Tara snuck her way into the router today and played with some settings. Now, not only are we connecting to a network known as "3406, y'all," but we are also actually connecting to a network. It's quite the revolutionary concept. Ah, Comcast...how quickly I've come to despise you.
I was quite jealous to hear of the Springfield foursome's great times at the midnight showing of Harry Potter. I did not go to a midnight showing because I was wiped out from standing outside on the streets of Chicago in the blistering cold handing out 3D glasses for the better part of 7 hours. More on that tomorrow.
I decided to catch a matinee this afternoon, because I really don't do anything during the day and thought it would be less crazy. I drove to the theater because it had been a while since I'd taken the Stallion out (the clock was still wrong, for heaven's sakes). Travel time kind of screwed up my chance at the 3:30 (since when does a 3:30 Friday showing sell out? Geez.), but luckily the theater was showing the movie basically every hour. But the 4:30 showing meant one thing.
School's out.
Normally, a kid-filled audience would be very upsetting, but, lacking nearby dedicated geek friends, I was more than happy to share the experience with dedicated kid friends. The PG-13 rating ensured that there would be very few little kids, and so therefore I enjoyed a pretty silent and cry-free audience*. Besides, it's good to see things through the eyes of a child every now and again. Every New Day and all that.
The movie was, as many of you know by now, awesome. The kids are growing up and growing with their roles pretty nicely. Overall, very enjoyable. In the interest of sharing and conversing and whatnot, I had some questions and comments.
-Did Cho have an Irish accent in the book? If she didn't, she should have. I could have listened to her talk the whole movie. Pity she didn't have more lines. "Careful of the steps, Harry. It's a bit oicy at the top." Sigh...
- Did the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang go to school during the year or did they just get the year off? They obviously didn't mix into the Hogwarts classes, but a year seems like a long time to be going to class on a ship/in a carraige. Did they have some empty classes in Hogwarts or what? This may be a middling issue, but I feel education is the key to the future.
- Finally, I decided that watching Harry Potter movies without reading the books is equivalent to watching Serenity without having ever watched Firefly. Taken on their own, they are enjoyable cinematic experiences, but have nowhere near the emotional resonance. It's just so much more meaningful to know the backstory and the depth of everything - like why it was so hard for Neville to see the Cruciatus curse. (Which they changed, didn't they? It was Bellatrix Lestrange that performed it on his parents, not Barty Crouch, Jr.**)
Anyway, it was great, even the super awkward scenes with overzealous female ghosts. Naughty bits, indeed.
*Except for that little bit that I cried. But that was silent and if there had been a nice girl with me, she would have thought it was sweet.
**Is this post geeky enough yet?***
***No. No, it's not.
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7 comments:
I just typed up everything I thought of this movie. Apparently this damn comment post box only allows 34,012 characters. So when I posted it the entire blogger domain temporarily crashed. Suffice it to say it won't all fit here. But I agree with you that it was a good movie. That said, I can boil the flick down to one sentence.
Quiddich match, Task One, Ball, Bath, Task Two, Task Three, Voldemort, Inexplicably happy ending.
I didn't say there would verbs, syntax, or anything sentence-y about the sentence. But that's all that happens. And it's damn near three hours. The movie I need it to be would actually have to be "a 10 part PBS mini-series"*.
And also, what was with Dumbledore? He seemed to have lost his cool, rational, eloquent demeanor in this film. For example, right after Harry is thrust into the competition:
Dumbledore: "HARRY WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO? YOU ARE IN DEEP CRAP NOW! DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THAT CUP??? I'LL KILL YOU!"
Harry: "I liked the old Dumbledore better"
Seriously. But those things aside it was still a great movie, one that I've seen twice in less than 24 hours. I still have about 4 movies to see this weekend too. I reccomend everyone go see HP & GoF at some point.
- Scott
* Quote imparted by none other than Jakey MacJake after tonight's showing of the film.
** See you're not the only one who can hit Shift+8
*** smusicxg. That's my verification word. There's an actual word in it. This is a clear indication of the end of time.
i was pleasantly surprised by this movie. being such a long book (734 pgs), i was suprised by how much they actually fit into the time frame of 2 1/2 hrs (i still think they should have gone with the original idea of 4 hrs with an intermission...thats what they did with gods and generals and that movie was a SNOOZE...HP is better material). it did have a choppy feel, but at least they had all the main plot points, which the last movie did not accomplish. not even close. although this one left out some entertaining bits of the book i enjoyed, they weren't totally essential to the main drive of the story and honestly, those small points are why you read the books, not watch the films.
i think this director did the best so far. he was able to incorporate the good parts that colombus created and build on them, unlike a certain director of the third film who completely threw out what was already given, creating a dent in a highly profitable enterprise (i'm not bitter).
and as for dumbledore: in the book, he does flip out on harry after his name comes out of the goblet...actually more so than shown in the movie ( which scotty seems to have completely exaggerated. "i'll kill you" missed THAT line) i liked dumbledore...last movie he seemed kind of on the edge of hippy instead of intellectual.
good musical composition too. i loved the slight alterations made on the classic themes of the movies. great use of dissonance and minor chord structure.
overall summary: liked longbottom in this one. harry is getting better. ron is still great. hermione is really blossoming and as for myrtle...FULLY awkward...that was NOT in the book...disturbing scene really. glad the bubbles weren't gone yet...(people in the theatre started to hoot and whistle)lol
I saw it this afternoon.
First, Tim, the book mentions the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbaton having classes in their respective homes/transportation devices.
Second, remember when the Harry Potter series was golden? Like, when Hogwarts was golden-colored. Now the castle's dirty and dark all the time, they never show moving stairs, nobody uses pithy spells to fix hangnails and glasses, and apparently Filch doesn't know how to change a light bulb, because the whole place is so dim. Plus, everyone's SO British (woops, that's definitely a plus).
I think they did a good job, but obviously, a 12-hour version would have been infinitely better to catch all the subplots.
And I, predictably, cried like a baby when Cedric died. SO sad. Ralph Fiennes masterfully plays Voldemort. Creepy. But not as creepy as Myrtle. I'm glad she's out of the story line now.
Joanna
J Fi Fo Fum, I was of course kidding. And I do realize that he did flip out in the book. But, the way he did it made me feel awkward and as though I had let down a great friend. Not to mention the demeanor in which he let Harry know how angry he was about it. Not so here. He just gets really "shake the crap out of Potter" angry. And it was that that I thought was a departure from the typical, awesome, Dumbledore.
This Dumbledore seemed to take a backseat to the others (even his own portrayal of big D from the last movie). Dumbledore is supposed to radiate a kind of quirky brilliance, and a sense that though he is unorthodox, he is certainly the man in charge. This Dumbledore was viseral and noisy and confused and didn't at all posess that pseudo-omnisence that the Dumbledore of the books does.
Also, did they dumb down his speech? Because he used the word "really" quite a bit. For example:
"The death of Cedric Diggory is a really terrible loss."
I was temped to laugh because it sounded like he was mocking him. It really did. I think if the little gits have to get out a thesarus to understand what's going on, so be it.
- Scott
scotty:i know were kidding...exaggerating to make a point...and ok, i will agree...the shaking was some what humorous....a little melodramatic perhaps. and i think they did dumb down the speech about cedric. but in this fourth book, i dont think that dumbledore is as important as he was in previous or in the next two compared to some of the other characters in this particular plot. thus why i think he did a good job in this one, but the next movie, hopefully we will see the return of the quirky brilliance that we all love in dumbledore.
and in reference to cedric's death...TOTALLY cried...not when he died mind you, but when harry brought back the body...and wouldnt let anyone touch him...and the wailing father...too much...tears approach.
i also look forward to future work of fiennes. i must agree as previously stated, masterful.
and BTW:
i saw it again yesterday and HP G of F was better the second time around. and upon furthur analysis, as much as i hate to say it, i found that i agreed more with scotty's opinion than originally thought. the image of a stiff board kept coming to mind...how sad.
speaking of harry potter: i ended up in a debate the other day about the fate of harry: will he die or will he survive come the final book. i found myself out numbered by people who think he will live and i alone saw an inevitable death. thoughts?
yeah, dumbledore was a little angry this time. he doesn't have the regal presence that harris had when he played dumbledore. and i don't like his accent, it's british sometimes then scottish others. it's weird.
anyways, next book i don't think harry'll die, i think snape will die saving him and harry will end up being the defense against the dark arts teacher.
good movie though, voldemort was great :)
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