Harry Plopper?
What a disappointment!
So, short of the crazies who get dressed up as witches and wizards and line up for days for tickets to these things, there are few who were more excited for the latest Harry Potter movie than me.
I still remember getting the book when it was released in 2005. It arrived the day of release from Amazon. I got into my big comfy arm chair that I had at the time (why the hell did I give that thing away?), started reading and didn’t stop until I’d devoured all 600 pages. I then buried my face into a throw pillow and sobbed for 20 minutes straight.
I didn’t shed a tear at the movie, and not only did I yawn about half a dozen times, I even checked my watch at least twice. There was no such boredom at any of the 5 preceding films (despite their ups and downs in quality).
The biggest problem with the movie is that in attempting to stay as true as possible to the books, everything felt like it was on “hurry up”, and so much got glossed over.
There wasn’t nearly enough McGonagle. Not enough of the Weasley’s joke shop. Not enough Hagrid (and I’m not even that big a Hagrid fan), not enough Neville, not enough Snape, not enough of anything. The only thing the film got truly right was Harry and Dumbledore’s relationship. It royally dropped the ball on Harry and Ginny’s. How do we dedicate so much time to Ron and stupid Lavender and hardly any to Harry and Ginny?
I also can’t stand the kid who plays Draco. He was perfectly cast at age 11 but…purberty reeeeally didn’t suit this poor guy. He looks far too wimpy/nerdy/geeky. Malfoy is supposed to be at least somewhat menacing, isn’t he? Instead he looks far more like the kid who gets bullied, not the other way around–amiright?
Gimme yer lunch money! What do you mean, no? Why are you laughing??
In the end, I found the movie profoundly disappointing. Still rank it better than Azkaban (despised that one), but below Goblet and Phoenix, still holding to the top spots. (If you’re wondering, and are as big a geek as me, I do not count the first two films much in my rankings. From Azkaban onward it was an entirely different tone–the Chris Columbus films were more “children’s movies” than the direction the series has taken since.
Is it possible to die of geekery? Because I might.
