Editorial: They’re just wild about Harry

Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005 | 7:06 a.m.

Moviegoers will be lining up outside theaters just before midnight today, eagerly awaiting "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," which opens as the clock strikes 12 and signals Friday's first minutes.

Most die-hard fans of the fictional boy wizard Harry Potter already know how this movie begins and ends. They read the book when it was released in 2000. "Goblet" is the movie adaptation of the fourth book in J.K. Rowling's wildly popular Harry Potter series. The sixth book was released in July.

Surely some will arrive sporting facsimiles of the round black spectacles Harry wears. A few may paint a small lightning-bolt-shaped scar on their foreheads, such as the one Potter received from his mortal enemy, Lord Voldemort.

Although the plot outcome is known, Potterheads remain curious to see how filmmakers interpret Rowling's world of witches and wizards, whose universe parallels that of regular, nonmagical folks ("muggles").

This time around, fans will see the boyish Potter-turned-teenager struggle with the tribulations of adolescence as he labors to win a tournament that tests his magical skills.

This tale promises to be darker than its predecessors, as it is the first Potter movie to receive a PG-13 rating. Murder, torture and monstrous beasts abound. Potter will question authority, dodge a paparazzi-style journalist, agonize over girls and, on more than one occasion, fight for his life.

Still, the best part of this fourth Harry Potter film, like the others, is sure to come at the end. That's the part where youngsters raised in a high-tech, computerized world emerge from theaters saying they liked the movie -- but the book was better.