Opinion Prone

Since Half-Blood Prince sucked more the second time, I kind of lost steam on my rewatches. But there was just one movie to go, and sometimes I’m a completionist. After rewatching part 1, I go see the movie still in theatres and the suffering ends and I get to direct my attention towards Pottermore and what is that even about anyway?

[This post doesn’t actually contain any spoilers. :o]

[View the rest of this entry…]

If anything, I think I was far too kind in my original review of Half-Blood Prince. This remains my least favorite movie of the franchise, and I think in many ways, it’s rather insulting to the series as a whole.

[This post contains spoilers for the sixth book and movie.]

[View the rest of this entry…]

I remember distinctly walking out of the theatre after seeing Order of the Phoenix the first time and being furious about it. I declared it the most awful Harry Potter movie at the time, even worse than Prisoner of Azakaban, which is kind of sad since I didn’t have nearly as much invested in this particular book. In fact, I think Order of the Phoenix remains my least favorite book, though it’s been a while since I’ve read it, so maybe not. Theoretically, the less I care for the source, the less picky I should be about the adaptation, right? Clearly not, that first time.

This time though? I think I did manage to enjoy it a lot more because I just didn’t give a damn. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I remembered. It wasn’t good, mind you, but not nearly as terrible. Maybe knowing that I thought Half-Blood Prince was even worse helped?

[This post contains spoilers for the fifth book and movie and vague hints about the rest of the series.]

[View the rest of this entry…]

I didn’t remember much from when I saw Goblet of Fire the first time, other than maybe thinking again that the dragon fly-around of the Hogwarts ground was kind of superfluous. So I was very, very pleasantly surprised to find that this movie is actually… pretty good?

One day, I’ll actually blog about Japanese cartoons again.

[This post contains spoilers for the fourth book and movie.]

[View the rest of this entry…]

This is late, so let’s just jump right into it, hm?

[This post contains spoilers for the third book and movie.]

[View the rest of this entry…]

I was in a bad mood when I popped in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the rewatch, so maybe this is a little unfair, but the second movie didn’t seem to hold up as well as the first one did.

And you know what’s funny? Chamber of Secrets is the second shortest book… but with a run time of 161 minutes, it is the longest movie, period. It is longer than every subsequent movie where Much Worse and More Complicated Things Happen, but while I do feel that the pacing and general storytelling improved a little from movie one, other aspects dragged it down. It’s never fun being the second installment. You have a lot to live up to, and as part of a longer series, you also have a lot to build up to. Chamber of Secrets as a book is already probably the least thrilling, the least memorable, the least favorite — it is debateably the least important too, despite laying the groundwork for many later concepts and themes.

[This post contains nonexplicit spoilers for the second book/movie — I reference various plot points and themes and commentate but don’t ever say exactly what happens.]

[View the rest of this entry…]

Well, the end is near. The eighth and final Harry Potter movie comes out in less than a month. My love-hate relationship with these movies makes me feel love-hatey things. It’ll all be over soon! But is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I’m rewatching all the previous movies to mentally prepare, but also because I’ve been meaning to anyway. I’ve only seen each movie only once, and the routine had been thus: I’d reread the corresponding the book within a month of the movie’s release, and then I’d see the movie opening night, and gradually, I grew into one of those crazy purists. It’ll be fun to see how those opinions hold up though; after all, it’s been just about a decade since the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone hit theatres, and I won’t be rereading each book prior to the viewings this time. I have kind of a crappy memory, so maybe this matters.

[This post contains no explicit spoilers for any book or movie, though I suppose you might consider the implied existence of certain characters, events, and later plot developments as spoilers if you’re really hardcore about that stuff.]

[View the rest of this entry…]

So I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part I, and I am pleased to say that I was, in fact, not the most annoying person in the theatre! There was a girl three or four seats to our right that chattered through most of it. Meanwhile, I managed to get through the movie with very little hushed whispering and only a few instances of flailing silently while mouthing angry, unintelligible things at the screen. :D In lieu of a real review, this is just going to be a follow-up to the previous purist expectation post wherein I’ll ramble about …a lot of things.

(This post contains spoilers for pretty much everything.)

[View the rest of this entry…]

I haven’t seen Deathly Hallows PT1 yet. I’ll be seeing it Wednesday night.

The corresponding book has been sitting on my desk for about two weeks, but I think I’ve decided to not reread it before I see the movie, as has been my habit. I’ve only read Deathly Hallows twice, most recently last summer, and listened to it on audiobook once, sometime in January, I think. It won’t be as sharp as if I had reread it yesterday, but I probably still have a good recollection of all the specific events in the 759-page book. So I will probably still spend most of the two and a half hours hissing complaints and disappointments under my breath like an asshole. Yes, I will be That Guy. I don’t really don’t want to be, but Half-Blood Prince proved that I can’t bloody help myself. It was during the last twenty minutes of that movie that, for the first time, someone turned around and told me to shut up.

I hope it doesn’t happen again. I will try to hiss more quietly this time. :(

(This post contains spoilers for the Deathly Hallows book and the movies up to the sixth.)

[View the rest of this entry…]

You know, it’s funny. I went into this with the full intention of not taking the film adaptation too seriously so maybe I could enjoy myself for once. A lot of people who haven’t read the books tell me that the movies are fine, that they aren’t confused or lost, and that they completely understand what’s happening. I can appreciate that. I don’t really want to be a hater. In fact, I spent most of the previews making sure my brother was sufficiently calmed since he didn’t like the sixth book much at all and therefore probably wasn’t going to enjoy a movie made of it. Within the first ten minutes, our positions were swapped and it was him trying to convince me that it really wasn’t that bad. I try to shelf my purist fanrage. I really do! It’s just very, very hard for me (apparently).

(this review briefly mentions minor spoilers for HP1-5;
spoilers for HP6: Half-Blood Prince are contained under spoiler tags)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[View the rest of this entry…]