Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [with spoilers]

My son is going to be so excited. We missed our town's celebration for the sixth volume (they turned downtown into a temporary Harry Potter themed world, with the bookstore becoming Flourish & Blotts, etc.) We were out of town on vacation and Al3x still complains to me about that. Hopefully we'll be able to go to some cool event that he'll enjoy. And I'll at long last be forgiven!

I am pretty damn excited. And yes, let's skip the spoilers, shall we?

Although I have gone to see the films at midnight I've yet to do so for a book. Will definitely this time.

"OMG YAY!!!! SO EXCITING!!!!!!!" read one excited message from a fan on the site [for those uninitiated in digital shorthand, OMG stands for 'Oh my God.'].

I've already preordered this although I plan on buying it in person too. Btw this, the impending OOTP film and Daniel's lovely pics. . .I'm Harry Potter giddy this week.

What they are as objects are something a wizard/witch can store part of their selves in. They fragment their being and kind of hide it away in something (an object, possibly another person) for safe keeping. It's dangerous and kind of diabolical. Apparently Voldmort is the only wizard who's ever dared fragment himself into so many pieces.

They all must be destroyed to destroy him forever. I can't remember which ones have already been found but I believe the R.A.B. who stole the one at the bottom of the zombie lake will be revealed as Regilus Black, Sirius's brother.

I should probably re-read 6 here soon. Not sure where it ended up after moving though . . .

I'm kind of worried about reading the ending to Alex; 6 has some kind of disturbing moments in it.

Well it was pretty central to OMG SNAPE KILLEDED DUMBLEDORE, but I think a bigger problem is that all the other threads seemed unfinished, as if her editor finally snapped and said that the book had to be smaller than the OED. It's the first book I can think of where the mysteries that fuel the plot aren't really sorted out by the end.

My big worry is that the last book will be very episodic/video gamey. 6/7 is just too big a number of MacGuffins.

Rowling takes her Morrissey fandom TOO FAR.

Harry: "Sing me to sleep..."

A helpline is being set up because (SPOILER ALERT)...

Alright 30 DAYS until the next, and final, book. Who's excited?

I've been re-reading and have one chapter left in Half-Blood Prince. *sigh* I can't believe it's almost here.

23 days actually

Me! I finished reading Half-Blood Prince to my son this spring. FINALLY! We are looking forward to staying up "late" (for a 9 year old), going to one of the parties, and getting the book.

July 21st? My counting is not good.

I do believe I am staying up late for the book. Not so for the movie as I'm old and don't want to be yawning through it.

Lolol nice one darragh

My daughter asked to hear the full version of the Nick Cave song today, and has subsequently asked for mp3s of the lot so she can put them on her iPod.

Nice!

parent-to-parent advice: don't give her the grinderman 2 disc.

i rewatched all of these this weekend, lets not dwell on that, #3 is the best one i think

OMG, you did waht?!?

#3 was the first one where i could understand why anyone i knew was reading these books. that or order of the phoenix definite head and shoulders over the rest for me.

this was the first HP i have ever seen/read/_______

barely knew a thing about the whole enterprise

it passed the time and hermione could definitely get it but otherwise ehhhhh

Rewarched the first 2 movies this weekend. Sooo cute seeing them all as little babies :) overall they sure make Hallows pale in comparison

#3 is the best one i think

― max, Sunday, November 28, 2010 7:30 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah. series hasn't sucked since, but that was definitely the high point.

....hermione could definitely get it but otherwise ehhhhh

― rip whiney g weingarten 03/11 never forget (history mayne), Sunday, 28 November 2010 15:47 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Rewarched the first 2 movies this weekend. Sooo cute seeing them all as little babies :)...

― Square-Panted Sponge Robert (VegemiteGrrrl), Sunday, 28 November 2010 16:22 (2 hours ago) Bookmark

signs that yr franchise has overstayed its welcome #3432

See: ending credits of Jackass 3-D

first two movies are so shitty

lg u know donal gleeson? i may be one of the few people that consider your bad self a triumph, and him in particular

yeah he is a real good pal as he grew up v near my family home. you might remember a sketch in that where a guy shits in a bottle? and the guy is called "fitzy". thanks for that domhnall...haha.

#3 is the one Alfonso Cuaron directed, yeah?

yes

yeah. he actually made the movie kind of fun--the first two are all home alone chris columbus-style "fun" and the last four dont even try to be fun (maybe #6 does a little bit w/ the love stuff)

the umbridge stuff is fun

like cuaron is the only director to show ron and harry and their bros kickin it in the hogwarts dorm late at night--theoretically this is how like 50% of their time is spent but none of the other directors bother showing it. this is partly jk rowlings fault of course.

yeah. i like yates a lot more than newell or columbus.

oh I just said this somewhere else, but yeah, the first two movies are bad. the first one is so bad I avoided seeing any of the others for years (and I did read the books, at least up to Half Blood Prince). Still haven't seen DH but I thought HBP was a good film, at least, the only one that seemed to approach 'greatness' as a film and didn't seem just like a bunch of rushed set pieces adapted from a very long novel. The pacing was very good.

I think the main thing the HP films do is highlight how uncinematic the plots of the books are, some fun setpieces aside. I mean the later ones are like 80% fuckin backstory.

I remember the music in the first HP film being so bad that I just couldn't stand to watch it. I share the consensus that the Cuaron one is the best. The new one is so flabby in the middle, and dwelling on the long and arbitrary separation period was a brave decision with a dull outcome. It is very odd when Ron and Harry and Hermione are together because there is a lot of chemistry there, but I don't buy it as those characters chemistry- it just looks like three young actors who have grown up together doing time in a killer franchise that they don't necessarily like but can't afford to reject. You can see it in their eyes sometimes.

I remember the music in the first HP film being so bad that I just couldn't stand to watch it.

Haha that's my overriding memory of it as well -- the only clips I saw were so overladen with this treacly/twinkly 'it's magical wonderment film orchestral music!' stuff that I concluded John Williams had just finally given up.

there is a lot of chemistry there, but I don't buy it as those characters chemistry- it just looks like three young actors who have grown up together doing time in a killer franchise

yeah ron/hermione is kinda difficult to believe in the books and even harder in the movies i think

Thought this was pretty bad, my least favorite of the series. Even though the first one is pretty cringey at times, at least it held a sense of wonder that has been missing (obv the "dark" turns have to do with this, but this was the first film in the series where I didn't have a "now that is some cool magic" moment). Way too much emo teens in tents. I laughed out loud at the naked Harry and Hermoine and got some evil stares from people in my row.

Which one had the fight between Dumbledore & Voldemort? That was a pretty badass magic fight.

ok so this one really kind of sucked, way way too long and really important plot points buried or glossed over (like, dursleys are just moving out, what? and what was harry constantly flashing on? and who was the teacher being tortured by voldemort?) in favor of incredibly long two person emo scenes, blah blah blah. at least the ending was kind of cool. but I have a feeling that once part 2 comes out it will have seemed like this whole thing could have been one film.

I hope everything blows up real good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mObK5XD8udk

Don't remember...most of those scenes from the book. Looks awesome anyway!

i caught up w/the last 3 movies this weekend (never read the books):

order of the phoenix - didnt dig this so much. felt very much like they were trying to speed through as many plot points as possible and consequently the movie was sort of... untextured and personality-free. it had some good things going for it though, like imelda staunton, and i was super-impressed by how they staged freakin wand fights in a way that was actually exciting and visceral - thats a tough task!

half-blood prince - this was pretty gangster. upping the romance factor felt like an overdue move and made for a nice change of pace from the usual worrying-about-voldemort stuff. the reveal at the end that snape was the half-blood prince freaking ruled. david yates is clearly a good director, and there's an englishness to his installments that felt strangely absent from the earlier movies. definitely curious about whatever he does next.

deathly hallows pt 1 - worst movie in the series i guess. needed more snape. i hope he snapes out on hella fools in the next movie. found it hard to sit through, and also sorta confusing at times - lots of names & terminology being thrown around that i couldn't make sense of. probably because i can barely remember anything about the first 4 movies, having not seen them since they came out. the best thing i can take away from it is that they've gotten the boring crap out of the way and the next one should be wall-to-wall ass-whomping.

funny thing about the nick cave scene - i didnt recognize his voice at all, but when the song started i was thinking 'lol, what is this dadrock'

british actor i most wish they'd found a role for in the series: tom wilkinson

overall best thing about the last few movies: helena bonham carter. she really goes ham on every scene, seems to be having the most fun and generally has the most presence of any of the villains... hollywood needs to figure out what to do with her, because shit like this & the king's speech isnt really doing her justice

she needs to divorce tim burton and star in some real movies

she needs to put the hurtin... on burton!!!

half-blood prince is my favorite non-azkaban potter movie. i didn't see the last one though.

("favorite" here means i'm probably never watching any of the other ones again, except for wizard people, dear reader.)

Above prediction that Rowling will never really write again: so far so true, yes?

I'm watching this for the first time. Pretty amazing. I bet the snake part was awesome in 3D. The motorcycle chase too! Now I want a flying vespa.

Voldemort was scarier when he didn't talk so much, the movie is really glacial in places, and terribly depressing in other places. But it makes it all for a much more epic experience. Great summer popcorn movie! I wish they made more movies about wizards, tbh.

I kinda feel like as a fantasy fan, in many ways, the Harry Potter movie series has more than made up for the Star Wars prequels.

Really? I enjoyed the books and all, but the movies are kind of meh, except perhaps the third. LOTR films miles better.

i am rewatching these all right now. i don't know if this is, like, already well-recognized, but it seems the odd-numbered entries are really solid, and the evens are very blah to very dull

I watched the 7a on a plane and I was surprised at how well it was paced. I felt like the first three (which were previously the only ones I'd seen) really dragged. Kids have also grown to be respectable actors, thankfully.

If I read one more "It's over and my childhood is ending oh noes" comment...

one of the obsessives on my FEED just posted "Mischief managed!" and i was like aw but idk maybe everybody's saying that, maybe it's a hashtag

ihttp://careometer.jpg

*shits profusely*

DH Pt. 1 draaaaags in places and if you're not a fan the namedropping gets obnoxious, but despite not being a great entry in the series I'm impressed with how it stubbornly, quietly earned its "darkness."

Yeah I thought Part 1 started and ended pretty solidly, given the awkward way things were chopped up to make two flicks, but goddamn did that emo teens in the forest stuff drag and drag and drag.

If she didn't screech too obviously in places, Helena Bonham Carter would be perfect.

Neville Longbottom, he's okay.

Just saw the final one, great job. I admit I was surprised it was only 2 hours long, I expected it to be bloated like every other film these days.