Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
81
(38 sources)
81
(38 sources)
-
100
-
100
Premiere
Newell puts his own stamp on the franchise and delivers the best Potter movie yet filmed. Read Full Review » -
100
Slate
No, I couldn't be more pleased with what the screenwriter, Steven Kloves, and the director, Mike Newell, have wrought this time. Read Full Review » -
91
-
91
Christian Science Monitor
There's ample reason to stay with this series. When Harry says "I love magic," you believe it. Read Full Review » -
91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Harry IV is an intelligent, visually seductive and mostly very satisfying fantasy epic of the first order. Read Full Review » -
90
Los Angeles Times
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. Read Full Review » -
90
Wall Street Journal
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. Read Full Review » -
90
Salon.com
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. Read Full Review » -
90
Variety
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. Read Full Review » -
88
Chicago Tribune
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. Read Full Review » -
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Death, torture, humour and even budding eroticism -- now this is more like it. Read Full Review » -
88
New York Daily News
The darkest, most thrilling entry yet in the movie franchise. Read Full Review » -
88
Chicago Sun-Times
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. Read Full Review » -
88
Boston Globe
Goblet of Fire is the entry in which Rowling finally took off the gloves. Read Full Review » -
80
The New Yorker
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. Read Full Review » -
80
Film Threat
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. Read Full Review » -
80
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80
The New York Times
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. Read Full Review » -
80
Dallas Observer
In the grand scheme of things, Goblet of Fire is perhaps closest to the original "Sorcerer's Stone." Read Full Review » -
80
Newsweek
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. Read Full Review » -
80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
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. Read Full Review » -
78
Austin Chronicle
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. Read Full Review » -
75
Charlotte Observer
The best thing about the picture is Harry's new maturity: For the first time, he dominates a picture named for him. Read Full Review » -
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Goblet of Fire, fourth in the fantasy franchise, is the most fun and the most fraught with conflict. Read Full Review » -
75
New York Post
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. Read Full Review » -
75
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75
Rolling Stone
With the cast getting looser and the mind games kinkier, it's hard to resist. Read Full Review » -
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Offers a brew of wondrous chimera combined with the wonders of human nature. Read Full Review » -
75
USA Today
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. Read Full Review » -
75
TV Guide
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. Read Full Review » -
75
Miami Herald
It's a testament to the power of the story -- and this engaging adaptation -- that leaving Hogwarts is tough anyway. Read Full Review » -
70
Chicago Reader
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. Read Full Review » -
67
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67
Entertainment Weekly
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. Read Full Review » -
60
Village Voice
To this viewer and reader, the decade-old juggernaut is as deeply felt as it is flawed, dense and illogical and laudably "weird." Read Full Review » -
60
Empire
Terrific effects and considerable charm, but, once again, you can't help wishing the filmmakers had been bolder with the adaptation. Read Full Review » -
60
LA Weekly
Came alive only in the presence of a supposed dead man -- specifically, the nefarious Lord Voldemort. Read Full Review »
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