This time, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) will face the biggest challenge of his life, the Triwizard Tournament and its surprising conclusion. The film starts off with Harry and Hermione (Emma Watson) staying at Ron's (Rupert Grint) family's house. With the Quidditch World Cup being hosted in England this year, everyone is getting ready to head out to the massive pitch and watch the Irish face off against the Bulgarians.
I still find it a bit disappointing that the film didn't actually show any scenes from the World Cup itself, but it did do a good job of introducing one of the new characters, the Bulgarian's Seeker, Viktor Krum (Stanislav Iannevski). That night though, Harry learns a bit more about Voldemort's reign as Death Eaters, Voldemort's top followers, appear at the camp grounds and wreak havoc, thus confirming many wizard's belief that there are still people loyal to the Dark Lord hidden among them.
Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest of the Weasley's are then shipped off to Hogwarts where they learn that a long-standing tournament is being brought back. The Triwizard Tournament is a series of challenges used to test the best-of-the-best at three major wizarding schools, Hogwarts, the all girl's French school of Beauxbatons, and the Durmstrang Institute from somewhere in the North.
Each school will have a champion, and that champion will go through a series of harsh trials in order to win glory for his or her school. The champions are chosen by placing your name in the Goblet of Fire and at selection time, it will spit out the names of the participants. Krum, a Drumstrang student, is chosen, as well as the beautiful Fleur Delacour (Clemence Poesy) from Beauxbaton. When a Hogwarts upper-classman, Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson - now known mainly for his role in the Twilight series) is selected, all believe the champions have been chosen.
So imagine everyone's surprise when a fourth name flies out of the Goblet, this one with Harry's name on it. Of course, no one is more surprised than Harry himself, who didn't want to participate in the first place.
So now, Harry's normally odd school life is further complicated by three unknown and possibly deadly challenges that he can't get out of. To make matters worse, the school, including Ron, pretty much shuns him because they think he is trying to take some of Cedric's glory, but that pretty much goes away after Harry's spectacular end to the first trial.
Meanwhile, the school's new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Mad Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), is teaching his students things the Ministry of Magic would rather they now know about; namely, the Unforgivable Curses. These three spells are so bad, that they will land you straight in Azkaban for life. One will put anyone and anything under your control like a puppet, another will cause monstrous pain and the final will kill instantly without leaving a mark ... well, most of the time. There is one case of a survivor, and it did leave a mark, a lightning scar on Harry's forehead.
A lot happens this year at Hogwarts, and the film of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire does a pretty good job of cutting to the core of the book and showing only what it needs to. Sure, there is a lot it leaves out, but the main parts are present. I did like a lot of the extended scenes re-inserted into the film though. These were most noticeable while Ron and Harry are looking for dates to the Ball during Christmas, as well as some extended sequences in the trials. It's just a shame Goblet of Fire Ultimate Edition doesn't come with a copy of the theatrical release as well to make it easier to see what was added back in.
As for the rest of the special features. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire comes with everything on the film's previous release, as well as the fourth part to the new documentary found only in the Ultimate Editions. This time around, the documentary talks about the music and sound effects and does a great job interviewing each of the films' composers. Through this, we can see how their processes differ as they figure out what the tone of the film will be.
The other special features include behind-the-scenes documentaries made for TV, as well as interviews with the cast and crew and another featurette focusing on the Yule Ball.
So far, the Ultimate Edition releases have added enough content to make a purchase of each release worthwhile, and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is no exception, especially if you either don't have the film, or only have it on DVD.
