Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The best one yet.

Premiere Sara Brady

Newell puts his own stamp on the franchise and delivers the best Potter movie yet filmed.

Slate David Edelstein

No, I couldn't be more pleased with what the screenwriter, Steven Kloves, and the director, Mike Newell, have wrought this time.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A mature, tense, frightening and altogether masterful film.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

There's ample reason to stay with this series. When Harry says "I love magic," you believe it.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Harry IV is an intelligent, visually seductive and mostly very satisfying fantasy epic of the first order.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

It's not until Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that a film has successfully re-created the sense of stirring magical adventure and engaged, edge-of-your-seat excitement that has made the books such an international phenomenon.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The studio, like plucky Harry, passes with flying colors. The new one, directed by Mike Newell from another astute script by Mr. Kloves, is even richer and fuller, as well as dramatically darker. It's downright scary how good this movie is.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Its look has the same grudging beauty that, once you get used to it, English weather does: It's so defiant in its grayness that you come to appreciate its conviction.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Last year's "The Prisoner of Azkaban" seemed dark, but this excellent fourth film derived from J.K. Rowling's books is the darkest "Potter" yet, intense enough to warrant a PG-13 rating.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter just keeps growing up. So do the Potter movies, in size, in ambition and in visual splendor - and with increasingly stunning results.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Death, torture, humour and even budding eroticism -- now this is more like it.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The darkest, most thrilling entry yet in the movie franchise.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The film is more violent, less cute than the others, but the action is not the mindless destruction of a video game; it has purpose, shape and style.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Goblet of Fire is the entry in which Rowling finally took off the gloves.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

By a pleasing irony, the parts of the film that stay with you are concerned not with the dark arts but with something far more unstoppable: teen-agers.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

The film's quick pace and near-constant action carries you along quite nicely, and by the time Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) makes his climactic appearance, one can't help but look forward to the remaining films.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Probably the most engaging Potter film of the series thus far.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

His (Ralph Fiennes) Voldemort may be the greatest screen performance ever delivered without the benefit of a nose; certainly it's a performance of sublime villainy.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

In the grand scheme of things, Goblet of Fire is perhaps closest to the original "Sorcerer's Stone."

Newsweek David Ansen

The uncontestable triumph of Goblet of Fire, however, is Brendan Gleeson's Alastor (Mad-Eye) Moody, the grizzled new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

Whenever it hits its stride, it's a well-acted, vividly executed, full-speed-ahead special-effects extravaganza that puts as much bang as possible into every remaining scene.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

Qualitatively different from its cinematic forbears: It doesn't linger on the gothic curlicues of its source material, it moves straightforwardly from place to place, and it emphasizes the emotional development of its characters with dramatic interplay rather than expressionistic, atmospheric gloom.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The best thing about the picture is Harry's new maturity: For the first time, he dominates a picture named for him.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Goblet of Fire, fourth in the fantasy franchise, is the most fun and the most fraught with conflict.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Fine for people of developing minds, but the story so often stops its forward motion to take us on long detours into the land of CGI effects that it amounts to a $150 million magic show.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Imperfect, but magical nonetheless.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

With the cast getting looser and the mind games kinkier, it's hard to resist.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Offers a brew of wondrous chimera combined with the wonders of human nature.

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's hard to beat the last movie, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," and this film is not better, but it has much to recommend it.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Inventive visuals and funny bits abound, but the film's gritty look and unsentimental characterizations - Harry, Hermione and Ron are far from golden teens - ominously foreshadow the truly wicked shape of things to come.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

It's a testament to the power of the story -- and this engaging adaptation -- that leaving Hogwarts is tough anyway.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

A 157-minute holding pattern in which neither of the ongoing stories--Harry's conflict with the evil sorcerer Voldemort, the young schoolmates' coming of age at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft--progresses much.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Too bad the bulk of Rowling's humor goes down a black-magic drain.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Kids may be appropriately terrified, but to this overgrown Potter fan, Voldemort, the Darth Vader of the black arts, was a heck of a lot scarier when you couldn't see him.

Village Voice Ed Park

To this viewer and reader, the decade-old juggernaut is as deeply felt as it is flawed, dense and illogical and laudably "weird."

Empire Angie Errigo

Terrific effects and considerable charm, but, once again, you can't help wishing the filmmakers had been bolder with the adaptation.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

Came alive only in the presence of a supposed dead man -- specifically, the nefarious Lord Voldemort.