Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson (II), Rupert Grint

7 out of 10 stars: Though the Warner Bros. franchise is now four-for-four, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the least satisfying of the bunch, though it rivals--if not bests--them all for its visual marvels and a more open, airy feel. It's understandable as it's a transitional movie and it's got some growing pains to get through.

It's also the first Harry Potter movie that I watched without having read the book first. In some cases the foreknowledge has been a disadvantage for my moviegoing; the final tests in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone were even bigger tedious diversions than they were in the book. Sometimes, though, the filmed version helped smooth out scenarios that, on the page, seemed contrived; the Mexican standoff in the Shrieking Shack seemed less like the stateroom scene from A Night at the Opera than it did before.

It's a good thing I didn't read Goblet too because, much as the final tests in Sorcerer's Stone, I would have been dreading the TriWizard Tournament, the centerpiece of Goblet of Fire. The TriWizard Tournament is an annual contest where over-17 wizards from the three wizarding schools, Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons, compete in an Olympics-like competition meant to foster international goodwill among the magic community.

Before we get there, however, we get a truly chilling opening sequence wherein a poor old caretaker sees lights on in the nearby mansion and, going to investigate, runs straight into Lord Voldemort and his cohorts. The scene is shown to be just a dream of Harry Potter's but we've no doubt that it echoes something real.

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his fast friends, Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) first attend the Quidditch World Cup (which helps establish the out-of-doors feel to this film). The thought of reading another three pages dealing with Quidditch made me put the book version of "Goblet" down, but it's mercifully short and imaginatively executed here.

Shortly after the tournament the encampment near the pitch is attacked by DeathEaters, followers of Lord Voldemort, and they send everyone scurrying. Harry is left behind and he sees someone mysterious in the shadows; it appears that Voldemort's attempt at a comeback has new vigor. It's not a big surprise, he's been popping in and out for four books now, but never so openly or aggressively.

Our trio puts these unpleasant events behind them though and head back for their fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hogwarts is hosting the aforementioned TriWizard Tournament. Three champions are picked to compete in the tournament by the mysterious Goblet of Fire but this year the goblet spits out a fourth name: Harry Potter. Ron immediately sees this as grandstanding by Harry and the rest of his schoolmates, obviously forgetting the two years running where he saved all of their skins.

In addition to showcasing a cool dragon, some creepy mermaids and a shifting labyrinth, the tournament brings in loads of new characters to compete against and to be suspicious of. There's Igor Karkaroff (Predrag Bjelac), the head teacher at Durmstrang. His champion is Viktor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski), a popular Quidditch player who picks up on Hermione. Karkaroff was a former DeathEater, who was released for coughing up the names of other DeathEaters. The Durmstrang-ians are essentially Russians, they may as well carry bottles of vodka and do some folk dances.

The Beauxbatons are French hotties, led by Olympe Maxime (Frances de la Toure). Their champion is Fleur Delacour (Clémence Poésy).The Beauxbatons sigh an orgiastic sigh when they make their grand entrance in the Great Hall and butterflies flutter from their robes.

But it's not only butterflies that are floating around in the ether. Love is in the air at Hogwarts. Hermione and Ron are attracted to one another in that passive/aggressive way of teenagers. Harry is smitten with Cho Chang (Katie Leung) though he's clumsy in his approach. Even Rubius Haggrid (Robbie Coltraine) finds himself in the clutches of love, falling for Madam Maxime.

All of this leads to a new feature for a Potter film; sexual tension and innuendo which sometimes resembles the burgeoning hormones of a teenager as it burbles up unexpectedly and, often, embarrassingly. Hogwarts' Yule Ball has slow-dancing. Even the dead are flirtatious as Moaning Myrtle (Shirley Henderson) comes on to Harry when he enters a bath to solve a riddle.

It's this element that may have been why the producers and the book's author lit upon Mike Newell as the director for Goblet. One can imagine a pre-"Potter" J.K. Rowling falling desperately in love (and rightfully so) with Newell's Four Weddings and a Funeral and thinking he had just the right touch for a fantasy with romantic elements. Not so much.

There's a pretty painful dance sequence with a rock band, called the Weird Sisters (a one-off group that includes members of Radiohead) playing "Do the Hippogrif." Now, I think what the filmmakers are doing is understandable, even admirable, attempting to give these characters some footing in the present, to provide some touchstone for kids today to see this student body of witches and wizards as contemporaries. But, in addition to being clumsy, it's going to date this picture, like including the "Jitterbug" sequence in The Wizard of Oz would have stuck it firmly in the "floy joy" era of the late `30s. But so be it.

Beware! Spoilers Ahead!:

This film will also be remembered as the one which caused the Baptists to say, "See? I told you so!!"

The last act of Harry Potter is dark, dark, dark, dark, dark and contains, essentially, a black magic satanic rite (for those Baptists, probably solidifying the slippery slope into an obsession with the occult that they warned the whole series represents). Voldemort is resurrected in bodily form but not before a special cauldron concoction is created involving a hacked-off, sacrificial limb, an unearthed bone, and the blood of Harry Potter. Into this brew is dumped the desiccated form of Voldemort, shortly thereafter emerging as a full-bodied man. Ralph Fiennes is impressive as Voldemort; it will be fun watching him take up the screen in the ensuing films.

But the biggest problem with the rite is that you realize what you might have suspected; that it's the entire point of Goblet of Fire, very little that proceeded, say some flirting, advanced anything.

Rather ironic for a film that is essentially about advancing the Harry Potter story from whimsical childhood fancy to more serious adult fantasy.