Critique : Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

What an amazing serial Harry Potter is! After having faced up three times to The lord of the rings and having destroyed Lemony Snicket's hopes to crack the gothic-adventure-with-orphans market, the short-sighted wizard and his friends are ready to fight for the fourth time against two new rivals: the big monkey named King Kong and a whole group of strangers coming from Narnia.

Once experienced the original surprise of the first three episodes, what can this saga – which is now a quadrilogy – do to perpetuate the magic? Doing better or more thrilling? Not that sure considering how far from being daring the saga is: one episode, never independent from the other (as it can be in Star Wars), always tells the story of a whole school year. It is clear in the producers' minds: there is one and only one Harry Potter's story and each volume is just a part of a whole. Just to remember, Harry, Ron and Hermione are now fourteen and they are about to discover the wonderful world of puberty by flirting with a foreign pen-friend (Harry and a charming Chinese girl, Hermione and a mute Pole, Ron and a seducing French girl) and taking part to manly sport contests (the great tournament between the champions of each wizardry school). Hopefully, the dark shadow of Lord Voldemort and his Death-eaters spreads over this joyful atmosphere…

In this standard world, there's only one hope left for the fans (I am one of them): an aesthetical renewal which will respect the novel's frame. A challenge that Alfonso Cuaron took up successfully, when Chris Colombus failed. As for Mike Newell, he does not show himself unworthy of the duty and favours hormonal excitement rather than poetry. Less gothic than The prisoner of Azkaban, The goblet of fire succeeds in creating a world which has to face a teenage crisis. Through the jokes and the classroom plots, the director manages to set an old-fashioned and nostalgic atmosphere, which is almost enough to excuse his awful computer-made magic (the Schools parade is quite ugly comparing to the Dementors' arrival in… The prisoner of Azkaban). Though we assumed he had been chosen for his knowledge of British boarding schools, Mike Newell reveals himself as a great action movie director. During a chase including a dragon above Hogwart's roofs or an underwater scene in a lake full of nasty mermaids, he asserts his breathtaking sense of space and makes us experience height and deepness.

And yet, with an overloaded schedule of conditions (action + chronicle + a series to complete), the story hardly rides the broomstick which would take it to its climax (see The prisoner of Azkaban). What's worse, it seems never to give itself a break. An unforgivable mistake if you take into account the major role of this episode, since it launches the story on its final way (even if there are still three more to come).That's why the appearance of Lord Voldemort in the flesh (and in the Fiennes) is so frustrating. Too short, too anecdotal, it fails in highlighting what is really at stake. A shame for a final touch.

N.B.: For those who had not understood yet : before rushing into theatres, watch again The chamber of secrets…oops, I meant The prisoner of Azkaban.

Traduction faite par Cécile Colinet