We saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire tonight, and we enjoyed it quite a bit. It was clearly much darker than the first three (in keeping with the shift in tone in the books), and the least "Hogwarts-centric," meaning that it was less concerned with the school year as with the plot involving You-Know-Who.

It's also the least true to the book of the four, but not in a bad way. There's a fair amount of stuff left out as well, but given the length of the book there's no way they'd be able to put it all in a movie without it approaching Fanny and Alexander-type length. I thought this hurt the portrayals of Krum and Delacroix the most, as they're not much more than place-holders in the movie. Between the two of them they probably get 10 lines of dialog, if that.

As for the actors getting older, they're all still believable as 14 year-olds. As much as the main characters have changed, I thought the difference in appearances in Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom were the most striking.

I was also pretty surprised that Cho Chang had a Scottish accent. Me and my cultural biases.

Anyway, it's another solid entry for the franchise. Especially when you can use half-price passes to go see it. Viva parsimony!

And with the movie we got six previews:

* Aeon Flux, which looks like they crossed The Matrix with Gattaca. Though that may well be the vibe from the series; I never watched it.

* The Shaggy Dog, another remake of the man-becomes-canine Disney film, this time starring Tim Allen. Yes, there are wacky hijinx and valuable Lessons Learned. Hopefully, one of them is that you should never see a Tim Allen movie.

* Cheaper by the Dozen 2, which leads me to ask, "Why?" Basic plot: Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt's huge family takes on Eugene Levy's richer big family. There are wacky hijinx and valuable Lessons Learned. Hopefully, one of them is that most movies should not be sequelized.

* King Kong, which I have to say I have no interest in. I've never been that interested in the story in general, which leads me to ask: are there supposed to be dinosaurs on Skull Island?

* The new Superman movie had a very vague preview, mostly short snatches of film that give you a general idea that he's back, but without showing too much of the film. It piqued my curiosity, but didn't show enough to really pull me in.

* Finally, there was Happy Feet. It's an animated cross between The March of the Penguins and... Swing Kids? Strictly Ballroom? One of those dancing movies, anyways, as it appears to be about penguins who dance. Robin Williams does his fey Latino voice for one of the penguins, which is problematic.