Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

What better way to follow a near three hour car journey than by watching a near three hour film? Was a bit hesitant about letting Luke see this one yet as it gets a bit dark to say the least. Thankfully our many hours playing Lego Harry Potter on the Xbox meant he had a good idea of the story already and the worst thing about it in the end was Ron's potty mouth, everything's 'bloody this' and 'bloody that'!

Parental concern aside, I was really surprised by how good this was on second viewing. This might be the first Potter film that's better than the book. It certainly benefits from trimming off some of the fat, like the hundred odd pages on the Quidditch World Cup at the beginning. Here that bit's just used to give the film a punchy start and set up several of the plot points for later on.

Whilst I still think that JK Rowling lost it a bit with the later books in terms of excess, you can't deny that she's a brilliant storyteller. Watching this film with the knowledge of what's going to happen is a lesson in how you introduce characters and devices and motivation to lead the audience to an exciting ending. Kudos to the filmmakers too for bringing it all so vividly to life especially as this is one of the more magical instalments - with dragons, mermaid things, a sunken galleon and Eric Sykes. And Jarvis Cocker.

The kids are still a bit awkward with some of their lines. It's the. Pauses. They put in for. Dramatic. Effect. Bless them though, they ARE the characters though and you can't imagine anyone else in their wizarding shoes.

I think the only real negative about the film is the lack of John Williams doing the score. Instead you get some random bloke who serves up an anonymous, sludgy bit of orchestral meh. I think that's how Classic FM would describe it anyway.

Looking forward to watching the next in the series with Luke now. He's completely obsessed with all things Potter and ran off at the end of this one to read the back of the DVD sleeve for Order Of The Phoenix. Can't remember much of that but as long as Ron doesn't start effing and jeffing all over the place then I'm sure we'll both enjoy it.