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" however focuses more on the three young main characters and Harry Potter himself in particular in this case. The adult cast this time really play nothing more than the sidekicks of the movie and that's also the way it should be I think. The Harry Potter movies are all about the three main characters and it makes a whole lot more sense of the movie to focus mainly just on them. The screen time with the adult cast has surprisingly cut down, compared to all the previous two movies. Some people might be disappointed by this but I'm of opinion that this was the right step for the story and also the entire movie franchise in particular.
But yes, of course the adult cast is still impressive to watch, they just had been given lesser chance to shine this time. I'm especially glad Alan Rickman and Jason Isaacs returned and reprized their roles. But the movie also has some fresh new names in it, such as; Miranda Richardson, Brendan Gleeson and the earlier mentioned Ralph Fiennes. They are a welcome addition to the already impressive cast list.
The story itself is exciting, mysterious and fun as well to watch. The movie is perfectly constructed and also has some fine looking special effects, consumes and sets. It's a fine adventurous and more serious movie to watch for both young ones and adults, even though the movie occasionally gets to scary and serious for the very young ones probably.
It does all the little thing the previous three movies did wrong, right this time. It makes "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" so far the best, most realistic, most thrilling and exciting Harry Potter movie yet.
