Uh oh, it's magic.

[cyrano]

Tonight we had our excursion to see the newest of the Harry Potter films. And I would say it easily falls into place as my second or third favorite, but there were two I strongly disliked and one I don't remember. It's easy to bash the parts of the film that didn't go well (and lord knows I did, in the lobby afterward. Hint: It's the name of the movie! Try to make it mean something.) but there were also parts that did (relationships between characters, business happening on camera but not part of the main focus).

And most importantly of all, seeing this film reinspired me to get back to writing the *actual* seventh book of this series, Neville Longbottom and the Horcruxes, in which Harry Potter hunts down and destroys the horcruxes so that Neville (who in a surprise revelation actually *is* the chosen one) kicks Voldemort's ass across Hogwart's campus. Because Neville is a bad mother--.(I'm talkin' 'bout Longbottom.)

All in all, Coyote says three wags; good for matinee viewing or pay-per-view.

Comments

[amanda_lodden.livejournal.com]

I would *love* to read a version of the story in which Harry turns out to not be the Chosen One after all.

I would love to read a version of the story in which Harry goes back to Snape and says "Hey, um, you know that time I accused you of being a traitor, because I didn't have all the information I should have and I jumped to conclusions and then spread nasty and vicious rumors about you? Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. No, I know, an apology could never possibly undo the damage I've done to your reputation, but at least I'm fucking acknowledging that I might have been wrong." And then, while he's on a roll, I'd like to see him go to each of his professors in turn and say "Hey, I'm really sorry about all those times I disrupted your class because my ego was too big to believe that I needed to be *taught* anything."

Overall, I like the Harry Potter stories, and I understand why an author of books ultimately targeted at teens and pre-teens might prefer to make the protagonist be someone who regularly disses every adult on the planet except the ones who let him get away with everything short of murder, but when it comes right down to it, I don't like Harry himself much at all.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

And, honestly? I fucking *love* Neville. Neville kicks ass and takes names, and he does it without being precious, without special treatment, without huge reserves of natural talent that let him skate by without working. He works for everything he gets.

(Also? All those Campbellian 'ressurection' tropes from book six with Dumbledore and the phoenix? In the real book seven, Dumbledore does come back. Not like a comic book villain, and not in pages of exposition about his childhood, but more like Ben Kenobi.)

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

I liked this book, and I thought they did a pretty good job with the movie.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

I'm trying very hard not to think of the book and the movie too closely together, because I honestly think I'll be disappointed. I *liked* Book Six--it had an editor, and it showed. I think it's my favorite book of the series. And I'll probably just leave it at that. (: