The long awaited movie, Harry Potter IV–the Goblet of Fire, is frightening but also surprisingly entertaining. The movie is well crafted and the story flow is better than the novel itself, a rare case in the history of film.

The Harry Potter book IV is not my favorite one. The story in this book is complicate and JK Rowlings didn’t handle it well. In addition to pushing through the thrilling tri-school wizard competition, she tried her best to depict the romantic stories among teenagers whose activities are mostly driven by their abundant hormone. Harry Potter has a crush with Chou Chang, and Ron Weasley is fervently jealous about Hermine’s date with Victor. It seems everybody is dating with somebody, which is true at the age of 14. Fortunately, the movie made a good decision between these two conflicting themes.

While retaining enough romance, the movie trimmed out most of these nonessentials. It focused more on the impending danger of the resurrection of Lord Voldermolt. Most romantic incidences were seamlessly embedded in the fast paced tri-school competition. For example, the relationship between Chou Chang and Harry was represented by two or three flirting glances between them and a calculated encounter during the morning exercise, but nothing more. In a sense, the romance in the film was served as condiments for the main theme.

The movie opened with a fearful snake crawling through the Lord Voldermolt’s family house, which scared my little boy quite a bit. Then Harry, Hermine and the Weasley family went to watch the world quinditch match. After the match, the death eaters burned down the camping site, and a death symbol was lit up in the sky. This set the basis of the movie, that is, grave danger was coming.

Back to the Hogwarts, Dumbledore announced the tri-school competition. Harry Potter was set up into the competition despite his young age. Harry had no other choice but to take the challenge. Even though all other students thought Harry was a cheater, the first match, fighting against dragons, reminded them that the competition was dangerous. Students might die in the competition. Harry passed the first round and again was treated as a hero.

Because the movie devoted itself only to Harry Potter, except for Diggory who exchanged hints with Harry before each match, the other two competitors, Victor, and Fleur, were almost invisible. Though somewhat unfair to them, I think this treatment was reasonable, since they were not important in the story anyway.

The climax of the movie reached when Both Diggory and Harry were transported to the grave yard. Here, although the words in the novel were scary, only the movie could visualize the frightening scene of the resurrection of the Lord Voldmort. One could sense the relief among the audience when Harry was saved by the spirits of Harry’s parents and Diggory.

Translating a well-known story into a good movie is a daunting task. I think this movie made it. Compared with the first three movies, this fourth movie is more intense and better edited. Actors are more mature than before, both physically and mentally. Their actions are natural and flawless. I rate it the best among the four Harry Potter movies.