Harry Potter: Ranking The Movies From Worst To Best

3. Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (2005)

Director: Mike Newell

The Goblet of Fire is emblematic of another transitional period for the Harry Potter series, this is when s*** gets real. The first three quarters of the film are primarily concerned with the Triwizard Tournament, a fun diversion that allows Rowling to show the audience how witches and wizards from other parts of the world live.

It starts ramping up the romantic tension between Ron and Hermione and gives Harry a love interest in Cho (who is surprisingly Scottish). You think you're watching a relatively pleasant movie, and although the underwater competition is surprisingly scary, you don't really believe it when the professors say that the tournament is life-threatening.

Then sh*t gets real, real quick. When the portkey takes Harry and Cedric to Godric's Hollow, the movie takes away any pretense that this magical world is anything like the fun and harmless magic of Matilda. When we enter the graveyard it is like being immersed in the occult (my parents always told me Harry Potter was teaching me Satanic rituals).

Wormtail sacrifices his arm for his master, Cedric dies, Harry is given immeasurable pain simply by being near Voldemort, and our protagonist is given a visit by his dead parents. It's a scene that had to be handled delicately but with intent in order to make the rest of the films (somewhat) realistic and worthwhile, and it does so with flying colors.

It's important to mention the great work of Brendan Gleeson as Mad-Eye/Barty Crouch Jr. and David Tennant as the slithering son of the Minister of Magic. Where Chamber of Secrets failed to register its genre iconography and make a reasonable attempt at horror, Newell creates a dread-filled environment in the climactic scene in the graveyard and The Goblet of Fire takes the Potter series to another level.