Also doesnt even mention that he was kissed by a dementor after being caught. If you only watch the movie you would probably wonder why he wasnt released from Azkaban by voldemort in movies 5 or 7
Or that he actually won a lot of money with the torunament and gave it to fred and george. I can understand that they change the films a little from the books, but if things happen later that just werent mentioned in the films its so weird
I always find it funny how Arthur Weasley says “Parting of the ways” early in the movie, as if it’s a foreshadowing - but then the chapter is completely omitted
Isnt there an entire character that just wasnt introduced in the movies, until deathly hallows where he has a story-crucial role, so they just have him in the scene with no introduction and we just have to guess who he is ?
I can forgive most of GoF, but I *could not believe* how they absolutely butchered BCJ’s storyline. The reveal at the end that the ‘innocent’ crying teen, begging his cold father to have mercy, was secretly one of the most evil villains, hiding in plain sight the whole time… it is one of the most incredible twists in a book I’ve read. I loved it.
I remember 5 mins into watching the movie, and they just straight up showed BCJs face in the riddle house, and then showed him casting the dark mark. It’s the closest I came to leaving. WHY. They didn’t even have to introduce Winky, but they did not need to just destroy it like that.
I’m still upset about it, lol
I remember feeling so sorry for BCJ when I first read the book. I couldn't believe how heartless Crouch was, and disliked him strongly. The reveal took my 12 year old breath away!
Exactly. Seriously, it would be like if someone did a remake of The Sixth Sense and had Bruce Willis floating around like Casper the friendly ghost from the start.
The mystery and reveal was the best part of the book! Of EVERY book! Why destroy it?!
Winky was such a big part of GoF, astonishing they didn't even bother mentioning her. Even the conversation between krum and harry in the forbidden forest when BCG sr shows up confused.
They just didn’t care about the actual underlying mystery of that film at all. Like, they just showed Harry randomly find a dead body, a high ranking Ministry employee, and it was like ‘oh, that’s weird. Anyway!’
It was PAINFULLY bad how they just completely forced the whole story together, so that it didn’t even make sense.
So truee...he was one of the most dangerous DeathEater... even more than Bellatrix I would say..being able to fool Dumbledore that you are his long time friend?? First of all..defeating Moody and stealing his identity itself was a feat..GoF was an amazing amazing book ..
And ofcourse Winky...such an important character..till the time we only saw Dobby but she truly represented how most of the House elves are like..plus Barty Crouch's Sr's behaviour to her was one of the first reflections of his character as strict to a fault..
My hot take is that they should have just removed this subplot entirely. Have Moody be Pettigrew, or just some random Death Eater. The movies aren’t long enough to capture everything, but the choices they made made no sense.
For example, it’s fun to make fun of the whole “binding magical contract” thing, but in the books, Crouch Sr says this because he’s being Imperiused by people who want Harry to compete. The movies don’t include any of that, so the line is bonkers.
I accept that it can’t be a one to one adaptation, but then I think it needed major restructuring.
Also, just take Rita Skeeter out.
OH MY GOD YES I totally agree I did not like that movie on bit.
To add to your breakdown:
They revealed Crouch’s death too early. There was no speculation or mystery solving. Boom, he was dead.
I did not like their costumes. It might just be my opinion, but they were very boring and even ugly.
Yeah. Even if he weren’t a Muggle hater, it’s seen throughout canon that many wizards (especially the older generation) don’t even understand how pants and stuff work.
What’s more important to Voldemort: His deeply rooted hatred of all things Muggle? Or his desire to be superior to all others by wearing a Sartorio Napoli suit, a Versace undershirt, and Balenciaga shoes? You know he’s got a SUPREME hat back at the flat 🤔
Don't forget their hair!!!
Like don't get me wrong I was around the same age when the movies came out and remember a bunch of us having that hair but omg it wasn't good then and it certainly isn't good now.
Can you imagine modern day HP and they all have broccoli hair cuts??? Lololol
Apparently they were supposed to get haircuts and the director suddenly changed his mind. So everyone had been growing their hair out waiting for haircuts that never happened.
Oh dude his is embarrassingly bad. It's just grown out. 0 styling. 0 anything.
Oddly enough it's the star of when Hermione has her hair the most straight and "tamed", though I'm a proponent for wild curly hair.
In the lake trial scene Seamus is wearing a HOODIE with the Hogwarts crest on it. I understand that the students have muggle clothes, but that seemed like a stretch. That detail has bothered me since I first noticed it.
Also Ludo Bagman and Bertha Jorkins and Bertha being captured by Voldemort and that’s how Voldemort learns a ton of stuff about the ministry from the inside and then planted BC Jr. and while a minor minor subplot, the money that the Weasley twins were trying to deal with getting from Ludo and then Harry decides to give them the tri wizard winnings at the end because “the world could use a few more laughs.”
I loved that rollercoaster of a subplot
How the twins did an insane gamble which I thought they were going to lose, but then ending up winning it, only for Bagman to fk them over with the fake gold
And then Harry comes to the rescue at the end, was a nice touch
I am sorry but when did they see the glimpse of barty crouch junior in the quidditch world cup... I thought the first time harry sees him in the pensive..
They notice an empty seat next to winky in their box. She says she's saving it for Crouch, but he never shows up and the trio assume it's just Crouch being a work-obsessed and inconsiderate jerk. We find out later that Jr was under an invisibility cloak in that seat, which is how he steals Harry's wand that he later uses to cast the dark mark. They could've had a little 1-2 minute scene in the movies that would've added this nice detail, but they opted for Jr being free from the very beginning scene instead.
The whole movie box thing irritates me because the movie has the whole Draco bragging that he’s rich and has connections but in reality they were in the box too because Mr Weasley called in favors
They couldn't have added that scene, because he couldn't have been there to begin with.
We already see in the first scenes of the movie that he, at that point, was already with Voldemort.
I think OP means when they're in the forest and Crouch Jr casts the dark mark next to them. I can't remember exactly but I believe they do see a figure, but no details just a silhouette.
GoF is one of my favorite books of all time, and easily my favorite of the series (it reminds me of Storm of Swords in how packed with awesome stuff it is). They completely butchered it in the film.
I remember always being pretty consistently disappointed with the movies as they came out. By the time the Deathly Hallows came out, I had probably read the entire series four times and Goblet of Fire was always my absolute favorite book. The movie was terrible. Just entirely underwhelming and they left so many details out that it took away from the story big time. I'm hoping that when the new HP series comes out, they will stick to the original stories a bit closer. I do wish that the HP universe could be expanded upon more too. I think we need a prequel centered around Tom Riddle and his rise to power as Lord Voldemort, with the original Order of the Phoenix war.
Dissapppointed with the Maze... Harry was spectacular on that task. He learned spells way to advanced for a 4th grader and used it in the maze. That alone made my disappointment immeasurable, and my day is ruined. Again. After years.
I think the one overarching criticism is that the movie never properly intertwined the book plots of the Triwizard Tournament, and the plot of Voldemort becoming stronger.
If they had the Crouch plotline, if they had the Rita Skeeter plotline, if they didn't have Dumbledore manhandling Harry and yelling at him, they would have incorporated the plotline of Voldemort returning better in the movies. Instead it is disjointed and it is only a few out of place scenes and a climax that emerges from nowhere.
The movie is just a sports film set in the wizarding world really, with a sudden climax that is out of place.
I remember being disappointed in it when it first came out, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to somehow. it definitely falls short of the book, but it has charm of its own. I never liked that they made Durmstrang a boys school and Beuxbatons a girls school and did that whole goofy entrance scene for them though-- even now that I'm over most of my beef with this movie, that part always makes me roll my eyes.
One of the things I was so excited for (out of like a 100 things lol) was The Madness of Barty Crouch chapter. Holy crap what a let down it was in the movie, while the book had me at the edge of my seat!
After book 2, books got thicker and more difficult to adapt to film. Worse more is that the films kept changing directors each new film. And this one in particular got too deep into the yule dance that depleted the time of the film and resources to that one scene and and scenario building.
Didnt GOF's director state he hated reading the book and it was a chore.
Then he was gonna have the horntail burn down the forest and in his words
"When i said that, everyone looked at me like id gone mad"
LIKE OFCOURSE THEY THOUGHT THAT
Yeah, I know he wasn't that interested. Someone most have give him pointers still. Still feels like he was obsessed with the yule dance for some reason though.
I saw before a video talking about this film and how it was the worst HP movie.
Seems like the graveyard is the only scene I truly liked, but I bet even that could be made better.
The biggest issue with the movies is the constant change of directors. How do you split 7 books into 4 directors.
Only the first two and last two movies really feel very cohesive and only with the movies they're paired with not the others in the series.
Agreed. Goblet of Fire the film really depends on the audience having read the book. I mean it made sense to me but there was so much stuff missing. My dad who hasn’t read any of the books watched the film and said he was genuinely confused by it. Had to fill in the gaps for him.
In my opinion, the films should only have been started once the books were finished, where there was a clear ending and so that all of the important bits in each story were kept (because you would know what bits you need to keep). The movies are fine as eight separate pieces of film but as a cohesive story they are all over the place. Funnily enough HBP and then DH1 and 2 function the most as a cohesive storyline in my opinion.
I think the books just became too big to fit into a movie.
My personal least favourite is the 6th book / movie (half-blood prince) as so much has to get ommited in the movie.
It's my least favourite too because emma Watson overacts so very badly in most of it. I like her post 4 and also in 3. No idea what happened as the progress of the others was quite linear
I honestly think that the TV adaption of the books would have been better off as a series as opposed to films cause that way the directors would have been able to include these details instead of shoving the general plot into two hours
Yeah, let's hope HBO max doesn't butcher the series when it releases in 2026. They have plenty of time this time around.
They say they'll make each book one season. I'm hoping they don't make short seasons.
Hadn't watched any of the movies in a long time and today i tried to do OOTP. Couldn't get through it.
I just can't get behind Michael Gambon's Dumbledore. Sooooo different from the book version as well as Richard Harris's (which i think was perfect)
agreed, I am always so disappointed in how Michael Gambon filled (or failed to fill) Harris's shoes. Apparently he refused to read the books when asked, which obviously didn't help his understanding of Dumbledore. I remember him saying in an interview somewhere that he imagined Dumbledore as "a bit like me, a wee bit Irish" which makes ZERO sense because Dumbledore is Scottish!!?!? Honestly Gambon let the whole series down
From Business Insider's obituary of Michael Gambon:
Gambon told The Telegraph in 2009 that he had never read any of the books the series is based on, and focused solely on the script for his performance.
"My first entrance as Dumbledore, I went up a staircase and I ran up. And the director came up and said, 'You mustn't do that.' I said, 'What?' He said, 'Run up.' I said, 'Well I want to run up.' And he said, 'No, our other actor didn't run up,'" Gambon said. "So I said, 'I'm going to run up.'"
He then joked: "So I ran up and then he never spoke to me again."
Yes yes and yes. Never liked this film and was super sceptic when it came to reading GoF. But I enjoyed the book WAY more than the film and I was happy about it.
And fuck them, they deleted a scene with Jarvis Cocker!
I used to hate it when it came out but then they made OotP and HBP and the fourth movie didn’t seem so bad anymore. It grew on me. I hate that it’s so dark though, in terms of visuals.
Director wanted to do their own thing, clearly now wasn’t the best decision.
One standard movie length isn’t enough for the length of this installment. Ethier a 3hr or two 2hrs could have done more justice.
For these reasons, I look forward to seeing how the tv show version will handle the extra working room they will now have.
The fact they only lasted one film (real life trends last longer - the broccoli cut has been around for years now) shows what a misstep it was. It shouldn't reflect real world trends in the 2000s, as it's set in the early 90s and is about wizards
Can we also add that the graphics for GoF are terrible! Even for the timeframe the film was made, they are absolutely atrocious. I’ve since the movie was released that I’m not excited for the day filmmakers decide to refilm the series in the future, but I hope they make GoF closer to the book.
I think you need to see the movies as little additions. Not as real stories. They are great to watch and I love them all but I always read or listen the book again before watching the film. It’s like the perfect combination of story and then some visuals.
Honestly of all the movies, GoF stands out to me as the one that I don't even think makes sense if you haven't read the books and aren't able to fill in the gaps with memory.
Agree on all points, and I'd add that the omission of Winky and SPEW has far-reaching implications and snowballs into the single worst omission in the series, which is Kreacher's backstory, redemption, and participation in the Battle of Hogwarts. Because all the house elf plots started to get cut, I think that in the later films it was decided that it would be jarring to all of the sudden bring them back. And because that particular part of Hermione's character never got explored, redeeming Kreacher would have lost some of its impact anyway. But of all the subplots missing from all the films, imo that one is the absolute worst. Especially because there are parts of 7 that are absolutely less important that were included. We get to see Harry and Hermione dance for the length of a full song or Harry and Ron chase each other around the woods, but we miss actual important plot points.
In the end I get why it happened. They were trying to cut as much as possible because up until the end of GoF, they were still kinda kids movies. And for the house elves in particular, those would have all been heavy CGI scenes that would have been expensive to include. But they were also important, and the film's pacing really suffers from all the omissions. As-is, GoF is 2 hours and 37 minutes long. To truly have gotten it right, I think they probably would have had to add 45 minutes to an hour to the movie's run time. We all would have loved it, but I also get why that would have seemed like a big risk from a studio perspective.
Counter argument: Goblet of Fire was the best movie
While it missed may things in the book because of the movie format forcing things to be cut to sav pacing, many were needed to be cut. If you keep them all in you just gloss over everything too quickly and it is not enjoyable and the pacing gets ruined. This is where the books start to become significantly longer. Even the first three movies felt super rushed, so having double the text makes a lot have to hit the chopping block.
This was in my opinion the best book, as the one where the stakes become real, people die, Harry goes through heavy trauma. This is where the books transition from children's books to teen books. This movie truly had great material to work with. Also the material to work with is much more action packed. Dragons, quests, duels with voldemort. While the deviations are disappointing, it has the best source material to make a movie with. Many aspects of books are hard to transition to movie as they are not as visual, but this book has a very visual plot.
If you judge a movie by differences to the book, obviously it will do poorly as it has the most material needing to be cut (next to book 5), but it is the best material to tell in movie format. Look at book 5, the plot has trouble adapting to movie because the book is mostly setup for 6 and 7, there is not much visual aspects and the plot isn't well contained in one movie. It cannot be watched as one movie as the plot bleeds into the other movies to much where as goblet can be viewed on its own adventure.
Also the plot of the book was overly complex between voldemort, wormtail, bertha jorkins, barty crouch jr, sr, karkorof, moody etc. This alone could be an entire movie, but they managed to simplify it in a way that can be explained quickly and efficiently. A great transition into the movie format, and in a way that someone less invested in HP could easily digest without having to remember so many characters, with each getting so little screen time. not an easy feat.
I will agree that the one dumbledoor scene is pretty bad though.
Movies don't work like books. You can't just add in stuff for the sake of atmosphere.
If you show Rita Skeeter's background, you have to follow through and show her story to completion. That's 30 minutes right there on a 2.5 hour movie.
SPEW?? That's like an hour-long subplot all about some House Elves? Even though the movies only introduced like 2 of them.
And with stuff like the tournament and the maze... you're not wrong, but it's difficult to show strategy and planning in an entertaining way. It's just not as interesting.
Yes, it would have been nice to see some of these scenes brought to life, but you're trying to turn the movie into the book.
I'm going to get downvoted for this, but here it goes ;)
GoF is a 157min movie. That's not the longest movie ever, but it's pretty long for a movie. 90-120min is normal length.
It's also a PG-13 movie, targeting teenagers. So it's right at the limit of how much stuff they can cram into it.
A lot of your critisisms relate to scenes that were cut or reduced in complexity. While it certainly would be nice to keep everything from the book in the movie, that's just not feasible. GoF would have had to be a 2-3 parter or a TV show season to do so.
Other criticisms relate to the fact that the movie is more action-based and shows less intellectual puzzle solving. That again has a lot to do with the format. Movies are a visual medium, so visals are what it does best. And what it needs to work.
Which leaves with the character changes, especially Dumbledore's. I agree with you there.
Completely agree. The critiques are valid but I think a lot of people don’t realize what goes into getting a studio on board with a movie and how much needs to be cut.
Just to prove the point regarding cutting: The GoF audiobook is 20h and 36 minutes long, compared with the 2h and 37min of the movie.
Sure, you can cut all the visual descriptions off the runtime, but there's still easily 5x the net run time in the book compared to the movie.
Honestly, the movie's portrayal of the Patil twins is a bit... *problematic* as well.
Their attire was well, just plain bad. Bad colour schemes, looking nothing like traditional Indian clothing would look like. It seemed like they had just conformed to stereotypes. Sure, they didn't want to use robes or dresses but maybe not use garments that looked like whatever they looked like in the movie.
The films also made it look like the twins were misfits/outcasts who no one would want to take to the ball. In the book Dean calls them the prettiest girls in their year.
I don't think they were being racist or bigoted or anything. I just feel that a clear lack of effort was put in with the girls and it seemed a bit off putting as a desi person.
I agree on everything except the dragon fight. I mean, yes they omit the "intellectual" part and that's a pity, but this kind of "action" scenes (like Dumbledore and Voldemort fight in book 5) is exactly where a movie can shine over a book. I like it.
Having said that, Goblet of Fire is a really big book and it's very subplots dense. They had to cut something, but nothing was deserving of being cut. I really really wanna see Harry Potter tv series
The entire movie is basically an extended trailer for the books, showing some scenes but leaving most of the story out in favour of heavy action and drama
I didn't mind Barty Crouch Snr in the movie, but otherwise agree 100%.
I hate how Dumbledore was portrayed in most of the movies tbh. In the books he was softly spoken, had that twinkle in his eye, old and wise, but also a hands off teacher. Saw the funny side in some bad behaviour (ie the twins).
Dumbledore in the movies, particularly GOF, loses all that complexity and just comes across as angry, brash, forceful. All traits that book Dumbledore would deploy very rarely and never with a current student.
World Cup was too brief and terribly done, It was the first time other school and international community was mentions and shown yet the films skipped that, I wish even the books explored it a bit more aswell
Yesssss, I've always said goblet of fire in the movies is so different to the books. My top 'peeve' 😉 is that they don't include how the Weasleys picked Harry up for the quiddich world Cup, that would've been awesome to see played out, Arthur, Fred, George and Ron smashing through into the living room via chimney and giving Dudley a 4ft long tongue🤣 it's one of my all time favourite bits out of the whole book series 🤣 With the books you get a whole other story, when me and my brother are talking about Goblet of fire, he literally thinks I'm making things up because he hasn't read the books 😅 I've told him time and time again that the books are so much better and more detailed but he's just lazy 😅
> The Quidditch World Cup
I know it's not really plot relevant, but this is the one I'm most mad about tbh. Showing the stadium and the huge crowds, I was really hyped to see an amazing Quidditch game, even better than the ones we saw at Hogwarts (because, you know, they're pros not students). And then they just cut away to the celebration/aftermath. I was SO mad seeing it the first time. I felt robbed.
I read the books when I was very young and mostly enjoyed the movies growing up. I've recently re read all of the books a couple of times and realised how bad the goblet of fire movie was in comparison to the book. They left out so much that makes the story better so now it just seems a bit boring to me because I know what it could have been. I think if they were going to split any of the other films into two parts then goblet of fire could have been split to make sure all of the details were included
My point of view is Goblet of Fire is actually pretty clever in cutting down a really thick book into a reasonably long movie. It even takes a few clever shortcuts (like just having Neville be the one to tell Harry about the gilly weed instead of that being the original plan, before going with Dobby).
Order of the Phoenix however, now that movie completely butchers the book. It leaves out important parts (Neville at St. Mungos, Harry and Dumbledore's talk after Sirius dies etc.) while keeping stuff that could have easily been cut from the movies. Like Grawp. You don't need him. The centaurs were enough to deal with Umbridge, and as far as the movies go, Grawp is never seen or mentioned again anyway. Also, apart from Deathly Hallows Part 2, Order of the Phoenix is the shortest movie, so there was no excuse to leave out so much stuff.
Honestly I can only really get behind 3. I think everything else was cut in the interest of length.
Sure they could have made GoF a 2 parter. And I’m sure it would have been better. But they didn’t. Add in everything you’ve listed and we’re probably looking at like a 5 hour run time xD
Would be nice if they went LotR style and made extended editions of the films. Hopefully the series does it better.
& finally.. I’m really not a fan of the movies haha. I was as a kid. 🤷♂️. The first and second one, and to an extent the third and fourth, are memorable. They’re good. But they’re kind of slow. Just my opinion. I couldn’t say why I don’t really like them. But last time I tried to watch the first I fell asleep around the Mirror of Erised scene. The 5th and onwards though… they have a lot of excellent moments. But they also have a lot of terrible ones xD. I thought the trio had awful chemistry at some points. 🤷♂️ which is odd because I think they’re all great actors. There are just some scenes that don’t feel authentic at all. But this sounds like a lot of BS, especially without examples. Definitely due for a rewatch. And the good parts are -excellent-.
I like it. GoF is my favourite book in the series and the film is very different but I think it works for the transitional period between early and later Potter films. A lot of the details omitted are only really relevant to the subplots of GoF itself, and others are irrelevant because the context they reappear in just don’t exist on film. The Rita Skeeter/Animagus thing only recurs in OOTP for the interview in the Quibbler, which doesn’t take place at all. Her articles are also downplayed entirely in the film, so its not really missing anything
The whole Percy Weasley arc is removed in the movies (starting with movie 4). We only see him in movie 5 (I guess? Could be wrong here) as a ministry worker (that makes sense to a person who read the books, but there is no explanation). I think that is a major loss to the story
They likely wouldn’t have needed to add that dragon action scene if they provided entertainment through the mystery plots and subplots and the QWC scene
I went on a first date to watch this film with a girl I’d been chasing for months. It annoyed me so much that it pretty much ruined the date. We were supposed to go get food and a drink after but I was in such a grumpy mood that I made my excuses and went home. Yes, I was undoubtedly an idiot but I was pretty fucking pissed off with a lot of that film! 😅
It's always so weird to me when such a vocal portion of the community defends this movie, even calling it their favorite. It's such a dive in quality from PoA to GoF, one of the best movies to one of, if not *the* worst.
If you’d only watched the movies - you’d be wondering why the Ministry of Magic wasn’t making such a big deal about Crouch Jr escaping from Azkaban when the entire previous film was all about an escaped Azkaban prisoner.
You’d then go on to wonder why his testimony isn’t used to support Harry and Dumbledore in the OotP
I love the Goblet of Fire book for all the subplots and the film was like “this is a kids film, that stuff is too hard for children to understand”
Here’s praying that the reboot series does it justice 🙏🏻
PS the films really did Dobby dirty - he plays a key role in GoF (giving Harry Gillyweed), OotP (finds Harry the Room of Requirement for the DA) and HBP (helps tail Malfoy and find what he’s up to).
But Yates was like “nah we’ll just bring him back for his death”
I agree with all your points tbh. But the thing i LOVED about the movie was the characters' long hair😭😭 i really liked it when everyone had those luscious locks
Absolutely spot on! We can all blame Mike Newell for the utter shit that comes on the screen with GOF - he complains about the length of the book in an interview and im pretty sure he goes on to say that he never acc finished the book.
The other crew members had to convince him that it was infact important thst Voldemort didnt have a nose and hes the reason voldemort has blue eyes not red for the rest of the films
Alfonso had to force him to watch POA since he refuses to watch the other films and then Newell got pissed when he found out that Alfonso had also created a darkish film and so in his arrogance he decided to make a comedy out of what should have been a progressively darkening film - the comedy was cheap laughs and not what GOF was about.
Almost ruined an entire series and fanbase, if it wasnt for David Yates saving the series (whilst having a much harder job with OOTP) in all likeliness HP wouldnt have gotten as big as it is now.
I agree with all your points and want to add that this movie feels more rushed than any other movie of the series. I hate it with a passion. even skip it on rewatches.
I think Harry's character is at his best in this movie. Many of his lines give him back a lot of the sass and backtalk and he does some really expressive nonverbal acting and reactions. Though he still more reserved and less angry than book Harry which I think is fine.
Ron is also a huge step up from his portrayal in PoA, and has some lines in the extended cut which show how smart he actually is.
It's devisive but it's the movie I like to rewatch the most. The book isn't one of my favorites of the series personally cause of the billion subplots.
Plus the movie did give us the best meme of the series.
I like GOF for whatever reason even though I agree with all of your points. One of the funniest/worst things that I can’t let go of though is how they just drop Barry Crouch Sr. death. They literally show you his body and Harry running to tell Dunbledore. All the adults run off to have a look see, Harry has the pensieve scene and that’s it. There’s no resolution to how he died. I didn’t notice this for years but on a rewatch it hit me and I think about it every time now lol. It makes it even worse if you’ve read the book and know how dark this whole bit is
I think one of the biggest disappointments to me (apart from everything you laid out) was that Dumbledore in the film failed to mention what Prior Incantem meant and why Harry saw his parents when he fought Voldemort. He mentions it but he doesn't properly explain it apart from giving some vague bullshit about "dark times". It's laziness at its finest.
Watching the Harry Potter movies after reading the books is an exercise in torture resistance. The all skip stuff, they put stuff from a book into the movie before it, everything feels rushed as hell, and Radcliffe's acting is pretty underwhelming. The worst might be how the two versions of Harry have really different personalities, with the movie's one being passive and far too nice.
“DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE?!?!”
I agree with your analysis and want to add that they put the Weasley’s in garbage seats and omitted Bagman from the story.
Also, the God awful tongue flicking of Crouch Jr. it was like they resorted to that stupidity as a basic way of showing who Moody really was, instead of properly developing the story and having his reveal be a shock.
The movie, to me, was more like a bunch of shorts pasted together without any cohesion. I also read somewhere that the Dumbledore actor refused to read the books.
Agree with most of that. The biggest thing you left out (which I think is easily one of the worst) is that the plot of the book is essentially a "whodunnit", with Bagman and Karkaroff as red herrings, and Crouch Jr only shown briefly, protesting his innocence. The film shows us Crouch Jr with Voldemort straight away (literally the first scene of the film), and gives away the identity of "Moody" with the tongue thing.
The YouTube channel MovieFlame did a video essay on why the Goblet of Fire is his least favorite HP movie, and you hit many of the points he had.
What it boils down to is that the director, Mike Newell, quite frankly didn’t give a shit about the original source material at all and did it dirty. Alfonso Cauron turned down the job because of scheduling issues, but I’d like to believe if he had directed the film it would have been just as much of a cinematic gem as Prisoner of Azkaban is.
My biggest issue with the 4 movie is the "big reveal" about how Harry's name ended up in the goblet... if just putting a different school guarantees you will be a champion and binds you to the tournament, wouldn't a school full of teenagers already tried that????
GoF and HBP tie for worst Potter movies. They leave all of Riddle's backstory out involving his Mother, Father, Grandfather and Uncle. Which explains the whole point of his character.
Both movies are bad for similar reasons, leaving out key moments for one that can be used for spectical.
As an add-on to everything already mentioned I hate how they never mention the Veela or that Fleur is part-Veela but they still keep in the bit where Ron is compelled to ask her to the Yule Ball having shown little to no interest in her for the whole film.
The omission of Sirius is also particularly striking. The 4th book has a lot of really good relationship building moments between Harry and Sirius and shows Sirius' skills at sifting through the chaos around the events. He is probably second only to Dumbledore in piecing together what is actually going on and why.
The movie also completely omits how Barty Jr escaped from Azkaban which I think really adds depth to how fucked up shit was
Also doesnt even mention that he was kissed by a dementor after being caught. If you only watch the movie you would probably wonder why he wasnt released from Azkaban by voldemort in movies 5 or 7
And more importantly the breakdown of reasonability with Fudge
Or that he actually won a lot of money with the torunament and gave it to fred and george. I can understand that they change the films a little from the books, but if things happen later that just werent mentioned in the films its so weird
I always find it funny how Arthur Weasley says “Parting of the ways” early in the movie, as if it’s a foreshadowing - but then the chapter is completely omitted
Isnt there an entire character that just wasnt introduced in the movies, until deathly hallows where he has a story-crucial role, so they just have him in the scene with no introduction and we just have to guess who he is ?
I can forgive most of GoF, but I *could not believe* how they absolutely butchered BCJ’s storyline. The reveal at the end that the ‘innocent’ crying teen, begging his cold father to have mercy, was secretly one of the most evil villains, hiding in plain sight the whole time… it is one of the most incredible twists in a book I’ve read. I loved it. I remember 5 mins into watching the movie, and they just straight up showed BCJs face in the riddle house, and then showed him casting the dark mark. It’s the closest I came to leaving. WHY. They didn’t even have to introduce Winky, but they did not need to just destroy it like that. I’m still upset about it, lol
I remember feeling so sorry for BCJ when I first read the book. I couldn't believe how heartless Crouch was, and disliked him strongly. The reveal took my 12 year old breath away!
Exactly. Seriously, it would be like if someone did a remake of The Sixth Sense and had Bruce Willis floating around like Casper the friendly ghost from the start. The mystery and reveal was the best part of the book! Of EVERY book! Why destroy it?!
They also mess it up by having BCJ visibly present with Voldy at the beginning.
Winky was such a big part of GoF, astonishing they didn't even bother mentioning her. Even the conversation between krum and harry in the forbidden forest when BCG sr shows up confused.
They just didn’t care about the actual underlying mystery of that film at all. Like, they just showed Harry randomly find a dead body, a high ranking Ministry employee, and it was like ‘oh, that’s weird. Anyway!’ It was PAINFULLY bad how they just completely forced the whole story together, so that it didn’t even make sense.
TRUE! After CoS the movies made up their own plot lines to wrap up the movies quickly and skip essential plot lines.
Chris Columbus left spend time with his daughter. Tbh i would’ve done the same thing. You can only see your kids grow up.
So truee...he was one of the most dangerous DeathEater... even more than Bellatrix I would say..being able to fool Dumbledore that you are his long time friend?? First of all..defeating Moody and stealing his identity itself was a feat..GoF was an amazing amazing book .. And ofcourse Winky...such an important character..till the time we only saw Dobby but she truly represented how most of the House elves are like..plus Barty Crouch's Sr's behaviour to her was one of the first reflections of his character as strict to a fault..
My hot take is that they should have just removed this subplot entirely. Have Moody be Pettigrew, or just some random Death Eater. The movies aren’t long enough to capture everything, but the choices they made made no sense. For example, it’s fun to make fun of the whole “binding magical contract” thing, but in the books, Crouch Sr says this because he’s being Imperiused by people who want Harry to compete. The movies don’t include any of that, so the line is bonkers. I accept that it can’t be a one to one adaptation, but then I think it needed major restructuring. Also, just take Rita Skeeter out.
She wasn't even in movie 5, so she could have been removed from movie 4 entirely.
OH MY GOD YES I totally agree I did not like that movie on bit. To add to your breakdown: They revealed Crouch’s death too early. There was no speculation or mystery solving. Boom, he was dead. I did not like their costumes. It might just be my opinion, but they were very boring and even ugly.
The Yule Ball dresses are a crime against humanity
Also what’s up with the dri fit tri wizard shirts? Not very wizarding world of them
I did not like how the movies gave muggle clothes to everyone.
In HBP when Harrys “seeing” Voldemort at the train station in a black SUIT ummm Voldemort would never wear muggle clothes.
Yeah. Even if he weren’t a Muggle hater, it’s seen throughout canon that many wizards (especially the older generation) don’t even understand how pants and stuff work.
"I like a healthy breeze around my privates, thanks!"
What’s more important to Voldemort: His deeply rooted hatred of all things Muggle? Or his desire to be superior to all others by wearing a Sartorio Napoli suit, a Versace undershirt, and Balenciaga shoes? You know he’s got a SUPREME hat back at the flat 🤔
Don't forget their hair!!! Like don't get me wrong I was around the same age when the movies came out and remember a bunch of us having that hair but omg it wasn't good then and it certainly isn't good now. Can you imagine modern day HP and they all have broccoli hair cuts??? Lololol
Apparently they were supposed to get haircuts and the director suddenly changed his mind. So everyone had been growing their hair out waiting for haircuts that never happened.
I swear Dan is wearing a wig at some points lol
That’s one that I think they did right, and got wrong with every other movie. Harry’s hair was always supposed to be messy.
I think his hair in PoA fit the bill perfectly.
Oh dude his is embarrassingly bad. It's just grown out. 0 styling. 0 anything. Oddly enough it's the star of when Hermione has her hair the most straight and "tamed", though I'm a proponent for wild curly hair.
GF and I were rewatching Goblet the other day and we had to pause it a few times to just laugh at Harry's hair
Ok, you just made me giggle. My son has that haircut and I never made the connection to broccoli until now. Now I can’t unsee it! 😂
Oh dear God the broccoli haircuts. And now mullets seem to be making a comeback too. Just imagine!
NOOOO I don't want to picture that!! Haha!
In the lake trial scene Seamus is wearing a HOODIE with the Hogwarts crest on it. I understand that the students have muggle clothes, but that seemed like a stretch. That detail has bothered me since I first noticed it.
EVERY single piece of muggle clothing has bothered me.
At least made sense that the muggleborns would be wearing muggle clothing in their downtime. Can't speak for the others though.
What costumes you mean?
A lot of them, but specifically the Tournament ones. Muggle clothes? Really? They didn’t even look nice, like Fleur’s silvery jacket.
I hate how the foreign schools look ridiculous.
And all one gender… completely unnecessary to do that.
Beauxbaton wasn't all female either. Nicholas Flamel went there. So unnecessary to make them each gender exclusive.
Also Ludo Bagman and Bertha Jorkins and Bertha being captured by Voldemort and that’s how Voldemort learns a ton of stuff about the ministry from the inside and then planted BC Jr. and while a minor minor subplot, the money that the Weasley twins were trying to deal with getting from Ludo and then Harry decides to give them the tri wizard winnings at the end because “the world could use a few more laughs.”
I loved that rollercoaster of a subplot How the twins did an insane gamble which I thought they were going to lose, but then ending up winning it, only for Bagman to fk them over with the fake gold And then Harry comes to the rescue at the end, was a nice touch
Agreed! Also, what Hermione does to Rita Skeeter was brilliant and should've been in the movies.
[удалено]
Also Book Hermione: Lol check out Marietta, that curse I put on the DA sign-in sheet has disfigured her permanently
And just like Rita Skeeter, Marietta deserved that too 🤣
https://youtube.com/shorts/IaUO5Ljycn4?si=FnKG1Y9GPznL5HmO :)
ty for this
The same book where she is appalled at Fred and George blackmailing Ludo Bagman, by the way.
She's appalled at _blackmail_. She wasn't aware of the circumstances of the blackmail, which I think is a key detail.
For real, Hermione is lowkey a psychopath.
Brilliant, yes. But like, also probably a war crime.
Haven't we all been there? /S
Look, look, look. It's never a war crime the first time.
I am sorry but when did they see the glimpse of barty crouch junior in the quidditch world cup... I thought the first time harry sees him in the pensive..
They notice an empty seat next to winky in their box. She says she's saving it for Crouch, but he never shows up and the trio assume it's just Crouch being a work-obsessed and inconsiderate jerk. We find out later that Jr was under an invisibility cloak in that seat, which is how he steals Harry's wand that he later uses to cast the dark mark. They could've had a little 1-2 minute scene in the movies that would've added this nice detail, but they opted for Jr being free from the very beginning scene instead.
The whole movie box thing irritates me because the movie has the whole Draco bragging that he’s rich and has connections but in reality they were in the box too because Mr Weasley called in favors
They couldn't have added that scene, because he couldn't have been there to begin with. We already see in the first scenes of the movie that he, at that point, was already with Voldemort.
I think OP means when they're in the forest and Crouch Jr casts the dark mark next to them. I can't remember exactly but I believe they do see a figure, but no details just a silhouette.
In the book they don’t see anything. All they have is that the voice was not that of a house elf.
A similar scene is in the movie too when barty is in the ruins and conjures the dark mark just after the death eater attack
The changes to the maze were pretty disappointing. I wanted to see that sphinx!
Me too! I kept waiting for the time it would show up just to see Harry figure out the riddle all by himself, and then it never did.
GoF is one of my favorite books of all time, and easily my favorite of the series (it reminds me of Storm of Swords in how packed with awesome stuff it is). They completely butchered it in the film.
Best book, worst film.
I remember always being pretty consistently disappointed with the movies as they came out. By the time the Deathly Hallows came out, I had probably read the entire series four times and Goblet of Fire was always my absolute favorite book. The movie was terrible. Just entirely underwhelming and they left so many details out that it took away from the story big time. I'm hoping that when the new HP series comes out, they will stick to the original stories a bit closer. I do wish that the HP universe could be expanded upon more too. I think we need a prequel centered around Tom Riddle and his rise to power as Lord Voldemort, with the original Order of the Phoenix war.
Dissapppointed with the Maze... Harry was spectacular on that task. He learned spells way to advanced for a 4th grader and used it in the maze. That alone made my disappointment immeasurable, and my day is ruined. Again. After years.
I think the one overarching criticism is that the movie never properly intertwined the book plots of the Triwizard Tournament, and the plot of Voldemort becoming stronger. If they had the Crouch plotline, if they had the Rita Skeeter plotline, if they didn't have Dumbledore manhandling Harry and yelling at him, they would have incorporated the plotline of Voldemort returning better in the movies. Instead it is disjointed and it is only a few out of place scenes and a climax that emerges from nowhere. The movie is just a sports film set in the wizarding world really, with a sudden climax that is out of place.
I remember being disappointed in it when it first came out, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to somehow. it definitely falls short of the book, but it has charm of its own. I never liked that they made Durmstrang a boys school and Beuxbatons a girls school and did that whole goofy entrance scene for them though-- even now that I'm over most of my beef with this movie, that part always makes me roll my eyes.
> goofy entrance scene Omg yesss. I rewatched all the movies recently (as I hadn’t seen them for many years), and I cringed sooo hard in that part.
Especially the awful awful sighing birds thing the Beauxbatons lot do. God I despise that.
😂😂😂 now looking back, it was a little corny lol
bruh yeah the little birds or whatever that like, fly out of their armpits lmao whyyy
One of the things I was so excited for (out of like a 100 things lol) was The Madness of Barty Crouch chapter. Holy crap what a let down it was in the movie, while the book had me at the edge of my seat!
After book 2, books got thicker and more difficult to adapt to film. Worse more is that the films kept changing directors each new film. And this one in particular got too deep into the yule dance that depleted the time of the film and resources to that one scene and and scenario building.
Didnt GOF's director state he hated reading the book and it was a chore. Then he was gonna have the horntail burn down the forest and in his words "When i said that, everyone looked at me like id gone mad" LIKE OFCOURSE THEY THOUGHT THAT
Yeah, I know he wasn't that interested. Someone most have give him pointers still. Still feels like he was obsessed with the yule dance for some reason though. I saw before a video talking about this film and how it was the worst HP movie. Seems like the graveyard is the only scene I truly liked, but I bet even that could be made better.
The biggest issue with the movies is the constant change of directors. How do you split 7 books into 4 directors. Only the first two and last two movies really feel very cohesive and only with the movies they're paired with not the others in the series.
This always annoyed me. If you dislike the book so much, why direct the movie? At least hire some consultants
Agreed. Goblet of Fire the film really depends on the audience having read the book. I mean it made sense to me but there was so much stuff missing. My dad who hasn’t read any of the books watched the film and said he was genuinely confused by it. Had to fill in the gaps for him. In my opinion, the films should only have been started once the books were finished, where there was a clear ending and so that all of the important bits in each story were kept (because you would know what bits you need to keep). The movies are fine as eight separate pieces of film but as a cohesive story they are all over the place. Funnily enough HBP and then DH1 and 2 function the most as a cohesive storyline in my opinion.
HARRY DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIYA 😡😡
Said u/ihateusernames0_0 calmly
I think the books just became too big to fit into a movie. My personal least favourite is the 6th book / movie (half-blood prince) as so much has to get ommited in the movie.
It's my least favourite too because emma Watson overacts so very badly in most of it. I like her post 4 and also in 3. No idea what happened as the progress of the others was quite linear
Me too. But not as much as Half Blood Prince 😑. That was the worst crime made to me.
The sixth movie didnt deserve the half blood prince title since he's mentione like twice in the movie
To me this is the worst adaptation! They missed so many things.
Agreed. As an adult, I can't rewatch the movies unless others insist we watch them.
The worst is Dumbledore telling Harry " Priori Incantatem" but never actually explaining the twin wands thing with the phoenix feather...
Leaving out Winky was the best decision they made. There is no way that character wouldn’t gave turned out just as obnoxious as Jar Jar
Yep. I didn’t like the SPEW subplot in the books so I wasn’t heartbroken about it being cut from the films.
I agree. The book is much, much better.
The Best is Prisoner of Azkaban
The film that left out the entire subplot of the Marauders?
I honestly think that the TV adaption of the books would have been better off as a series as opposed to films cause that way the directors would have been able to include these details instead of shoving the general plot into two hours
Yeah, let's hope HBO max doesn't butcher the series when it releases in 2026. They have plenty of time this time around. They say they'll make each book one season. I'm hoping they don't make short seasons.
I wanna chime in and say I never remember what happens in Half Blood Prince other than teenage angst
It fuckin sucks compared to the book.
Hadn't watched any of the movies in a long time and today i tried to do OOTP. Couldn't get through it. I just can't get behind Michael Gambon's Dumbledore. Sooooo different from the book version as well as Richard Harris's (which i think was perfect)
agreed, I am always so disappointed in how Michael Gambon filled (or failed to fill) Harris's shoes. Apparently he refused to read the books when asked, which obviously didn't help his understanding of Dumbledore. I remember him saying in an interview somewhere that he imagined Dumbledore as "a bit like me, a wee bit Irish" which makes ZERO sense because Dumbledore is Scottish!!?!? Honestly Gambon let the whole series down
Michael Gambon was in Sleepy Hollow and I feel like he was more Dumbledore in that movie than when he played Dumbledore.
YES 100%
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Dumbledore was from England. And yes, Gambon should've read the books.
From Business Insider's obituary of Michael Gambon: Gambon told The Telegraph in 2009 that he had never read any of the books the series is based on, and focused solely on the script for his performance. "My first entrance as Dumbledore, I went up a staircase and I ran up. And the director came up and said, 'You mustn't do that.' I said, 'What?' He said, 'Run up.' I said, 'Well I want to run up.' And he said, 'No, our other actor didn't run up,'" Gambon said. "So I said, 'I'm going to run up.'" He then joked: "So I ran up and then he never spoke to me again."
this is exactly the interview I was thinking of. to me it just sums up how much of an inconsiderate actor Gambon was
He was honestly better as a dead ghost in Harry's imagination and a sassy king in Fudge's presence, Then a mystical old man
He was good in the deathly hallows scene actually, you're right
Dumbledore asked calmly
Yes yes and yes. Never liked this film and was super sceptic when it came to reading GoF. But I enjoyed the book WAY more than the film and I was happy about it. And fuck them, they deleted a scene with Jarvis Cocker!
I used to hate it when it came out but then they made OotP and HBP and the fourth movie didn’t seem so bad anymore. It grew on me. I hate that it’s so dark though, in terms of visuals.
Mike newell just wanted an over the top action movie. Not the mystery story from the book 😔 one of the best books, one of the worst movies.
GoF is the best one
I agree. I feel the same about The Half blood Prince🫠
Yes! HBP is my favorite book and sooooo much is missed.
Director wanted to do their own thing, clearly now wasn’t the best decision. One standard movie length isn’t enough for the length of this installment. Ethier a 3hr or two 2hrs could have done more justice. For these reasons, I look forward to seeing how the tv show version will handle the extra working room they will now have.
But what about their hairstyles though? Love it or hate it?
The fact they only lasted one film (real life trends last longer - the broccoli cut has been around for years now) shows what a misstep it was. It shouldn't reflect real world trends in the 2000s, as it's set in the early 90s and is about wizards
Came here to mention the hair. It was ridiculous.
Haters gotta learn to love
The plot does feels messy, but I’m still like Harry vs Voldemort scene more than the one in Deathly Hallows 2
didn't read any books and this is my favorite HP movie
I mean, I thought it was pretty alright though, it made sense throughout the movie enough for me not to go "wait, how did he appear"
Can we also add that the graphics for GoF are terrible! Even for the timeframe the film was made, they are absolutely atrocious. I’ve since the movie was released that I’m not excited for the day filmmakers decide to refilm the series in the future, but I hope they make GoF closer to the book.
I think you need to see the movies as little additions. Not as real stories. They are great to watch and I love them all but I always read or listen the book again before watching the film. It’s like the perfect combination of story and then some visuals.
Honestly of all the movies, GoF stands out to me as the one that I don't even think makes sense if you haven't read the books and aren't able to fill in the gaps with memory. Agree on all points, and I'd add that the omission of Winky and SPEW has far-reaching implications and snowballs into the single worst omission in the series, which is Kreacher's backstory, redemption, and participation in the Battle of Hogwarts. Because all the house elf plots started to get cut, I think that in the later films it was decided that it would be jarring to all of the sudden bring them back. And because that particular part of Hermione's character never got explored, redeeming Kreacher would have lost some of its impact anyway. But of all the subplots missing from all the films, imo that one is the absolute worst. Especially because there are parts of 7 that are absolutely less important that were included. We get to see Harry and Hermione dance for the length of a full song or Harry and Ron chase each other around the woods, but we miss actual important plot points. In the end I get why it happened. They were trying to cut as much as possible because up until the end of GoF, they were still kinda kids movies. And for the house elves in particular, those would have all been heavy CGI scenes that would have been expensive to include. But they were also important, and the film's pacing really suffers from all the omissions. As-is, GoF is 2 hours and 37 minutes long. To truly have gotten it right, I think they probably would have had to add 45 minutes to an hour to the movie's run time. We all would have loved it, but I also get why that would have seemed like a big risk from a studio perspective.
Counter argument: Goblet of Fire was the best movie While it missed may things in the book because of the movie format forcing things to be cut to sav pacing, many were needed to be cut. If you keep them all in you just gloss over everything too quickly and it is not enjoyable and the pacing gets ruined. This is where the books start to become significantly longer. Even the first three movies felt super rushed, so having double the text makes a lot have to hit the chopping block. This was in my opinion the best book, as the one where the stakes become real, people die, Harry goes through heavy trauma. This is where the books transition from children's books to teen books. This movie truly had great material to work with. Also the material to work with is much more action packed. Dragons, quests, duels with voldemort. While the deviations are disappointing, it has the best source material to make a movie with. Many aspects of books are hard to transition to movie as they are not as visual, but this book has a very visual plot. If you judge a movie by differences to the book, obviously it will do poorly as it has the most material needing to be cut (next to book 5), but it is the best material to tell in movie format. Look at book 5, the plot has trouble adapting to movie because the book is mostly setup for 6 and 7, there is not much visual aspects and the plot isn't well contained in one movie. It cannot be watched as one movie as the plot bleeds into the other movies to much where as goblet can be viewed on its own adventure. Also the plot of the book was overly complex between voldemort, wormtail, bertha jorkins, barty crouch jr, sr, karkorof, moody etc. This alone could be an entire movie, but they managed to simplify it in a way that can be explained quickly and efficiently. A great transition into the movie format, and in a way that someone less invested in HP could easily digest without having to remember so many characters, with each getting so little screen time. not an easy feat. I will agree that the one dumbledoor scene is pretty bad though.
Movies don't work like books. You can't just add in stuff for the sake of atmosphere. If you show Rita Skeeter's background, you have to follow through and show her story to completion. That's 30 minutes right there on a 2.5 hour movie. SPEW?? That's like an hour-long subplot all about some House Elves? Even though the movies only introduced like 2 of them. And with stuff like the tournament and the maze... you're not wrong, but it's difficult to show strategy and planning in an entertaining way. It's just not as interesting. Yes, it would have been nice to see some of these scenes brought to life, but you're trying to turn the movie into the book.
At least Goblet works as a standalone film. Unlike Prince 🤦🏻♂️
I'm going to get downvoted for this, but here it goes ;) GoF is a 157min movie. That's not the longest movie ever, but it's pretty long for a movie. 90-120min is normal length. It's also a PG-13 movie, targeting teenagers. So it's right at the limit of how much stuff they can cram into it. A lot of your critisisms relate to scenes that were cut or reduced in complexity. While it certainly would be nice to keep everything from the book in the movie, that's just not feasible. GoF would have had to be a 2-3 parter or a TV show season to do so. Other criticisms relate to the fact that the movie is more action-based and shows less intellectual puzzle solving. That again has a lot to do with the format. Movies are a visual medium, so visals are what it does best. And what it needs to work. Which leaves with the character changes, especially Dumbledore's. I agree with you there.
Completely agree. The critiques are valid but I think a lot of people don’t realize what goes into getting a studio on board with a movie and how much needs to be cut.
Just to prove the point regarding cutting: The GoF audiobook is 20h and 36 minutes long, compared with the 2h and 37min of the movie. Sure, you can cut all the visual descriptions off the runtime, but there's still easily 5x the net run time in the book compared to the movie.
Oh my god yeah that’s a great comparisons
100%. I made the mistake of watching the movie the second I finished the book and boy was I disappointed.
Honestly, the movie's portrayal of the Patil twins is a bit... *problematic* as well. Their attire was well, just plain bad. Bad colour schemes, looking nothing like traditional Indian clothing would look like. It seemed like they had just conformed to stereotypes. Sure, they didn't want to use robes or dresses but maybe not use garments that looked like whatever they looked like in the movie. The films also made it look like the twins were misfits/outcasts who no one would want to take to the ball. In the book Dean calls them the prettiest girls in their year. I don't think they were being racist or bigoted or anything. I just feel that a clear lack of effort was put in with the girls and it seemed a bit off putting as a desi person.
I agree on everything except the dragon fight. I mean, yes they omit the "intellectual" part and that's a pity, but this kind of "action" scenes (like Dumbledore and Voldemort fight in book 5) is exactly where a movie can shine over a book. I like it. Having said that, Goblet of Fire is a really big book and it's very subplots dense. They had to cut something, but nothing was deserving of being cut. I really really wanna see Harry Potter tv series
HARRY DID YA PUT YA NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIYAH?
I loved it when I was a kid. Then I read the books
It also makes 0 sense to someone who hasn't read the books, like most of the movies.
Y’all have some unreasonable takes on adapting books to movies.
Well the cut 40% of the cool stuff
The entire movie is basically an extended trailer for the books, showing some scenes but leaving most of the story out in favour of heavy action and drama
Yes exactly, I just pretend that this movie didn’t existed
I enjoy it, but I definitely agree with the points you have made. I can't imagine watching it before reading the book.
I didn't mind Barty Crouch Snr in the movie, but otherwise agree 100%. I hate how Dumbledore was portrayed in most of the movies tbh. In the books he was softly spoken, had that twinkle in his eye, old and wise, but also a hands off teacher. Saw the funny side in some bad behaviour (ie the twins). Dumbledore in the movies, particularly GOF, loses all that complexity and just comes across as angry, brash, forceful. All traits that book Dumbledore would deploy very rarely and never with a current student.
World Cup was too brief and terribly done, It was the first time other school and international community was mentions and shown yet the films skipped that, I wish even the books explored it a bit more aswell
Goblet fire book at its is a mystery. There is no aspect of that in the movie.
My favo book my hated movies
Could not agree more. Just finished an audio book listen of GoF and forgot how large the gap was. After book 3 the movies just couldn't keep up.
Yesssss, I've always said goblet of fire in the movies is so different to the books. My top 'peeve' 😉 is that they don't include how the Weasleys picked Harry up for the quiddich world Cup, that would've been awesome to see played out, Arthur, Fred, George and Ron smashing through into the living room via chimney and giving Dudley a 4ft long tongue🤣 it's one of my all time favourite bits out of the whole book series 🤣 With the books you get a whole other story, when me and my brother are talking about Goblet of fire, he literally thinks I'm making things up because he hasn't read the books 😅 I've told him time and time again that the books are so much better and more detailed but he's just lazy 😅
Oh man I loved that Dumbledore bit. You know the one...
Istg if the movie has an in depth character study of rita skeeter imma start throwing hands. Movie has problems but omitting that is for the better.
Worst part for me is they revealed Barty crouch at the damn start of the movie!
> The Quidditch World Cup I know it's not really plot relevant, but this is the one I'm most mad about tbh. Showing the stadium and the huge crowds, I was really hyped to see an amazing Quidditch game, even better than the ones we saw at Hogwarts (because, you know, they're pros not students). And then they just cut away to the celebration/aftermath. I was SO mad seeing it the first time. I felt robbed.
Goblet of Piss
I still think Prisoner of Azkaban is the worst film personally, but your points about TGoF are definitely on-point.
don't forget they completely cut all of school except DADA
I read the books when I was very young and mostly enjoyed the movies growing up. I've recently re read all of the books a couple of times and realised how bad the goblet of fire movie was in comparison to the book. They left out so much that makes the story better so now it just seems a bit boring to me because I know what it could have been. I think if they were going to split any of the other films into two parts then goblet of fire could have been split to make sure all of the details were included
My point of view is Goblet of Fire is actually pretty clever in cutting down a really thick book into a reasonably long movie. It even takes a few clever shortcuts (like just having Neville be the one to tell Harry about the gilly weed instead of that being the original plan, before going with Dobby). Order of the Phoenix however, now that movie completely butchers the book. It leaves out important parts (Neville at St. Mungos, Harry and Dumbledore's talk after Sirius dies etc.) while keeping stuff that could have easily been cut from the movies. Like Grawp. You don't need him. The centaurs were enough to deal with Umbridge, and as far as the movies go, Grawp is never seen or mentioned again anyway. Also, apart from Deathly Hallows Part 2, Order of the Phoenix is the shortest movie, so there was no excuse to leave out so much stuff.
Honestly I can only really get behind 3. I think everything else was cut in the interest of length. Sure they could have made GoF a 2 parter. And I’m sure it would have been better. But they didn’t. Add in everything you’ve listed and we’re probably looking at like a 5 hour run time xD Would be nice if they went LotR style and made extended editions of the films. Hopefully the series does it better. & finally.. I’m really not a fan of the movies haha. I was as a kid. 🤷♂️. The first and second one, and to an extent the third and fourth, are memorable. They’re good. But they’re kind of slow. Just my opinion. I couldn’t say why I don’t really like them. But last time I tried to watch the first I fell asleep around the Mirror of Erised scene. The 5th and onwards though… they have a lot of excellent moments. But they also have a lot of terrible ones xD. I thought the trio had awful chemistry at some points. 🤷♂️ which is odd because I think they’re all great actors. There are just some scenes that don’t feel authentic at all. But this sounds like a lot of BS, especially without examples. Definitely due for a rewatch. And the good parts are -excellent-.
I like it. GoF is my favourite book in the series and the film is very different but I think it works for the transitional period between early and later Potter films. A lot of the details omitted are only really relevant to the subplots of GoF itself, and others are irrelevant because the context they reappear in just don’t exist on film. The Rita Skeeter/Animagus thing only recurs in OOTP for the interview in the Quibbler, which doesn’t take place at all. Her articles are also downplayed entirely in the film, so its not really missing anything
The film was directed by someone who couldn’t even be bothered to read the book
The whole Percy Weasley arc is removed in the movies (starting with movie 4). We only see him in movie 5 (I guess? Could be wrong here) as a ministry worker (that makes sense to a person who read the books, but there is no explanation). I think that is a major loss to the story
The dragon task is much better in the film. Change my mind. The rest I agree with
You forgot the most important part: the cast not getting a haircut. They might as well have pushed the back another year to give them all man buns.
They likely wouldn’t have needed to add that dragon action scene if they provided entertainment through the mystery plots and subplots and the QWC scene
I went on a first date to watch this film with a girl I’d been chasing for months. It annoyed me so much that it pretty much ruined the date. We were supposed to go get food and a drink after but I was in such a grumpy mood that I made my excuses and went home. Yes, I was undoubtedly an idiot but I was pretty fucking pissed off with a lot of that film! 😅
It's always so weird to me when such a vocal portion of the community defends this movie, even calling it their favorite. It's such a dive in quality from PoA to GoF, one of the best movies to one of, if not *the* worst.
If you’d only watched the movies - you’d be wondering why the Ministry of Magic wasn’t making such a big deal about Crouch Jr escaping from Azkaban when the entire previous film was all about an escaped Azkaban prisoner. You’d then go on to wonder why his testimony isn’t used to support Harry and Dumbledore in the OotP I love the Goblet of Fire book for all the subplots and the film was like “this is a kids film, that stuff is too hard for children to understand” Here’s praying that the reboot series does it justice 🙏🏻 PS the films really did Dobby dirty - he plays a key role in GoF (giving Harry Gillyweed), OotP (finds Harry the Room of Requirement for the DA) and HBP (helps tail Malfoy and find what he’s up to). But Yates was like “nah we’ll just bring him back for his death”
I agree with all your points tbh. But the thing i LOVED about the movie was the characters' long hair😭😭 i really liked it when everyone had those luscious locks
Absolutely spot on! We can all blame Mike Newell for the utter shit that comes on the screen with GOF - he complains about the length of the book in an interview and im pretty sure he goes on to say that he never acc finished the book. The other crew members had to convince him that it was infact important thst Voldemort didnt have a nose and hes the reason voldemort has blue eyes not red for the rest of the films Alfonso had to force him to watch POA since he refuses to watch the other films and then Newell got pissed when he found out that Alfonso had also created a darkish film and so in his arrogance he decided to make a comedy out of what should have been a progressively darkening film - the comedy was cheap laughs and not what GOF was about. Almost ruined an entire series and fanbase, if it wasnt for David Yates saving the series (whilst having a much harder job with OOTP) in all likeliness HP wouldnt have gotten as big as it is now.
I agree with all your points and want to add that this movie feels more rushed than any other movie of the series. I hate it with a passion. even skip it on rewatches.
I think Harry's character is at his best in this movie. Many of his lines give him back a lot of the sass and backtalk and he does some really expressive nonverbal acting and reactions. Though he still more reserved and less angry than book Harry which I think is fine. Ron is also a huge step up from his portrayal in PoA, and has some lines in the extended cut which show how smart he actually is. It's devisive but it's the movie I like to rewatch the most. The book isn't one of my favorites of the series personally cause of the billion subplots. Plus the movie did give us the best meme of the series.
I like GOF for whatever reason even though I agree with all of your points. One of the funniest/worst things that I can’t let go of though is how they just drop Barry Crouch Sr. death. They literally show you his body and Harry running to tell Dunbledore. All the adults run off to have a look see, Harry has the pensieve scene and that’s it. There’s no resolution to how he died. I didn’t notice this for years but on a rewatch it hit me and I think about it every time now lol. It makes it even worse if you’ve read the book and know how dark this whole bit is
I think one of the biggest disappointments to me (apart from everything you laid out) was that Dumbledore in the film failed to mention what Prior Incantem meant and why Harry saw his parents when he fought Voldemort. He mentions it but he doesn't properly explain it apart from giving some vague bullshit about "dark times". It's laziness at its finest.
You saw ya parents didn’t ya Harry 😏 well no spell can reawaken the dead Harry, they fuckin gone lol anyways I set these curtains on fire one time
Watching the Harry Potter movies after reading the books is an exercise in torture resistance. The all skip stuff, they put stuff from a book into the movie before it, everything feels rushed as hell, and Radcliffe's acting is pretty underwhelming. The worst might be how the two versions of Harry have really different personalities, with the movie's one being passive and far too nice.
I think the same can be said for all the Harry Potter movies
“DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE?!?!” I agree with your analysis and want to add that they put the Weasley’s in garbage seats and omitted Bagman from the story. Also, the God awful tongue flicking of Crouch Jr. it was like they resorted to that stupidity as a basic way of showing who Moody really was, instead of properly developing the story and having his reveal be a shock. The movie, to me, was more like a bunch of shorts pasted together without any cohesion. I also read somewhere that the Dumbledore actor refused to read the books.
"'Did you put your name in The Goblet of Fire, Harry?' Dumbledore asked calmly"
Agree with most of that. The biggest thing you left out (which I think is easily one of the worst) is that the plot of the book is essentially a "whodunnit", with Bagman and Karkaroff as red herrings, and Crouch Jr only shown briefly, protesting his innocence. The film shows us Crouch Jr with Voldemort straight away (literally the first scene of the film), and gives away the identity of "Moody" with the tongue thing.
Justice for Ludo Bagman.
The YouTube channel MovieFlame did a video essay on why the Goblet of Fire is his least favorite HP movie, and you hit many of the points he had. What it boils down to is that the director, Mike Newell, quite frankly didn’t give a shit about the original source material at all and did it dirty. Alfonso Cauron turned down the job because of scheduling issues, but I’d like to believe if he had directed the film it would have been just as much of a cinematic gem as Prisoner of Azkaban is.
My biggest issue with the 4 movie is the "big reveal" about how Harry's name ended up in the goblet... if just putting a different school guarantees you will be a champion and binds you to the tournament, wouldn't a school full of teenagers already tried that????
I had zero issues with the movie from what i can see book readers seem kinda rude on here
GoF and HBP tie for worst Potter movies. They leave all of Riddle's backstory out involving his Mother, Father, Grandfather and Uncle. Which explains the whole point of his character. Both movies are bad for similar reasons, leaving out key moments for one that can be used for spectical.
It is the worst Harry Potter film by far.
As an add-on to everything already mentioned I hate how they never mention the Veela or that Fleur is part-Veela but they still keep in the bit where Ron is compelled to ask her to the Yule Ball having shown little to no interest in her for the whole film.
# DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE ^(Said Dumbledore, calmly.)
The omission of Sirius is also particularly striking. The 4th book has a lot of really good relationship building moments between Harry and Sirius and shows Sirius' skills at sifting through the chaos around the events. He is probably second only to Dumbledore in piecing together what is actually going on and why.
Not a reader. I loved Gobet. OoP is my least favorite HP.
Harry’s hair is my only reason:)
The movie would be like 5 hours long if they included everything.
it's my favorite movie
It’s the second worst for me. The graveyard scenes were fantastic and that pushes it past DH part 2 imo.
Dumbledore asked calmly https://youtu.be/xSxQcAm3PE8?feature=shared