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Rating 2¼
Directed by Mike Newell
Written by Steve Kloves, based on the novel by J K Rowling
Starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid), Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort), David Tennant (Barty Crouch Junior), Brendan Gleeson (Alastor ‘Mad Eye’ Moody), Robert Hardy (Cornelius Fudge), David Lloyd Pack (Barty Crouch), Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew / Wormtail), Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), Warwick Davis (Filius Flitwick), Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley), Julie Walters (Molly Weasley), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), James Phelps (Fred Weasley), Oliver Phelps (George Weasley), Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory), Stanislav Ianevski (Viktor Krum), Clémence Poésy (Fleur Delacour), Katie Leung (Cho Chang), Frances de la Tour (Madame Olympe Maxime), Miranda Richardson (Rita Skeeter), David Bradley (Argus Filch), Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle) and Eric Sykes (Frank Bryce)
An old gardener called Frank Bryce disturbs Lord Voldemort, Peter Pettigrew and an unnamed figure and is killed. Harry goes with the Weasley family and Hermione to the Quidditch World Cup, but the camp in which they are staying is attacked by mysterious hooded figures. Barty Crouch of the Ministry of Magic accuses Harry, Hermione and Ron of conjuring up a Dark Mark. Hogwarts School is hosting the Triwizard Tournament, in which a wizard from Hogwarts competes with wizards from two rival schools to complete three dangerous tasks. The goblet of fire chooses the competitors, a decision that cannot be reversed afterwards, and selects a fourth name, Harry Potter, even though he is too young to compete. Albus Dumbledore asks Alastor ‘Mad Eye’ Moody, the new professor of the Defence against the Dark Arts, to watch over Harry. Harry does compete in the tournament, briefly becoming estranged from his best friend Ron, but there are dark forces at work and he must face up to Voldemort.
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‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ is the fourth book and film in the series. I enjoyed the third film quite a lot more than the first two, something that might be down to the change of director from Chris Columbus to Alfonso Cuarón, the Academy Award-nominated Mexican director, screenwriter and producer who gave ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ a noticeably darker edge than the previous two films. ‘The Goblet of Fire’ marks another change of director to Mike Newell, the first English director to work on the films. His previous credits include ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’, ‘Donnie Brasco’ and ‘Mona Lisa Smile’. Cuarón had faced some criticism for his approach to the third film and it does have the lowest box office gross of the five films to date, although J K Rowling is said to consider it her favourite instalment in the film series and he did apparently express an interest in directing another Harry Potter film. I think it’s a shame that he was not on board for ‘The Goblet of Fire’, which is a definite step backwards in many ways and, I thought, very messy and unfocused in places. Newell has talked about the problem of compressing the book into a coherent film and a number of key scenes from the book were cut during this process.
The first thirty minutes or so disappointed me greatly, but once the triwizard challenges begin it does pick up a little bit, although Brendon Gleeson’s “Mad Eye” Moody, who plays a central role here, proves to be a strangely disappointing character much of the time. The story deals with puberty and the fact that Harry, Hermione and Ron are now growing up. Harry and Ron are faced with the challenge of finding dates for the traditional Yule Ball. Harry finally builds up the courage to ask Cho Chang, but leaves it too late, even though she had clearly been waiting for him to ask. In the end she has said yes to another offer. Ron refuses to believe Hermione when he clumsily asks her and she turns him down, saying she already has a date. At the ball itself she becomes very upset, shouting at him that he has ruined everything because it took him so long to ask her, by which time she had accepted another offer. All three end up having a miserable time, in stark contrast to the usually hapless Neville Longbottom, another student from Gryffindor, who has a splendid time.
I found the climactic confrontation between Harry and Voldemort decidedly underwhelming, perhaps not helped because the preceding scenes in the magical maze, which should and could have been so much better, are ruined by being shot in virtually complete darkness. These scenes should be creepy and unsettling, but I just ended up squinting at my television screen, trying to make out what was going on. The film then ends on an unexpectedly low key note, as Hermione observes that nothing will ever be the same again.
Albus Dumbledore, the aged and wise headmaster of Hogwarts, had been played by Richard Harris in the first two films. His health was in sharp decline by the time of ‘The Chamber of Secrets’ and he apparently only reprised the role because his ten-year-old granddaughter refused to ever speak to him again if he did not. Harris died on 25 October 2002 from Hodgkin’s disease, his death coming before ‘The Chamber of Secrets’ had opened in cinemas in America. Michael Gambon, another acclaimed Irish actor, assumed the role of Dumbledore from the third film onwards. Gambon deliberately approached the role from a different angle so that his interpretation of Dumbledore is quite different to that of Harris. I think I prefer the Harris interpretation.
‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ has an 88% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 213 reviews. It had a whopping production budget of $150 million and grossed nearly $896 million at the box office worldwide, the highest gross since the first film.
Review posted 16 July 2009
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Rating 2½
Directed by Chris Columbus
Written by Steve Kloves, based on the novel by J K Rowling
Starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Richard Harris (Albus Dumbledore), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid), Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart), Robert Hardy (Cornelius Fudge), Richard Griffiths (Vernon Dursley), Fiona Shaw (Petunia Dursley), Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley), Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), Warwick Davis (Filius Flitwick), Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley), Julie Walters (Molly Weasley), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), James Phelps (Fred Weasley), Oliver Phelps (George Weasley), Sean Biggerstaff (Oliver Wood), John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick), David Bradley (Argus Filch), Miriam Margolyes (Pomona Sprout), Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle), Christian Coulson (Tom Marvolo Riddle) and Toby Jones as the voice of Dobby the House Elf
A house elf called Dobby causes chaos when he comes to warn Harry not to go back to school because his life is in danger, but Ron Weasley arrives with his older twin brothers Fred and George in a magical flying Ford Anglia and rescues Harry from the clutches of his hideous Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, who were determined that he would not be allowed to return to Hogwarts. Back at Hogwarts, the vain, self-aggrandising and comically inept Gilderoy Lockhart has been appointed as the new professor of the Defence against the Dark Arts. Minerva McGonagall tells the students of a legend that Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of the school more than thousand years earlier, had built a secret chamber that could only be opened by his true heir and that it would unleash a terrible monster. Although the location of the chamber is not known, evidence suggests that it has been opened and the finger of suspicion points at Harry.
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‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’, the second book and film in the series, would seem to be, more or less, a near carbon-copy repeat of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, but it does not get bogged down quite so much establishing a back story, which might go some way towards explaining why I enjoyed it more. This second film is actually even longer than the first one, with a running time of 161 minutes, but although I think it’s too long, somehow it did not seem to be as long as the first film. It seems to move along at a more spirited pace, although once again we are treated to an interminably long sequence in which the houses of Gryffindor and Slytherin do battle in a Quidditch match.
The storyline contains a message about prejudice and, one assumes, the evils of fascism or nationalism. There is also the less than subtle metaphor of the phoenix rising out of the ashes. As in the first film, we receive the message that bullies are cowards and get their comeuppance in the end. In childhood this may well be true, but what, of course, is not mentioned is that in adulthood, sadly, the tables are turned and bullies invariably get exactly what they want.
The same director and screenwriter are back on board for this second film. Kenneth Branagh turns in an amusing and entertaining performance as Gilderoy Lockhart, a preening celebrity wizard who has created a false persona for himself through a series of books telling of his exploits.
‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ has an 82% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 198 reviews. It had a production budget of $100 million and grossed just under $879 million at the box office worldwide.
Review posted 15 July 2009
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Rating 2
Directed by Chris Columbus
Written by Steve Kloves, based on the novel by J K Rowling
Starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Richard Harris (Albus Dumbledore), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid), Richard Griffiths (Vernon Dursley), Fiona Shaw (Petunia Dursley), Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), John Hurt (Mr Ollivander), Warwick Davis (Filius Flitwick), Julie Walters (Molly Weasley), John Cleese (Nearly Headless Nick), David Bradley (Argus Filch), Zoë Wanamaker (Rolanda Hooch), Ian Hart (Quirinus Quirrell) and Leslie Phillips as the voice of the Sorting Hat
The evil and powerful wizard Lord Voldemort murders the parents of Harry Potter, but fails to kill the baby Harry, instead leaving a scar on his forehead. Harry is left on the doorstep of his Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia by Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School, Minerva McGonagall, the deputy headmistress, and Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper. Harry is treated badly by his uncle and aunt, who make him sleep under the stairs, while making a fuss of their spoilt son Dudley. When letters start arriving for Harry, Uncle Vernon burns them and then moves the family to a remote lighthouse, but on his eleventh birthday, with the help of Rubeus, Harry is able to defy his uncle and begin a new life at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is befriended by Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley and all three are assigned to the Gryffindor house. Harry soon has an enemy in Draco Malfoy, who is in the Slytherin house, but more seriously, someone is trying to steal the Philosopher’s Stone, which contains the elixir of life, and Harry’s life is in great danger.
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I watched ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, the 2001 film version of J K Rowling’s 1997 novel, some time ago and was very much looking forward to it, although I had not read this or any of the other Harry Potter books. I was disappointed. Although I did quite enjoy some passages of the film, overall I thought it was far too long (at over 150 minutes), rather uninspired in long sections, and I absolutely hated the long sequence in which we observe the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Quidditch is a fictional sport, a kind of violent mix of rugby and polo, played high above a grass pitch by players riding on broomsticks. Although these scenes do have bearing on the plot and are undoubtedly intended to be a thrilling action-packed portion of the film, I found them unutterably tedious. That rather took the shine off the film for me and dented any interest I might have had in the films that followed.
Several years later, I recently chanced to watch ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’, the third film in the series, and although once again I was not overwhelmed by it, I enjoyed it enough to want to check out the other films. I decided it would make sense to go back and start at the beginning and watch ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’ again. My reaction to it on second viewing is exactly the same as the first time. I like some sequences very much and there are some inventive touches in the storyline, but overall the film is too long and, I thought, rather boring. Once again, the Quidditch match almost had me reaching for the stop button on the remote control.
Once the magic and witchcraft are stripped away and the over-abundance of special effects with it, ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’ boils down to a kind of mix of ‘Tom Brown’s School Days’ and an Agatha Christie-like whodunit. It is quite successful and diverting in both respects. It seems to me, though, as if the “Englishness” of the story and the concept is smothered by the constant bombardment of special effects and what seems to be a rather over-the-top Americanised feel to the film, something I also thought the two recent ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ films suffered from to some degree. However, the film is apparently very faithful to the novel, so perhaps I am off-beam here. Probably, to fully appreciate the film I would have needed to have grown up with the books or be the parent of a child who did so. I am neither, so perhaps the magic is ever so slightly out of the reach of my grasp.
‘The Philosopher’s Stone’ was directed by the successful American director, producer and writer Chris Columbus and perhaps this is where, for me, some of the problem lies. Chris Columbus directed the hugely popular 1990 film ‘Home Alone’, which remains one of my most hated films ever. It tells the story of parents who are so inattentive of her eight-year-old son that they manage to take the family on holiday and leave him behind, home alone. The mother then spends the rest of the film shouting at strangers and blaming them as she tries to get home to the boy, while he is engaged in various violent and supposedly comic ‘Tom & Jerry’ style escapades with a couple of hapless but nasty criminals who are trying to break into the house. I once worked in a video store where this film was shown on the monitors frequently. Although it is now twelve years or more since I last saw it, I still feel angry just thinking about it. This probably does not enamour me to Chris Columbus, although he did write both ‘Gremlins’ and ‘The Goonies’, two films that I do have a soft spot for.
There has been some criticism of the performance of Daniel Radcliffe, in particular, who is more or less the age of his character and had little previous professional acting experience when he was first cast. J K Rowling approved of his casting in the lead role. She had insisted that the cast be British (or, in the case of Richard Harris, Irish) and had been involved in the audition process. She also had approval over the screenplay, insisting that it did not deviate to any appreciable degree from the novel. Radcliffe’s performance is not especially praiseworthy and neither are the performances of Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, but they are all likeable and, having already stated that I have never read the books, they do seem to be well cast and a good fit for the roles.
My opinion of ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ is not necessarily trustworthy and is certainly at odds with general opinion about the film. It has a 78% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 182 reviews. Peter Bradshaw, film critic with The Guardian newspaper, called it a, “Richly accomplished entertainment spectacular, the quickest, zappiest two and a half hours you’ll spend in the cinema,” although the newspaper’s website does not carry his full review. The film had a $125 million production budget and grossed nearly $975 million worldwide. It was the most successful film of 2001 and is No.5 in the All-Time Worldwide Grosses, although when the figures are adjusted for ticket price inflation it drops to number sixty-six. The original novel has sold in excess of 120 million copies worldwide.
The title of both the book and film were changed to ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ in America.
Review posted 14 July 2009
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Rating 2¾
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Written by Steve Kloves, based on the novel by J K Rowling
Starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Michael Gambon (Albus Dumbledore), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid), David Thewis (Remus Lupin), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), Robert Hardy (Cornelius Fudge), Richard Griffiths (Uncle Vernon), Pam Ferris (Aunt Marge), Fiona Shaw (Aunt Petunia), Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley), Julie Walters (Mrs Molly Weasley), Mark Williams (Mr Arthur Wesley), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Warwick Davies (Filius Flitwick), Dawn French (Fat Lady), James Phelps (Fred Weasley), Oliver Phelps (George Weasley), Emma Thompson (Sybil Trelawney), Julie Christie (Madame Rosmerta) and Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew)
Harry Potter is spending a miserable summer with his Uncle Vernan and Aunt Petunia. When he uses magic outside school, he runs away, fearing punishment. He is picked up by the Knight Bus, a magical triple-decker bus, and taken to the Leaky Cauldron, where Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, tells him he will not, as he had feared, be expelled. Harry also learns that Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban. Reunited with his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, Harry boards the Hogwarts Express. During the train journey he encounters a Dementer, a soulless wraith-like creature that is searching for Sirius Black, but it is driven away by Remus Lupin, a new professor joining the school. During the first assembly at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore announces that the Dementers will be guarding the school. Harry also discovers that Sirius Black was implicated in the deaths of his parents and is heading for the school, seemingly intent on killing him.
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I have never read a ‘Harry Potter’ book and do not expect to do so. I have also only previously seen one film, the first, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’, which I found slightly underwhelming. The same would have to be said of ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’, the third film (and the third book) in the sequence. However, I did enjoy this one more, enough so to be interested in watching the other films.
‘Harry Potter’ is a phenomenon. The seven books, written by the British author J K Rowling (Joanne Murray), starting with ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’, which was first published in June 1997, have sold in excess of 400 million copies. Likewise, the films (five to date, with the sixth just about to be released into cinemas) have been hugely successful. ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’, which had a production budget of $120 million and was released into cinemas starting in June 2004, has a worldwide box office gross in excess of $795 million, with DVD and television broadcast revenue likely to have been at least that much again.
The film races along at a breakneck pace, although strangely it often seems as if not much is happening. The special effects are state-of-the-art, but I cannot help but think that these do sometimes take away some of the magic. In the famous 1967 Jonathan Miller adaptation of ‘Alice in Wonderland’, made for the BBC, Alice enters the surreal wonderland through a narrow tunnel, used by Miller because no special effects were available to show Alice disappear down the rabbit hole. It works perfectly and that imagery has always stayed with me. I was just nine years old when ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was broadcast and tunnels continue to have something magical and slightly unsettling about them for me, just as old wardrobes do because of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. The ‘Harry Potter’ books are, to some degree, this generation’s ‘Chronicles of Narnia’, insomuch that they have succeeded in capturing the imaginations of children. I have no time whatsoever for the claims that the books are anti-religious and promote witchcraft.
There has been some criticism of the acting of the three young leads, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint – Radcliffe in particular. All three came to the series with little or no previous professional acting experience. None of them are exceptional, in the way that, say, Dakota Fanning acts with a degree of skill and confidence well beyond her years, but all three are perfectly likeable and competent in their roles. Each film has a wealth of British acting talent on display.
‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ is a good family film, if perhaps a little violent at times for very young children. It’s a rollercoaster ride that is probably tremendous fun for anyone who has grown up with the books. I feel a little bit divorced from it and from my outsider’s perspective it does all seems a little clichéd, cobbling together lots of pre-existing themes and stories that are already familiar to me. That said, it’s enormous popularity speaks volumes.
‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ has an 89% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 225 reviews.
Review posted 12 July 2009
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An old gardener called Frank Bryce disturbs Lord Voldemort, Peter Pettigrew and an unnamed figure and is killed. Harry goes with the Weasley family and Hermione to the Quidditch World Cup, but the camp in which they are staying is attacked by mysterious hooded figures. Barty Crouch of the Ministry of Magic accuses Harry, Hermione and Ron of conjuring up a Dark Mark. Hogwarts School is hosting the Triwizard Tournament, in which a wizard from Hogwarts competes with wizards from two rival schools to complete three dangerous tasks. The goblet of fire chooses the competitors, a decision that cannot be reversed afterwards, and selects a fourth name, Harry Potter, even though he is too young to compete. Albus Dumbledore asks Alastor ‘Mad Eye’ Moody, the new professor of the Defence against the Dark Arts, to watch over Harry. Harry does compete in the tournament, briefly becoming estranged from his best friend Ron, but there are dark forces at work and he must face up to Voldemort.
‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ is the fourth book and film in the series. I enjoyed the third film quite a lot more than the first two, something that might be down to the change of director from Chris Columbus to Alfonso Cuarón, the Academy Award-nominated Mexican director, screenwriter and producer who gave ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ a noticeably darker edge than the previous two films. ‘The Goblet of Fire’ marks another change of director to Mike Newell, the first English director to work on the films. His previous credits include ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’, ‘Donnie Brasco’ and ‘Mona Lisa Smile’. Cuarón had faced some criticism for his approach to the third film and it does have the lowest box office gross of the five films to date, although J K Rowling is said to consider it her favourite instalment in the film series and he did apparently express an interest in directing another Harry Potter film. I think it’s a shame that he was not on board for ‘The Goblet of Fire’, which is a definite step backwards in many ways and, I thought, very messy and unfocused in places. Newell has talked about the problem of compressing the book into a coherent film and a number of key scenes from the book were cut during this process.
The first thirty minutes or so disappointed me greatly, but once the triwizard challenges begin it does pick up a little bit, although Brendon Gleeson’s “Mad Eye” Moody, who plays a central role here, proves to be a strangely disappointing character much of the time. The story deals with puberty and the fact that Harry, Hermione and Ron are now growing up. Harry and Ron are faced with the challenge of finding dates for the traditional Yule Ball. Harry finally builds up the courage to ask Cho Chang, but leaves it too late, even though she had clearly been waiting for him to ask. In the end she has said yes to another offer. Ron refuses to believe Hermione when he clumsily asks her and she turns him down, saying she already has a date. At the ball itself she becomes very upset, shouting at him that he has ruined everything because it took him so long to ask her, by which time she had accepted another offer. All three end up having a miserable time, in stark contrast to the usually hapless Neville Longbottom, another student from Gryffindor, who has a splendid time.
Albus Dumbledore, the aged and wise headmaster of Hogwarts, had been played by Richard Harris in the first two films. His health was in sharp decline by the time of ‘The Chamber of Secrets’ and he apparently only reprised the role because his ten-year-old granddaughter refused to ever speak to him again if he did not. Harris died on 25 October 2002 from Hodgkin’s disease, his death coming before ‘The Chamber of Secrets’ had opened in cinemas in America. Michael Gambon, another acclaimed Irish actor, assumed the role of Dumbledore from the third film onwards. Gambon deliberately approached the role from a different angle so that his interpretation of Dumbledore is quite different to that of Harris. I think I prefer the Harris interpretation.
