'Harry Potter GOF' is a children's film no more

i am not sure if its good or a bad news : 'Harry Potter' movies have taken the final step with 'Goblet of Fire' for not being a fun movie for children anymore. the makers of this edition of 'Harry Potter' might have believed that the market of adult viewers is greated than that of the children. but there was no necessity to kill the beautiful(and occasionally scary), imaginative world of 'Harry Potter.' they could have opted for some other subject. infact, the rating requires that under 13 year kids be accompanied by an adult! can you believe it!! and we were thinking the potter world is the sole property of the children.
i tend to give more points to those films which have a good background score, and 'Goblet of Fire' is one among them. The background score of this edition is some degrees better than the earlier ones(including COS). but alas, the film as a whole doesn't make any impression on the viewers. when you come out of the theatre, you just remember some well shot sequences and that's all. the best one was the harry's duel with the dragon during the first task of Tri-wizard tournament.
IMO, the highlights of the book have been the following, and i was particularly excited about watching them before going to the movie:

• Quiditch World Cup!! do i need say more!

• The three tasks of Tri-wizard tournament, especially the first one.

• Rita Skeeter! (she was terribly under-utilised in the movie)

• Yule Ball(needed sophistication and grandeur; the film lacked both. there is a discotheque-style dance in the end!)

• Ralph Fienes

Fine, agreed that the last one was not part of the book, but i was really excited to see what magic Ralph Fienes, one of my favourite actors after 'The English Patient', could put into Lord Voldemort's character. boy, did he look funny! worst thing in the movie, inarguably, was the pathetic way in which the first ever rendezvous of voldemort with the audience was handled. he was supposed to look ugly, real ugly, and was supposed to create that sickening feeling among the audience that we witnessed in the book. that's what voldemort is all about. alas, he never looked like threatening, let alone scaring the hell out of the audience. he infact looked very healthy and handsome and Ralph has just read out the lines that were given to him, that too, in his usual boring tone(not in whispers i mean). but his transformation into human form near the climax (and that of Prof. Moody to Crouch Jr ) was well shot. other well shot scenes include the arrival of two other schools for participation of Triwizard tournament and the final task in the maze before the climax.

Now for the next biggest disappointment: Quiditch world cup. it looked grand...for a moment it commanded every bit of my attention...i was just collecting myself for a real treat here...the few seconds were shot with so much grandiose! but that was it. it hardly lasted a few seconds and it was all over by then. the actual competition between the two teams is not shown. that alone was sufficient to put me off. but more importantly, the spirit of the potter book was murdered again and again through out the rest of the movie. you don't feel for harry and ron when they have a fight with each other, the role of yule ball in the personal lives of harry, ron and hermione isn't handled well, the return of voldemort doesn't terrorise you, and the usual conversations between the hogwarts students, that generally evokes so much laughter, is completely sidelined. you won't find a single emotion in the whole movie; just the special effects. the magic of potter movies is sorely lacking in the latest edition. moreover, the movie looked like being shot with extremely low budget...the usual grandeur was missing, and one got to see very ordinary costumes and rusty locations. maybe it was a conscious decision to give it a very earthy and an ancient(medieval?) look.

like all Potter movies, you ought to watch it atleast once - if only for the riveting duel with the dragon(or harry shaking a leg with parvati patil, if you are an indian). but go with very low expectations, because you are not going to find the usual 'magic' associated with the potter books, and until now, to some extent, with potter movies.