Before Movie :D During Movie :/ 5 Minutes After Movie :( 10 minutes After Movie :)

                  Every time a Harry Potter movie comes out in the theatre, I always get extremely excited.  The amount of hype that goes into promoting the movies gets me every time.  From the high-resolution stills that have me guessing to the new trailers that leave me jumping in my seat.  However, even with all of the hype, for the last several movies I have found myself disappointed afterwards.  Either because they left out or messed up my favorite part from the book or royally screwed up some important plot line. 

                  Don’t get me wrong, the movies are amazing, but there is always that tiny bit they mess up.  However, that tiny scene they screw up is usually an important or pivotal part of the story.  That can drop my excitement level from over 100 percent to in the negatives.  For instance, when I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, there is one part in the book that I was looking forward to the most.  The scene was where Harry entered the memories of his most hated teacher, Professor Snape.  In the memory, Harry witnessed his parents when they were young.  Harry’s dad and his friends were having an argument with the younger Snape, which ended up with Snape getting de-pantsed. 

                  I remember sitting in the theatre in anticipation for that scene and when it finally came, it was gone before I could blink.  The whole scene was only about 15 seconds.  I sat there in disbelief that they could destroy such a scene.  Not only is it funny, but it happens to be a very important scene that explains so much in the end.  

 

                  Another thing that the Harry Potter movies do is screw up is death scenes.   So far they have messed up two and it looks like they are going to mess up another.  In Order of the Pheonix, Harry’s Godfather Sirius Black, gets killed and it was done badly.  Sirius was the closest thing that Harry had to a real family and they don’t make it seem that way.  Partly because the movies don’t get you as emotionally attached to the character as they should. The other part is because Harry was supposed to explode at Dumbledore in his office because he was partly to blame.  That scene would have given the movie the emotion needed to portray Harry’s feeling of losing such an important person to him.  It would have given it a lot more impact.  Instead, he sat in the office for ten seconds and sat there like an empty shell.  

                  The second death scene that they screwed up was Dumbledore’s, which I couldn’t fathom because the scene before it was perfect.  The cave scene right before looked like it was ripped directly from the pages.  I was so giddy with excitement, but I should have known it was too good to be true.  What happened afterward is what killed my high.  Harry was supposed to be magically bound and hidden while Dumbledore was facing his doom.  However, in the movie he just stood there hidden and watched.  There is no way, absolutely no way that the Harry Potter from the book would have done that.  Plus, to top it all off, Harry saw Snape before he even went up to the tower and did nothing.  Then, after Dumbledore fell to his death, there was supposed to be a big battle scene.  It didn’t happen.  They didn’t even give Dumbledore his funeral.   I couldn’t believe it.

                  After I saw Deathly Hallows part 1, my hopes for the final film lifted.  I began to hope that it will be just as good to the book as the first part.  However, my hope is slowly fading.  I keep seeing new stories where the creators talk about the movie and I saw one that other day that almost killed my hope completely.  They are changing the way Snape dies.  Snape is in my top favorite character list and if I don’t cry when he dies, I will walk out of the theatre.  Plus, his death is an extremely important part in the plot.  Snape is supposed to die in the Shrieking Shack, but they are changing it to a crystal house.  The way the art director was describing it, it seems that Harry will see Snape’s death from a distance.

                  How can they do that, Harry is supposed to be right there when Snape dies.  Close enough that afterwards, Harry can get to Snape and his memories before he dies.  I just don’t understand how they can do this, but I cannot pass judgment on it until I see the movie.  Since the Deathly Hallows is filled with death, it makes me nervous to get my hopes up for the movie. There is also a few other things that I noticed in the trailer for the Deathly Hallows that makes me doubt it, but I know in the end I will get my hopes up.  Hopefully, the film can prove me wrong and I can leave the theatre happy.    

8 Movies with 4 Different Directors = Potentially Problematic

        It seems that when Hollywood attempts to make a big screen adaption of a popular book, the movie is never better than the book.  This is the case with all of the Harry Potter movies.  Don’t get me wrong, I love all of the movies, but they always seem to get screwed up in certain ways.  Being a Mass Communication major, I understand that taking books that are an average of around 500 pages and putting them into a two and a half hour movie is difficult.  However, Steve Kloves, the screenplay writer for every Harry Potter movie, screwed up quite a bit. 

                It’s not all to be placed on his shoulders though because throughout the seven movies so far, there have been four different directors.  Chris Columbus started off the franchise by bringing the first two Harry Potter’s to life.  He did an excellent job, there is little I can say that I don’t like about the first two installments.  He chose excellent actors, took Hogwarts and brought it to life and stayed pretty on target to the books. 

Then Alfonso Cuaron came in and changed the look of the Harry Potter movies.  He added a giant bridge and clock that are now in every movie that a lot of Harry Potter fans dislike.  Also, Richard Harris the original Dumbledore, passed away so they had to choose another one.  Michael Gambon was chosen to replace Harris and that changed the feel of the movie.  Harris as Dumbledore was exactly as I envisioned him.  He had the gentle nature, voice, look and demeanor that was Dumbledore.  Gambon’s Dumbledore cannot hold a thing against Harris’s version.  Gambon just doesn’t have the right it factor for Dumbledore.  He plays Dumbledore too aggressive.  Cuaron also changed Professor Flitwick’s character into something completely different and essentially made him a band teacher.  

  

Cuaron only directed the third Potter movie, next Mike Newell took over.  He was probably my favorite director.  I think that he did a great job with the fourth movie, but Klove’s made a few mistakes writing the screen play.  I wish Klove’s would have made the maze during the third challenge as it was in the book.  That is with different magical obstacles, instead of the maze just trying to crush them.  That was lame, but I guess time restraints were the problem there.  This is also the movie where we first actually get to see Lord Voldemort!  Newell choosing Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort was an excellent decision.  The ending when he got his body back, was amazing and dramatic.   All in all, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is up there as one of my favorites.

Like Cuaron, Newell only did one movie as well and then David Yates took over.  Yates was the smart one.  He kept going until the end of the franchise, which is what I would have done.  Why would you let something as awesome as directing Harry Potter go?  I would have taken it and done every single movie. However, if I was directing, I also would have had the book on set with me every day and referred to it whenever I needed too.  J.K Rowling should have dropped the books on Klove’s desk and been like here’s the deal, this is your script, just make it work.  No rewrites, no additional scenes, dialogue is all in there, get going.  Yates in my opinion has taken to many liberties with the movies.  He has added at least one scene that was never in the book and put them in the movies.   That valuable time could have been used to add things from the actual book! 

Order of the Phoenix is the movie I dislike the most, even though I love them all, if that makes any sense.  There were just too many things wrong with it.  I could go on for a long time.  However, he did make up for it with The Half Blood Prince.  Even though there were a lot of things wrong with that movie as well.  However, The Deathly Hallows part 1 was by far his best. For the most part it was true to the book.  Though, that may be because they split the last book up into two parts.  

That was an excellent idea on their part.  There was just too much stuff in the last book to put into two and a half hours.  They should have done that with every book!  Actually, what they should have done is just made four hour movies.  I would sit there for that long for Harry Potter and I am pretty sure most of the other millions of Harry Potter fans would as well.   At least make a non-fan short version and a super-fan long version.  That would be amazing!

It seemed that as the movies progresses and got more and more adult in content that the movies began to slip.  The film makers were still trying to market them to children, instead of staying true to the books.  Columbus should have stayed for the entire franchise, then there wouldn't have been so many shifts in style and opinion.  The movies would have been eight pieces that create a whole system of epic proportions.  Or to put it simply, Gestalt.   

J.K Rowling = Creative Genius

          Every time that I reread a Harry Potter book, I am still in awe that one person could come up with such an elaborate and amazing world. A world that many people wish existed. However, it did only come from one mind that of J.K Rowling. If I had to choose and idol, without even thinking, J.K Rowling would be my obvious choice. If I could have even a sliver of her creative genius and success that she has acquired over the past decade and a half, I would be content with my life.

          It still blows my mind that she was able to create such a detailed world that people want to live in. I am still waiting for that damn owl to deliver my letter to Hogwarts, even though it’s about eleven years too late.  However, better late than never! I know so many people, who would love to go to Hogwarts to learn magic. Jo has even created words that have been integrated into our pop culture, such as muggle (non-magical person) and quidditch (a wizarding sport). Speaking of quidditch, many colleges around the world have created quidditch leagues of their own. There is even such thing as the International Quidditch Association.



          Jo has also created many characters that people relate too and feel with as their lives unfold in the pages. I have never read a book with so many characters I would love to meet in real life. The characters give the book such depth. Jo did such an amazing job bringing them to life on the pages that when she would kill them off, I would actually cry. I would sit there in disbelief that she was so heartless to kill that person. I even got angry sometimes, like when she killed off Fred Weasley and not Percy Weasley! I know I am not alone in this either. Only a truly gifted writer can make their audience shed tears over the deaths of fictional people. Jo did just that, not only one time, but multiple times throughout the books.

     All of the wonderful characters and the elaborate world would be nothing if she did not come up with such an awesome plot. Her creative genius tied together all the elements into complex interwoven plots from book one all the way to book seven. Not only did she have enough genius to crank out seven books, she wrote seven books that kept her audience more and more interested as the story progressed. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” became the fastest selling book of all time by selling about 15 million copies worldwide in its first twenty four hours. Once again only a creative genius would be able to pull that off.

          To top it all off, J.K Rowling seems to be a wonderfully kind woman.  She is not smug or arrogant about her success. She prefers her privacy and doesn’t flounce around with her billions of dollars, trying to show everybody that she is better than them.  Quite a bit of her money is given to multiple charities. Her humble attitude may be due to the fact that before she became the first ever billionaire author, she was living off welfare as a single mother.  She had a tough life before Harry Potter was published and it took over a year for it to even get published. I bet all those idiots who turned her manuscript down are feeling pretty stupid now. However, that’s beside the point, luckily scholastic was smart enough to see her creative genius and publish Harry Potter.

My Hogwarts Letter Just Got Lost

          For every person who wishes they received their Hogwarts letter on their eleventh birthday, I am sad to say that soon we will have nothing more to look forward too. It brings a tear to my eye just thinking that the final movie adaption, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 is coming out in July. This is because it is essentially the last big thing for Harry Potter and I have done just about everything I can with it. I have read all seven books and seen every movie multiple times, went to Harry Potter: The Expedition and even the grand opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando this past summer.

          As you can see, Harry Potter has been a very big part of my life and it’s all thanks to J.K Rowling. She is the literary genius who created the magical world of Harry Potter. I can go on and on about Jo and how awesome she is for giving the world such a gift. However, I will give Jo her own blog entry another time. For now, I am going to share how Harry Potter became such an influential part of my life.

          One Christmas I was happily unwrapping gifts, getting everything that I asked for, when I came upon one particular present. I opened it and to my unpleasant surprise I found myself holding a book. I looked at the cover and read, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” Then I heard my mom ask if I liked it. Does any teenager like getting a book for Christmas? The majority of the time the answer is no. However, I put on that fake smile you have to when somebody gives you a lame gift and said, “Yes!” Meanwhile, my brother was doing the same thing, except he got “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”

          Since it was a book and I wasn’t a big fan of reading, I threw the book into a pile of stuff in my room and forgot about it. A few weeks later, I was complaining to my mom that I was bored and she told me to go read the book she got me for Christmas. Grumbling, I went upstairs and found it under a bunch of stuff and started to read.



          From that moment on I was instantly hooked. I couldn’t put the book down. I read for hours and hours until I finally finished it. I had never found a book with a story that I enjoyed so much. I didn’t even realize at the time that Harry Potter was a series. I actually started with book three. Although, it did explain why I was a bit confused about certain things. However, even with the confusion it was still the best thing I had ever read.

          Sad that I was finished with the exciting story, I went down stairs and told my mom how good the book was. It was then that she reminded me that my brother had another Harry Potter book. Obviously, I read that one as well and discovered there were more books and even movies. After that the rest is history and Harry Potter essentially took over my life.