I'm making a video essay on every Harry
Potter film and so far I've done one on
the order of the Phoenix and explained
why it's my favorite in the series and I
did one on the Prisoner of Azkaban and
explained why it's the most cinematic
film in the series now it's time to talk
about the Goblet of Fire which in my
opinion is my least favorite I was going
to title this video why it's the worst
but honestly I feel like that's a bit
harsh because this is without a doubt in
my top sixty favorite films of all time
all the Harry Potter films are there
near and dear to my heart
and I grew up watching them but I also
grew up reading the Harry Potter books
and this movie adapted the book he was
based on worse than any of the other
films in the franchise and a lot of
times I hear people who haven't read the
book say that this is their favorite
film so in this video I'm gonna try and
explain why it's my least favorite in
the series and I'll give the examples
from the actual book which I actually
reread just for this video and I'm going
to look behind the camera at the making
of the film and point out what in my
opinion went wrong and I'm saying my
opinion because this is solely based on
my view of the film everyone has their
own opinion I'm not going to say your
opinion is wrong if you like this film
I'm just going to explain why I feel the
way I do about this movie before we
start I make new videos every week so
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let's get started
I think the biggest reason why this film
is not my favorite has to do with the
director Mike Newell this was his first
and last film in the franchise and I
think he's a great director and a great
guy watching the behind the scenes you
see he's great with the kids and is very
passionate however I feel like he wasn't
the right choice to direct this film for
one it's clear that reading this book
was an almighty task for him throughout
interviews he constantly complains about
how long this book is and how tedious it
was to read it book is that fake there's
nearly twice as long as any of the other
books yeah I read it in the book is vast
it's a great big sort of house brick
sized thing and that's not someone you
want to direct a movie like this
comparing him to Chris Columbus who
directed the first two films and Alfonso
Curran who directed a third film before
Columbus met with Warner Brothers for
his initial interview he sat down read
the book and wrote his own screenplay
for the first film and thought about how
he was going to do each aspect of it and
Korona the three main actors Dan Rupert
and Emma write an essay on their
character because he truly wanted to
dive into each one of their characters
throughout the film and know Rupert did
not do it he based this entire direction
with Dan and Emma on these essay so they
would be on the same page and could make
sure that they dive deep and explore
their characters and what drives them
this is what you want to see from
directors they put true thought into
each and every scene and go above and
beyond meanwhile Newell had not even
read the book before getting the job and
already seen the first three films he
was making a sequel to how Fonz
worker-owned realizing this actually
told him to at least watch the first 40
minutes of his film to get a taste of
what the series is like after watching
this new became upset because he was
planning on making the movie super dark
and groundbreaking but because Afonso
had done that he said he couldn't do
that and had to change it up I'm gonna
make it really sort of dark creepy and
then Dean I went to his cutting room and
they showed me this dark and creepy
world that he had made and so I had
nothing to do what was I gonna do I had
to reinvent the wheel this is another
quality you don't want from a director
he's literally competing with the other
directors instead of working off of them
even using certain actors to try and
one-up Alfonso and Chris although I knew
I'd got to great pieces of magic up my
sleeve one was Brendan Gleeson playing
Mad Eye Moody
and the other was ray Fiennes playing
Voldemort in film school I spent some
time studying sequels and I found that
some of the best sequels are good
because they work off of the last film
what newest should have done was play
off of the darkness that Alfonzo was sad
but instead because Newell wanted to
compete with Alfonso he made his main
focus be the opposite in focused on
comedy and so what I got was I got a
funnier film and it's not like this is a
bad thing it's a funny film but in my
opinion I think Alfonso actually had
better comedy and he was able to blend
that comedy with the darkness very well
I just wish newer could have put his ego
and competitiveness aside because we
might have gotten a much better and more
balanced film especially if he had gone
off of currents darkness which Alfonso
was clearly trying to get him to do by
having him watched the first 40 minutes
of his movie but Newell didn't get the
hint now I'm ready to press newer one
about this movie all wrong especially
when he said he saw this movie as a
Bollywood film which horrified the
writers and producers mr. Mike Newell
described business of a Bollywood movie
much draw horror he also said that he
saw this film as a Hitchcock thriller
which when looking at the book is
actually quite accurate to the story
there's so many things going on and the
plot is sort of a mystery thriller one
of my favorite parts about the Goblet of
Fire book it's the mystery aspect of it
throughout there are so many things that
need solving like who put Harry's name
in the Goblet of Fire who cast the dark
market the Quidditch World Cup dead-body
jr. actually commit the crime use and
prison for what happened to Bertha
Jorkins
a ministry employee who went missing who
were the Weasley twins blackmailing how
rita skeeter was getting her stories
when she wasn't allowed on the Hogwarts
grounds and even the murder mystery in
the very first chapter the question
being who murdered the riddle family
with all of these questions up in the
air it kept the reader engaged and
excited to keep reading and that's why
this book is a lot of people's favorite
in the series it's certainly up there
from me being my third favorite however
the film does away with all of this
so Newell saying that he was approaching
this film like a Hitchcock thriller now
doesn't make any sense and let me
explain newest decisions made that
mystery completely gone my biggest
complaint is the way they handled Barty
Crouch and his son Barty Crouch jr.
their characters are the key to four of
the seven mysteries I mentioned above
who put harry's name and the Goblet of
Fire who cast the dark mark dead Barda
jr. commit the crime you was in prison
for and what
happened to Bertha Jorkins now I
understand why they cut Bertha Jorkins
but the other three mysteries were all
touched upon in this movie but are done
in a way that ruins them in the film
they show us Bharti jr. in the very
first scene with Voldemort and Wormtail
when Harry is dreaming something that
was not true for the book in the book it
was just fooling Martin Wormtail so
right away we have this character in her
head which were not supposed to we're
supposed to think he's dead until the
end of the book as we're told he died in
Azkaban years ago then we actually see
him catch the dark mark another mystery
were not supposed to have the answer to
you until the end of the book so now
they've spoiled two mysteries that
pretty much define the book and made it
so good but I guess I could forgive this
if they never said his name because then
at least we don't know who he is even
though we saw him but then they go on to
show the trial where he gets locked up
and they tell us his name and instead of
making us question if he did it like in
the books where he cried and screamed
saying he was innocent
he flat out admitted making the third of
mystery that defined the book gone as
well so how should they have approached
this well I actually have the answer
they should have either shown him in the
beginning but caught the trial steam
because then at least the mystery would
still be alive not knowing his name or
they should have just not shown him in
the beginning and half the trial scene
be the first time were introduced to him
and then when Dumbledore is talking to
him afterwards have him tell Harry that
he died years ago like everyone's
supposed to think what exactly happened
to him he was sent to Azkaban had they
just made these tiny changes the film
could have adapted the strongest and
most interesting part of the book and
made the film so much better especially
because they cut the other mystery
aspects of how rita skeeter was getting
her stories who the Weasley twins were
blackmailing and the riddle family
murder mystery so out of the seven huge
mysteries the book had the film only
kept one and that was who put Harry's
name in the Goblet of Fire and that was
a very good reveal I'm not going to lie
they did a great job with that part
especially when Harry says he never
mentioned a graveyard in the graveyard
were there others I don't think I said
anything about a graveyard professor
that was some great writing that wasn't
in the books however I hate how they
approached Barty juniors character what
the whole tongue thing
and going back to how Newell's
approaching this like a Hitchcock film
he cut perhaps the most Hitchcock as
scene in my opinion which was Barty
Crouch senior coming to Hogwarts and
talking madness it's quite chilling as
he goes from having no idea where he is
talking about official ministry business
to a tree done to falling on his knees
and struggling to get every word out
saying that he failed and needed to talk
to Dumbledore then a few minutes later
he disappears and it's not until the end
that we find out that Barda junior
killed him and buried his own father on
the hogwarts grounds my god that would
have been brilliant to see on screen but
instead Noor decided to add a bunch of
things that were pointless and makes so
many questions Papa the biggest example
being the first task I've talked about
this before but I'm going to go into
more detail here in the books the first
task is isolated to the arena and the
beginning of the first task in the film
was great we see Harry in real danger
see a huge dragon breathe fire narrowly
missing Harry and we see Harry Co as
fireball to him and right there is where
he should have gotten the egg the
sequence would have been perfect had
they stopped it there they would have
had more time to explore more
interesting parts of the books like the
Barty Crouch scene I just mentioned but
instead we get this long dragged out J
scene outside of the arena not only
would this never be allowed to happen
because Harry literally almost died and
everyone just sat in the arena doing
nothing
but the dragon tamers would have put a
stop to it right after the dragon got
loose of its chains and Dumbledore would
have put a stop to it to ensure Harry's
safety and then I just let the dragon
fall to its death and if it's not dead
that's a huge liability to have a dragon
free on the Hogwarts grounds and
potentially it could enter muggle
territory so this whole scene is just
absolutely ridiculous for so many
reasons and it takes up so much time
they could have been better spent
exploring less action in more mystery
and the worst part is that this scene
was almost much worse Mike knew
originally wanted Harry and the dragon
to go into the Forbidden Forest and burn
it down I was gonna have the dragon burn
down a forest and everybody who's
looking at me saying dude of course they
were looking at you'd like that you just
said you wanted to burn down the
Forbidden Forest one of the most
important parts of the grounds full of
too many magical creatures to count
completely mental this is just another
example of why nuo just isn't right for
this film he doesn't follow or respect
the source material a 7 year old could
have told you that burning down the
Forbidden Forest was a bad idea
Noah went on to say that he was ruthless
when cutting scenes so I was simply
ruthless with the stuff that I couldn't
see a way of doing it not the way you
should be approaching adapting a book to
the big screen and I get that many
things did have to be cut because the
book was the longest one so far and much
longer than the first three books I
applaud him for cutting Winky Dobby spe
w the Dursleys and Ludo Backman because
he's right we didn't need any of that in
this movie but he cut a lot of things
that were kind of essential like the
many mysteries I mentioned before and
even when he did pick the right things
to keep he messed them up one of the
things that was most disappointing was
him cutting the Quidditch World Cup the
whole sequence felt so rushed and it
hyped the audience so much and right
when we're about to see this amazing
match
boom it cuts to the next scene one of my
biggest complaints about this movie is
Dumbledore and I've dedicated a whole
section of this video just to talk about
him there's the infamous Dumbledore said
calmly scene which is amassed almost 8
million views on YouTube did you put
your name into the Goblet of Fire Harry
Dumbledore asked calmly and this is just
one example of how wrong they got
Dumbledore every scene he's in he's
screaming and sounds angry if chosen
there's no turning back and all of his
scenes in the books are the complete
opposite of this and then Dumbledore
cleared his throat and read out Harry
Potter Harry Potter I have given
evidence already on this matter he said
calmly Severus Snape was indeed a Death
Eater Severus Snape was indeed a Death
Eater
and prior to Lord Voldemort's downfall
turned spy for us a great press the
Dumbledore in this film is not a
Dumbledore from the books in the books
he's pretty much always calm and rarely
raises his voice the only time he really
did raise his voice in the Goblet of
Fire was when he broke in to save Harry
from Barda junior and here we see a
different side of Dumbledore aside we've
never seen before at that moment
Harry fully understood for the first
time why people said Dumbledore was the
only wizard Voldemort had ever feared
the look upon Dumbledore's face as he
stared down at the unconscious form of
Mad Eye Moody was more terrible than
Harry could have ever imagined there was
no benign smile upon Dumbledore's face
no twinkle in the eyes behind the
spectacles there was cold fury in every
line of his ancient face a sense of
power radiated from Dumbledore as though
he were giving off burning heat this was
a huge scene and was very important to
his character however this scene in the
film is ruined because Dumbledore seemed
to be this way throughout the whole film
always yelling and freaking out it's a
shame really because that's one of my
favorite Dumbledore moments and had he
been calmed throughout the rest of the
movie the way he was supposed to be this
scene in the film would have actually
been perfect
also having Dumbledore grab Harry's
armed to match body juniors dark mark
was so out of character your armor
he literally hurts Harry as he does this
it's not true to his character at all
and is something that Dumbledore in the
books would never do in the book after
the initial scary moment he has he's
calmed throughout the rest of this
conversation even when he's beyond
disgusted after Barda jr. says he killed
his father he replied in the same soft
voice I feel Richard Harris was a much
better Dumbledore when it came to these
scenes but Michael Gambon really came
into his own and the half-blood Prince
and I think he did this in a way that
Richard Harris could not have done
either way though I hate Michael
Gambon's portrayal of Dumbledore in the
Kabul to fire movie and I don't think
he's all to blame I think Mike Norcia
takes him blame for this as well some
other things that bothered me in this
film was the fact that no decided to
make Bo batten in all-girls school
lovely ladies of the beauxbatons academy
of magic and durmstrang in all-boys
school please greet the proud sons of
dogs Frank
once again newest just spending on the
source material I hated how they showed
us the point of view through Moody's eye
and even worse that they gave it a
technological feel even adding the noise
to the camera zooming in makes it ruins
the magic and mystery of his eye and
adding digital elements to the Wizarding
World is just awful especially because
this book was the one where they
explained that mobile technology doesn't
work at Hogwarts because there's too
much magic in the air had Noah read the
book he was basing this film on more
carefully he would have vetoed the sound
effect and camera like point of view
shot right away one thing that's super
unsettling to me is the fact that they
made the Death Eater robes way too
similar to the KKK this is something
that caused a lot of uproar when this
movie came out and they went on to
change their look in the next film and
for good reason this film also added
some things just for the sake of adding
stuff most of which aren't canon to the
books and I just made up like Dumbledore
talking about how he said his curtains
in his bed on fire I never liked these
curtains set them on fire in my fourth
year but the worst thing that they added
that was made up was one line that moody
said the Barty Crouch not trying to you
or a part into one of the ministry's
summer internships are we lost boy went
into the Department of mysteries never
came out this is actually terrible
because one nowhere in the books has it
ever mentioned any ministry internships
for students but I guess I could believe
that there are internships had they not
said that it was in the Department of
mysteries
Lost Boy went into the Department of
mysteries never came out the
apartment of mysteries is one of the
most secretive departments of the
ministry and the employees that work in
there are known as Unspeakables they
describe this job saying that little is
known about their workspace and even
less is known about their jobs employees
of the Department of mysteries are
forbidden from discussing their jobs or
disclosing any information about it due
to a high level of secrecy surrounding
their department so the fact that they
just threw this line in no doubt it's an
easter egg for fans shows that they have
no idea what they're talking about
there's no way that they would give this
very important and secretive job to a
student intern it's just ridiculous and
the fact that Unspeakables were
literally introduced in this book show
is how little mike newell actually read
before making this movie it's just sad
and only proving this more is the line
where Voldemort says especially all
filthy muggle mother this line wasn't in
the book because his mom wasn't a muggle
I think the word you're looking for is
mud blood or muggle-born
though knowing Voldemort he probably met
mud blood but the fact that Noah let
this era slip past him is just awful
another thing I want to talk about is
the third task in the maze it had been a
while since I'd read this book and I
actually thought I'd preferred the
film's version of this better but after
rereading the Goblet of Fire for this
video I realized how much I prefer the
books version in the book they had to
get past different creatures throughout
the maze like boggarts blastin it's
Kreutz sphinxes and so on but in the
film the maze itself is the thing that's
alive Noah said that he did this because
he thought that in the book the maze
reduces the characters to their animal
components and they become savage wild
and uncivilized it's like it reduces you
to your animal components and you become
a moon savage and wild and uncivilized
and he thought that the creatures in the
book could not do that but the maze
being alive could the only thing is none
of them were savages and wild in the
book the only person that you could
argue this for was Viktor Krum but that
was because he was under the Imperius
curse it wasn't because he was in the
maze this once again shows how little
newell understands about the source
material and how poorly he actually read
the book he tried to make it
psychological when that wasn't the point
of the maze the point of the maze was to
use your wits and your magical ability
have we spent weeks practicing spells
jinxes and curses to prepare and
throwing the third task in the book he
used those to fight off creatures and
his mind was tested not psychologically
but his wits were tested as he had to
answer a riddle that his Fink's gay
them to move forward we will completely
miss the point of the maze and again
just made something up out of thin air
by adding the psychological aspects it's
an interesting concept but it has no
place in the scene or even in this film
you can't change and Bend the source
material because it leaves so many plot
holes makes the film have
inconsistencies and it pisses fans of
the book off now as much as I dislike
this movie as I said I still love it at
the same time there are many good things
about it mainly some of the writing this
film is one of my favorite changes from
book to movie and it was a great bit of
writing the scene I'm talking about is
the one where they wrote Dobby out of
the film
they took moody giving Neville the book
on herbology be the way that Harry
discovers gillyweed for the second task
but you can always kill a white witch in
the book was Moody's original plan to
get Harry to figure out how to breathe
underwater but it didn't work because
Harry was too proud to ask for help so
when adopting the book to the movie it
took the failed plan which only had one
small mention in the book and made that
part of the main plot to ensure that
they cut out Dobby leaving a lot more
space for other more important things
like never long bond under witness
Wonder could have provided you with
Gilly wait if I hadn't given him the
book that led him straight to it the
second task was amazing and it broke new
grounds for special effects the fact
that Daniel Radcliffe trained for six
months and spent over 40 hours
underwater is crazy and it really paid
off the graveyard scene is pretty much
perfect and as his Voldemort's return
although new of almost ruined
Voldemort's look opting to not get rid
of Voldemort Snopes which is a huge part
of his character luckily the crew
convinced him otherwise and they removed
his nose with CGI and this would of
course continue for the rest of the
series I loved that they showed the pen
set before Harry discovers it especially
because it plays such a big part for the
future of the series this film also
houses one of my favorite Easter eggs
which is a hidden deathly hallow sign
and you have to remember that this movie
was made in 2005 and the Deathly Hallows
book did not come out until 2007 and to
be honest I'm still not sure how they
knew maybe JK had a hand in it who knows
I also have a lot of respect for the
fact that they didn't tone this story
down to make it PG instead opting to
make it more mature and getting the
first pg-13 rating in the series even
though they knew they might lose some of
their younger audiences because of this
overall I don't hate this film but I
gave my reasons why it's my least
favorite in the series Newell did a good
job with some parts of this film
especially the technical parts because
there is some really great camera work
and some really interesting shots that
hold a lot of emotion however I'm glad
that Newell stepped down to make way for
David Yates as Yates would go on to make
my favorite film in the franchise right
after this one look out for my video I
say it's on the rest of the films and
the franchise I plan to do one for every
movie in the series as well as the two
fantastic Geese films thank you so much
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