By Evan Ferstenfeld

Lurking within the interior of the unfortunately-named Hogwarts Wizard Academy, an opponent rages a war that the school's students are entirely defenseless against. Spells have been launched with the strength of one hundred piping-hot Pop Tarts, to little or no effect against its total ravaging of Harry Potter's fourth-year magician classmates. Is this new diabolical villain a murky acquaintance of back-from-the-grave Lord Voldemort, a bad guy so evil he makes the newly-sympathetic Darth Vader seem like a chocolate-coated Keebler Elf cookie? Is it a plague spreading like wildfire through the school's eons-old plumbing fixtures, already infested with slippery Slytherin snakeskin? Or is just the way Hermione Granger has been filling out more and more of her magician’s cloak the last two years and seductively scribbling notes to Ron and Harry in their Dark Arts classes?

Like it or not, the enemy that nearly swallows Harry's entire class of magical misfits whole are the hormones clinging to the walls and nearly every object within Fire's framework. Themes that have been quietly bandied around the three previous cinematic affairs, such as ego-driven ambition and sexuality, finally run amok upon Goblet of Fire's proceedings with the intensity of a flamethrower wielded in a city made out of fireworks. Suffering from nary a spell of senioritis, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire strides into cineplexes this week with the confidence of a four-letter Quidditch champion, shedding unneeded pounds and emotional baggage in the off-season in order to put on a dazzling, action-packed showcase for adults who still feel like children and actual children alike.

After the supreme lankiness of Stone, the sophomore nervousness of Secrets, and the brooding, ethereal nature of Azkaban, Fire is all about chopping the heads off of problems that have bubbled to a teen’s surface rather than painfully rumbling below. Directed by a man who is best known for such television puffballs as Death of a Dog and attempting to give a voice to the perpetually hoarse Julia Roberts vehicle Mona Lisa Smile, Mike Newell successfully digs his own visual trench somewhere between the cuddly kiddie mushiness of Stone and Secret's Chris Columbus, and the poetic, avant-garde re-imagining of Azkaban's Alfonso Cuaro. Even more pleasantly surprising, Newell and screenwriter Steven Kloves fling open the window and free the previous film's admirable but lonely bell tower existence with Goblet, heightening the multicultural aspect and global feel of its Non-Muggle community to an obsessive-compulsive, Star Wars attention of finer details, all without making the movie’s blood run cold.

Fire pits four combatants from various schools of sorcery against one another in three oddball but challenging trials, presumably to see who will make the highlight reel on The Wide World of Wizardry, and maybe even score a few endorsement deals. Like this magical version of the Toughman competition, Goblet of Fire has three main thrusts to its speed-read re-telling of the book's broader storyline. The Triathlon and final showdown segments provide the series with some of its most thrilling moments, spaced out with a prom date sequence guaranteed to make you re-live every high school insecurity one thought they had resolved since doing away with Oxy zit pads. The movie becomes the cheese-o-rific equivalent of a John Hughes film at points, right down to nerd in the corner of the gymnasium staring longingly at the prom queen, knowing HE'S really the guy for her.

Considering its material was culled from a book nearly the size of the first three Potter adventures combined, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire works magical wonders packing its battle royales, rapidly forming story and overtly emphasized thematics into the time allotted. While the snickering smart-alecks and awkward antagonists inhabiting the film's universe feel even more alive and realistic than in Harry films of yore, casualties from the book occur with the disappearance of nearly every colorful side story, along with a rushed timeline which makes the film feel as if its events have been whittled down to two weeks instead of two semesters. But with characters, a central journey and a film franchise itself that seems to be coming into its own with each successive installment, this Goblet of Fire continues brightly blazing a path Azkaban's mixture of childlike discovery and grown-up intensity wisely improved the series with.

Grade: A-
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 167 Mins.