The fourth movie in the Harry Potter
It's not so much that the story gets any better - that stays pretty constant. The acting does as well. But the effects are what really see an improvement. Where we first saw just glimpses of brooms that resembled stick people from a distance, now flying scenes actually look like someone flying - or at least a close approximation.
Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) returns to Hogwarts for another year of magical instruction, only this year it seems there is a new twist - the Tri-Wizard tournament, where champions of each of the major schools of magic compete for the Tri-Wizard cup and eternal glory (and face possible death in the process). Champions must be 17 to compete, but of course you know that Harry will be involved somehow.
Though the goblet itself is protected by a spell that keeps those who are younger than 17 from putting their own names in, it seems that you can put other's names into the goblet - a fact hinted at throughout the movie. What isn't really addressed is how the champion's names are then spit out of the goblet.
Obviously there is some potent magic at work here, since a piece of paper would burn up - but nonetheless, the three champions are chosen, and then a fourth name comes out - which is of course Harry Potter. Perhaps the contest should be renamed from the Tri-Wizard tournament, but then it wouldn't really have the same ring to it.
The champions have a test of courage, which Harry finds out is to face a dragon and steal a golden egg. He passes this knowledge on to Cedric Diggory, the Hogwarts' champion, and this will come back to help him later, in a manner of speaking. Each of the champions survive the first challenge, though Harry is the only one we see actually facing his dragon. The others are merely mentioned as "having survived the challenge". Since the movie is so long already, it's welcome - but some things just beg for more of the effects that work so well. I would have rather seen more dragons and less of Harry clinging to the towers of Hogwarts.
Nonetheless, the champions then must figure out the clue held within the egg, and this is where Harry gets repaid for his kindness to Cedric, for Cedric tells Harry to take a bath in the massive prefect's bath (where he sees Myrtle the ghost, from prior movies), and there Harry holds the egg under the water and the screeching sound heard in air turns into a beautiful siren song, which leads him to the lake, and makes him realize he has to hold his breath for an hour underwater. Luckily Nigel secures some Dillyweed to help with this task, as Harry doesn't know the magic to breathe underwater.
As expected, Harry does well, and rescues his "treasure" - which is Ron. Each of the other champions had someone held in state underwater as well, and Harry helped to rescue the sister of one of the other champions, as she could not do it herself - this earned him a tie for the lead in the tournament for his brave performance.
The final task is to take on the maze, and at the center of the shifting maze, grab hold of the Tri-Wizard cup. Unfortunately the cup has been charmed so that it is a port key, and it takes Harry and Cedric, who grab it at the same time, to a graveyard, where Cedric is killed and Harry is used in an enchantment to bring back Lord Voldemort. Harry, naturally, makes good his escape, bringing the body of Cedric back to Hogwarts at the end of the competition.
This installment is good, and the effects just get better - but the movie is getting darker (like the books), so younger children might find themselves frightened a bit more easily than they did in the first or second films.
Rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images.
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