Harry Potter, Hermione and Ron (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint) are back, yet they are quite different. They’ve crossed the line from pre teens to young adults. The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is set to host the Triwizard Tournament, where champions from three schools face death-defying challenges of courage to win the prize of eternal glory. Would-be competitors place their names into the Goblet of Fire, from which the three opponents are chosen. You must be at least 17 to enter but somehow a fourth name emerges from the flames, Harry Potter, of course. He’s not of age and for a short while everyone thinks Harry cheated, and it seems as if Harry has lost his best friend, Ron. But why would Harry do that, when each of the three blood-curdling tests exceeds the last?

As Harry overcomes various challenges throughout the story, there are many frightening moments for him, his friends and others. Numerous grotesque creatures on the ground, in the air and under the sea, threaten the brave, young magical warriors. Ralph Fiennes (an exceptionally gifted actor) as Lord Voldemort is a truly terrifying villain.

It’s a joy to see Harry, Hermione and Ron as young adults having to make decisions about how they handle themselves with people they trust as well as the ones they don’t. There are socially challenging moments for them to face as well. Asking someone to the Winter Ball can be as daunting as working your way through a tangled maze. To get much deeper into the plot would tell too much about the story. We’ll leave that joy of discovery to you. All the usual suspects return in this installment, Snape, Mad-Eye, Wormtail, and of course, the dreaded Lord Voldemort. Harry’s protectors are here as well, Dumbledore, Hagrid and Miss McGonagall. But this film belongs to the young champions as they navigate coming of age.

This film truly earns its PG-13 rating and is not for very young viewers.

The fantasy violence and frightening images pack a punch. This is not because of the violence on-screen necessarily but how director Mike Newell is able to translate the imagination of author J.K. Rowling’s words from the printed page to the big screen. While the MPAA rating does not speak to sexuality, it’s very much an important part of the film. The issue of first dates, dancing and Harry in a bath tub, only to have Myrtle the ghost (Shirley Henderson) appear when he least expects it, addresses male/female relationships with the awkwardness that exists in real life.

The computer-generated images (CGI) are so seamlessly done that it’s as if the world you see on the screen might actually exist. Recognizing how each succeeding "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" film keeps building on prior events, we realize that we allowed ourselves to get caught up in the hype of the last few "Star Wars" films, saying they were better than they actually were. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" clearly evolves from the prior films but it stands on its own if you never heard of Harry Potter and just picked a film to see at random. Novelist J.K. Rowling does indeed have quite an imagination. Sharing it on the written page and enjoying the vision of the directors, Mike Newell ("Goblet"), Alfonso Cuaron ("Prison of Azkaban") and Chris Columbus ("Sorcerer’s Stone" and "Chamber of Secrets"), on the big screen is truly a treat.