As we approach the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Pop Goes The World, will take a look back at each of the Harry Potter films, today we re-explore Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

The fourth Harry Potter movie enters new territory. What I mean by this is, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the first Harry Potter movie that is based on the very first Harry Potter book that is over 400 pages long. This only means that the movie version would either be cut in two to be faithful to the books or see drastic cuts made so it can be a movie that is over two hours.

Here I commend Steve Kloves for doing a fantastic job at cutting out the fat that was in Goblet of Fire. One of the plot points that he did cut was S.P.E.W. that organization that Hermione started for Elfish welfare. I really didn’t like it in the book but S.P.E.W. was important in Deathly Hallows.

Kloves did a good job an encapsulating the plot too in terms of condensing all Triward Tournament stuff that gave it a nice flow. The visual effects for all three tasks plus the end fight with Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) was great.

I liked the Yule Ball scene as it was pretty much how I imagined it to be, in particular with Ron and Hermione. The Yule Ball chapter was my favourite part of the Goblet of Fire. It was the first time that I realized what JK Rowling was doing, meaning pairing off romantically Ron and Hermione and I couldn’t be more pleased. I loved that.

I also loved the fact that Cho Chang (Katie Leung), while marginalized in the films, has an awesome Scottish accent.

However, I didn’t like the fact that he gave Fleur Delacour (Clemence Poesy) barely anything to do in this film -she barely had one line. Same with Victor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski), although they did keep his brief romance with Hermione (Emma Watson) in there.

Aside from Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), the only other champion that got significant screen time was Cedric Diggory (played by future Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson).

I was bothered with the hair styles of Harry and Ron. It was very moppy and unkempt. There was something very British about this film. Mike Newell, the director for Goblet of Fire, is the first British director to direct Harry Potter and at time the film did seem it was a typical British drama that took place at an English boarding school.

I can’t say this enough but casting the new roles again was spot on. Miranda Richardson as Rita Skeeter -priceless, although I wish her part was more faithful to what she was in the books. And Brendan Gleeson as Mad-Eye Moody was great too. Future Dr. Who, David Tennant, was pretty creepy and evil as Barty Crouch Jr., although I wish we had seen him get the Dementor’s Kiss as it was in the book.

The fourth film is up there as one of my favourites because it managed to take such a large book and while there were cuts, it still managed to keep the essence of the book in the film.