The seventh and final Harry Potter book—I remember how excited I was when this first came out. My mom and I are huge fans so she pre-ordered us each a copy on Amazon.com. The two books were delivered on a weekend day and at around 10:00am we each cracked open our copy, started reading, and didn’t stop until we finished (we took breaks for food and such, of course.) My mom finished at around 1:00am and I finished at 4:00am, so this tells you just how massive a book it is. Unless I miss my count that’s 15-18 hours of reading, and both of us read fairly fast. Seeing it put in numbers like that makes it sound crazy, but it’s a great book so I think it was worth it (I’m not sure I’d want to marathon it again, though!) One of the most fun parts, I thought, about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is that it doesn’t take place at the school, as all the other books have. The difference in setting made such a huge difference in the feel of the story that it was impressive. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are searching the globe for things called “Horcruxes,” which supposedly can help them bring about an end to Voldemort’s reign of terror. Partway through their journey they learn about the Deathly Hallows, a trio of items in the wizarding world that grant the owner “the power to cheat death.” Voldemort, of course seems to be searching for these items as well as Harry, who he is determined to see dead.
So, from what I remember (because I read this when it came out, which was July of 2007—three whole years ago), I really enjoyed this book. I remember the epilogue being a bit strange for reasons those who’ve read the book will understand (A.S.P.—that poor child…) and I don’t remember how the resolution went. Usually I remember the more crucial parts of the story and forget the little details, but I’ve managed to forget most of everything—seeing the first half of the 7th movie brought a lot of things back!
So what are the numbers? Well, here’s the google search: Contemporary Lit.about.com gives it a 5/5, Amazon.com gives it a 4.5/5, as does Goodreads.com (4.5/5). The general consensus is that this book was great.
So fans of Harry Potter can rejoice—the ending really does it justice. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard people saying how impressed they were with “How nicely things wrapped up!” For the record: It really is that good, and yes, they did need to split it into two movies. They couldn’t have done it justice otherwise!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Film Reel #2: New Moon
Released to Theatres November 20th, 2009
It was through my mother’s coercion that I saw this movie at all—I was dead set against seeing any of the Twilight movies originally. I have this issue with books turned into movies where, if the main actors and actresses don’t look like what I pictured the main characters of the book looking like, I don’t want to see the movie. I’ve also made an odd observation about a lot of these movie converts: books written in first person don’t translate to the silver screen quite as well as third person books do. I think that’s got a lot to do with the “inner dialogue” many first person books are full of and you can’t put thoughts in a movie and create the same amount of tension as you could in a book. Anyway, so this is about New Moon. New Moon leads off with Bella’s birthday, in which her boyfriend’s family (which is full of vampires) tries to attack her and her boyfriend, Edward, decides they’re too dangerous to be around her anymore and he breaks up with her. She becomes depressed and turns to her friend Jacob for both thrills to make her feel alive again and an emotional leaning post. It isn’t long before Jacob’s own “family” gets a bit strange and he starts distancing himself from Bella as well—for the same reasons as Edward. It’s a little funny that these guys are trying to keep her from getting hurt when she’s running off trying extreme sports like cliff-diving, which she wouldn’t have turned to if they hadn’t been attempting to “protect” her. Nice job guys.
So how was the movie? My honest opinion is that it was “okay,” which means I didn’t suffer while watching it but I wasn’t really all that impressed by it either. Would I watch it again? Probably not—I only have so much free time and this movie wasn’t good enough to deem a second go-around. People keep telling me the movies have been “getting better since the first one” which leads me to wonder how awful the first movie must’ve been. Again, I suppose we should keep in mind the intended audience of this series: teenagers. I have it on good authority, however, that many of the women who went to see New Moon were in their middle ages, and only went to “drool over Jacob.” My best friend tells me that when she went to see New Moon, the entire theatre gasped during a scene in which Jacob removed his shirt. If all this movie is good for is eye candy, count me out—I much prefer movies that make you think and there are plenty of those with attractive guys in them.
As for the numbers, well, they don’t bode as well as those on the book. Internet Movie Database gave New Moon a 4.5/10 (ouch), and Rotten Tomatoes says 1.5/5 (even worse). An interesting point to take in is that those who are huge fans would rate the movie higher than those who aren’t. Tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news says “Twihards” give the movie a 9/10 while “Non-Twihards” give it a 6/10.
So basically, if you liked the first movie, you’ll like this one. If not, find a better way to occupy your time—this is not the film for you.
It was through my mother’s coercion that I saw this movie at all—I was dead set against seeing any of the Twilight movies originally. I have this issue with books turned into movies where, if the main actors and actresses don’t look like what I pictured the main characters of the book looking like, I don’t want to see the movie. I’ve also made an odd observation about a lot of these movie converts: books written in first person don’t translate to the silver screen quite as well as third person books do. I think that’s got a lot to do with the “inner dialogue” many first person books are full of and you can’t put thoughts in a movie and create the same amount of tension as you could in a book. Anyway, so this is about New Moon. New Moon leads off with Bella’s birthday, in which her boyfriend’s family (which is full of vampires) tries to attack her and her boyfriend, Edward, decides they’re too dangerous to be around her anymore and he breaks up with her. She becomes depressed and turns to her friend Jacob for both thrills to make her feel alive again and an emotional leaning post. It isn’t long before Jacob’s own “family” gets a bit strange and he starts distancing himself from Bella as well—for the same reasons as Edward. It’s a little funny that these guys are trying to keep her from getting hurt when she’s running off trying extreme sports like cliff-diving, which she wouldn’t have turned to if they hadn’t been attempting to “protect” her. Nice job guys.
So how was the movie? My honest opinion is that it was “okay,” which means I didn’t suffer while watching it but I wasn’t really all that impressed by it either. Would I watch it again? Probably not—I only have so much free time and this movie wasn’t good enough to deem a second go-around. People keep telling me the movies have been “getting better since the first one” which leads me to wonder how awful the first movie must’ve been. Again, I suppose we should keep in mind the intended audience of this series: teenagers. I have it on good authority, however, that many of the women who went to see New Moon were in their middle ages, and only went to “drool over Jacob.” My best friend tells me that when she went to see New Moon, the entire theatre gasped during a scene in which Jacob removed his shirt. If all this movie is good for is eye candy, count me out—I much prefer movies that make you think and there are plenty of those with attractive guys in them.
As for the numbers, well, they don’t bode as well as those on the book. Internet Movie Database gave New Moon a 4.5/10 (ouch), and Rotten Tomatoes says 1.5/5 (even worse). An interesting point to take in is that those who are huge fans would rate the movie higher than those who aren’t. Tvnz.co.nz/entertainment-news says “Twihards” give the movie a 9/10 while “Non-Twihards” give it a 6/10.
So basically, if you liked the first movie, you’ll like this one. If not, find a better way to occupy your time—this is not the film for you.
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