Holy Hogwarts! The Goblet of Fire Trailer has landed.

After the terrific teaser that came out this spring for Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, I didn't think that I could get anymore excited for the release of the fourth film in this series.

But of course, I was wrong. The full length trailer came out yesterday, and as is typical of me, I have sat and marveled in front of my computer screen, having watched it several times at this point.

In terms of my favorite books in the Harry Potter series, it has always been a toss up for me between the third book, The Prisoner of Azkaban, and the fourth book, The Goblet of fire. The third film was my favorite of the series by far, and from everything that I've seen of the fourth film, I have a feeling that a dilemma of favorites will arise as it did with the books.

The Harry Potter films have had to deal with the challenging fact that each of the books has the same setting for the majority of the story - the Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. In most other trilogies or series that I can think of, the locale always changes, whether we're talking about going from the Shire to Mordor in LOTR, or India to Venice in the Indiana Jones movies. The Harry Potter films have had to struggle against becoming monotonous and boring because they don't get the luxury of moving locations. They must bring forth new visual interpretations each time of the same surroundings. That's why I think its actually fortunate that after the second film, Chris Columbus stepped aside, and the producers decided to have a different director for each film. Though I've only seen one film from a another director (Alfonso Cuaron) so far, I think it will continue to breath new life and creativity into the series. (By the way, I think Chris Columbus gets a bad rap, I think he did a lot with starting the series, and I am happy to know he remains a producer on all the films).

The good thing about the story of Goblet of Fire, is that much of it revolves around the Tri-Wizard tournament, whose competitive events, allowed one to get yet another view of the land and property surrounding Hogwarts. I think the new film will benefit from this a lot, and continue to spin the series into new and interesting places. I think the visuals look fantastic, I love the shot of the ship bounding through the water, the red capes swirling as the students dance around the ice and snow laden hall, and the low angle of the enormous looming grandfather clock on the side of the school. The more I think about it, the more I just love the idea of these different directors coming in and having to use certain production design elements and characters that have already been in place, but being able to add their own takes on things, and touches as well. Director Mike Newell has a diverse body of work under his belt, having directed romantic comedies like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pushing Tin, and Mona Lisa Smile, as well as the darker Donnie Brasco and some work for BBC TV productions. He wouldn't have been my first guess as to who would have been chosen to direct this film, but then again neither was Alfonso Cuaron and his installment turned out fantastically. As I said before, what I've seen looks great so far, and I'm both curious and eager to see Newell's take on the series and the characters in their entirety.

Uh, can we say light saber much?