The only new character that brings anything of value to this flick is the brilliant Brendan Gleeson. His Mad-Eye really a feast. Bringing a blend of good-old-days discipline, and some raw humour. His introduction of the three unforgivable curses, really is first rate. Pattinson is rather anonymous and dull (probably to take the shine off Radcliffe) whereas father and son Crouch (Pack and Tennant) are both doing it over-the-top. Making it easy to believe their genetic connection, but also leaving them a bit misplaced. So we're left with the regular cast.
Gambon grows in this instalment. Puzzled, overwhelmed and concerned by events he does not quite understand, he appears preoccupied and at times even short-tempered as he struggles with his conscience. As for Voldemort, Fiennes immediately hits a chord. With a narcissistic, sadistically gleeful turn, he brings out fear in even the foulest characters as we've seen them. And with them at each side, Radcliffe seems to grow perfectly into his part. Isaacs has turned his menacing streak up a bit, and it suits him perfectly. Unfortunately, his scenes are very few. Rickman suffers the same fate, but he is still able to make every pronounced letter memorable.
No teenage-flick can be made without some romance and the ensuing lack of rational thought. It's not particularly bad, but it's not good either. Ron's sulking jealousy a particular nuisance. Grint really has a poor script for this film as his exceptionally overblown anger directed towards Potter is also marring the logical build-up of his character.
The storyline has something extra this time with a competition between three wizarding schools (Both the others are naturally single-gender). Newell baths us in both the grand introductions and celebrations, as well as the thrill of competition with the tension that comes from the danger of the tasks. I reckon he has the original author to thank for a lot of that, though. Where he fails is to keep a lingering evil in the shadows. As Voldemort finally appears in full figure here, one would expect more bad omens, more of an evil feel. But Newell is apparently better at storytelling than an unseen, lurking evil presence. He does succeed spectacularly at ending on that note though, with the last scene of the Wizard's Cup a chilling and devastating affair.
At 157 minutes, Newell does stretch it. But apart from the aforementioned and a couple of glaring logical errors, this is great entertainment showing Mr. Potter growing up in many ways. And it offers another brilliant end game.
7/10
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