So… was it worth the hype?

Yes.

Was it my favorite Harry Potter movie?

No. That award still goes to movie 5, The Order of the Phoenix. I’m a die-hard Sirius Black fan… what can I say?

If you haven’t seen the movie…
This movie was obviously intended for people that have followed the story. There isn’t much back history, so if you haven’t seen the previous films or read the books, you’ll be a little lost. THBP bridges the gap between the rise of Lord Voldemort and his impending demise. So if you’re looking for a nice, neatly wrapped timeline with a series of events, a climax and a resolution, you will be disappointed with the movie. Now… stop reading this blog, leave a nice comment, and go find a date to see The Half Blood Prince.

-SPOILER ALERT-

What’s Missing
The biggest complaint that you will hear from Harry Potter fans is that the movies leave too much out of the original story. Well, isn’t that the case with all book-born movies? The films are never as good as the books. With Harry Potter, there isn’t really any choice but to make some major cuts and adaptations, otherwise each movie would be three weeks long! Some of the major elements left out of THBP include the meeting with the Prime Minister of England (not a monumental scene, but I was looking forward to it), Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour, the memories of Tom Riddle’s family history, the battle at Hogwarts, and Dumbledore’s funeral.  All in all, I think that the screen writers did a great job of condensing the story into a two and a half hour production.

What They Got Right
The cave scene made the whole movie. While the writers didn’t (in my opinion) give enough history as to why Voldemort chose to hide his horcrux locket in the cave, from a cinematic angle, it couldn’t have been better. It was exactly the way I’d pictured the scene as I read the book. The inferi, Voldemort’s reanimated corpse army, creeped me the hell out.

 As with all the films the casting is impeccable. I’ve hated Draco Malfoy since Harry’s first year at Hogwarts, but he may very well have been my favorite character in THBP. Tom Felton did an outstanding job at playing his part. Everyone in the theater felt the inner turmoil as Malfoy battled against living up to the standard of his evil father and desperately wanting to be an innocent child.  Halfway through the film I was ready to give Draco a hug.

My name is eL., and I am a Potter-holic. It has been fourteen hours since my last magical indulgence.

In 2005, I wasn’t so different from the rest of you. Harry Potter was a kid’s book. I’d watched the second movie with my nephew and was unimpressed. I scoffed and rolled my eyes at adults who had their noses stuck in the latest novel, The Half Blood Prince. Could it possibly be true that grown-ups were dressing up as wizards and witches and showing up at public events like a bunch of Trekkies with magic wands? BAHAHAHA!

And then I met a true Potter-Head.

My friend Tiffany showed up at work one day wearing a purple shirt with “9 & ¾” on it. I inquired about this odd choice of apparel and she rattled off something about a Hogwarts train. Upon noticing the clueless expression on my face, she gave me a horrified look that shouted “You’re not one of us!” The next day, I was greeted with Harry Potter books one and two on my desk with a note that said, “Get through these two and I’ll bring you the third one.”

Being that I didn’t have anything better to do at the time, I indulged her request and began my journey into Hogwarts. By the end of book three, The Prisoner of Azkaban, I was hooked.

Since 2005, I’ve read all of the books once (at least) and own all of the movies. The entire series is neatly arranged in hard back in a prominent place on my bookshelf and I frequently listen to them on audio while I run at the gym.  For the release of final book, The Deathly Hallows, I was among the goons standing in line at midnight at Barnes and Noble, wearing my “Trust Snape!” sticker as I waited to receive my pre-ordered copy of the book.  Many pots of coffee and sixteen hours later, I teared up as I closed the final chapter on Harry Potter.  Still, on a scale of one to ten in Potter Mania, I would say I’m only a seven. Tiffany is a ten… and some days maybe an eleven.

Yes, I know I have been MIA on the blog front this week.  You have my most sincere apologies.  I did, kind of, give you forewarning so you really can’t complain too much.  Remember?  I told you I was taking a stroll down the vampire trail…

All is well now.  I am back.

It is ridiculously easy for me to get lost in reading.  Actually, I’m not sure how people that don’t read can survive in reality.  Books are an escape for me and this year there has been much to escape from in my world.  Now, now… Before you crown me the Queen of Losers in GetaReaLlife-O-Land, consider the positives: my nose is clean, my arms are track-free, I am adequately able to take care of my kids, hold a job and keep friends.  Reading is healthy addiction.

I finished book four of the Twilight series tonight.  No worries, no spoilers here.  I began reading on Thanksgiving Day, so in 8 days I read four books with over 650 pages each.  During that time, I traveled, worked, cooked, cleaned and finished all of my Christmas shopping.  OK, cooked is a little bit of a stretch.  Let’s just say my kids may never touch another hotdog as long they live.  However, I do believe I should win some kind of an award for Multitask-Ability.

This week I’ve realized that my favorite kind of literature is the never-ending kind.  I like books that come in a series and once I start I can’t stop until there is nothing left to read.  It can almost be physically painful to come to the end of a good book if I know there isn’t another one to follow it.  For instance, my friends and I waited a LONG time for release of the last Harry Potter.  (Yes, we were among the nerds in line at Borders at midnight that stayed up ALL night refusing water, food and sleep till we were finished.)  When I closed the book on the final chapter that afternoon, despite it’s happy ending, I had an overwhelming feeling of grief.  “This is it.  Potter is finished.  No more Hogwarts.  No more house elves.  No more butterbeer.” Fantasy over. 

Moment of silence.

Some of you understand.  Some of you are rolling your eyes. (Stop it, Ranger.)  Some of you are MISSING OUT.  Isaac Barrow said it well.  “He that loves a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter.  By study, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, as in all fortunes.”

Just as I wrapped up Breaking Dawn tonight, this year I’ve closed a lot of chapters on my life.  Several of them were far from happy endings and because of this, I am grateful to be able to (safely) lose my mind in fantasy land for a while.  Some of the endings were more like the close of a good “book two” in a trilogy with an epilogue that has left me yearning for the next installment.  I’m hoping that in book three the heroine will triumph over evil and live happily ever after.  We’ll see.

My next tattoo.  Kind of appropriate, don’t you think?
Courtesy of Sara Butcher 

In the meantime, I’m starting the Sookie Stackhouse series I believe.  What are YOU reading???

Tap! Tap! Tap!

For those of you who don’t know, I am an avid reader. Over the decades, my taste for literature has gone through all kinds of phases. There was the Anne Rice obsession, the historical European fiction addiction, the chick-lit romance year and of course, the Harry Potter lifestyle (yes, I said lifestyle). I can get hooked on just about any genre from Romance to Horror, Self-Help to Fantasy. I do not discriminate on the playground of Barnes and Noble.

The same goes for movies. While scary movies, as we’ve already covered, scare the BEGEEZUS out of me, I do enjoy most everything else. I can even respect (from an eyes closed position) some of the horror ones, as long as I don’t have to sleep alone after watching them. J

I enjoy reading a lot of material that is deemed religiously inappropriate in a lot of my circles of influence. I am no stranger to being “one of questionable judgment” when it comes to books and movies. I guess it all began when I wrote my senior research paper on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which is still, in my opinion, an excellent novel. While I understand and agree with a lot of the points made by the church against such writings, I’m still amazed at the amount of religious fanaticism that goes into deeming books and films as “evil”.

My earliest memory of this witch hunt behavior was probably the whole “Boycott Disney” thing. Anyone else remember that? I was still in the Southern Baptist ring during that time and until some overzealous adult pointed it out, I HAD NO IDEA that there was a penis on the cover of my Little Mermaid VHS! While I do not condone the inappropriateness of such oversights, I do believe they were oversights. I’ve worked with jokers like the ones I’m sure were in the drawing room that day. I imagine the conversation went something like this, “Dude, we should put a $*(% on the cover of the Mermaid movie and see how long it takes someone to see it!” Whatever the reason was behind all that scandal is really irrelevant. The fact of the matter is I would’ve been better off to have not ever noticed the cover. The Little Mermaid is still my favorite Disney movie to date and I do not blame it or Alladin for any sexual experiences I may (or may not) have participated in over the years.

Book burnings, picket lines, anti-whatever parades, blogging rants… it’s all the same thing. It’s hype and it’s publicity and in extreme cases such as depicted below, it’s ignorant.

Harry Potter book burning in New Mexico. (tear)

I pose this thought. If our eyes are so bent on finding evil under every stone, isn’t the devil winning? Surely our sights are on him and not where they should be and isn’t that exactly what he wants?

I will not advocate for anyone to go against their religious convictions and ride down the Harry Potter or Twilight trail with me. However, I don’t believe the devil is going to be any more or less interested in me because I happen to appreciate excellent literature.

Now, if I start filing my teeth into points and drinking TruBlood, feel free to say, “I told you so!”