Last night my good friends Jackson and Kyle went with me to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The picture you see was taken around 3:00Am... we were tired! What's really crazy were the DROVES of people waiting to see the 3:15Am showing after we got out. (And here I thought I was the Potter Nerd!) Thanks to to Jackson and Kyle for going with me. I totally owe you both a "Sac Snack." : ) Thanks for going.It took me a while to gather my thoughts on the latest installment of Harry Potter (and the Half Blood Prince) and while I can't actually say I hated the movie, I can't say I didn't like it either. I am going to try and be subjective and diplomatic about my thoughts, but I must advise: there will be spoilers in this post. So if you haven't seen it and want to, now is the time for you to click back on your browser.
Once Upon a time...
My love affair with Harry Potter began about 2 and a half years ago, when upon my fathers' request, I picked up the first book. You see, my dad was an electrician. A union man. A guy who drank Pabst Blue Ribbon and smoked 2 packs of Marlboro Reds a day. I give you this background, because the only reading I ever saw him do was in work study books and all of those had math in them. The man didn't read for fun. He saw the first two Harry Potter movies and loved them. At this point I had never watched the movies or read any of the books, refusing to become wrapped up in a children's literature. He knew my LOVE for reading- having busted me with a flashlight under the covers reading "just one more chapter!" numerous times as a child, and told me he wished that I would give them a try. I borrowed the first book (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) from a friend. I never read it, lost it in a move, and had to buy her a new one. Before I gave the new (and hardback!) book back to her, I read it. This was after my dad passed, and it took me all of about a day to finish it. I was hooked. That summer I read all of the books, quickly finishing the last one on the day I started it. (The last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is 759 pages long.) That's some serious reading, if I do say so myself. The day I picked up that first book I thought to myself, OK Dad, since you asked me to, I will read them. Funnily enough, it was the coolest advice my dad ever gave me.
So yeah, the series is pretty fraking important to me. For my own reasons. It is for those reasons alone that I didn't hate the movie. Because he would have never read the books and would have loved it. He would have loved the magic itself, and the beauty, and the teenage kissing and hormones. The funny jokes. The beautiful shots like the long winding one of Ron and Lavender snogging to Draco Malfoy up on the tower, brooding ominously. So this first part of the post is for him. : )
The second part (in three, two, one..) is for anyone who thinks the movie sucked balls because they have read the books. (Here's where the spoilers start.) The biggest problem I have with this movie is the fact that someone (JK Rowling, maybe?) allowed Steve Kloves, the screenwriter, to write in scenes that weren't part of the book at all. This would include but is not limited to Death Eaters setting fire to the Burrow (where the Weasley's live). Kloves also leaves out Dumbledore's visit to Privet Drive to pick Harry up, Dumbledore and Harry talking in the broom shed on their arrival at the Burrow, and of course, Dumbledore's funeral. How can you leave out Dumbledore's funeral?? There are countless other things that I and other Potter fanatics were missing, that I won't drone on about. Just know this, if you read the books with any kind of passion at all, don't be surprised if you are really disappointed. I totally was.
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