Grant Wood, please pick up the white court-
esy phone.
On Saturday a friend and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie, Order of the Phoenix. Well, I wish someone would have nixed some of the CGI in favor of more plot exposition. While the visual effects were stunning and quite fun - I felt the story line got gypped a little. #5 for me was always a very pivotal book. I.E. the students starting to see the necessity for banding together as a group. Up until now it's mostly been Harry, Ron and Hermione.... but #5 finally has a lot of reveals where we learn more about the interconnectivety of all the players. Snape, Longbottom, et al. St. Mungo's was so NOT THERE...and I was really disappointed about that. They kept a bare minimum about all the interconnectivity of the wizard families ... which I feel really will have a bearing on Book 7. I think if a person didn't read the books 1-4 and just looked at the movies, they'd be okay, by and large -- but someone who hasn't read #5 and just sees the movie will be really cheated.
Really reading ALL the books makes the whole thing a richer experience. My friend and I have a pact that we will gouge out the eyes of anyone who tells us if Harry lives or dies before we get a chance to read everything from the beginning. Would any jury in the land convict us? I think not. We make plans to definitely not attend any parties -- and plan on running in and out of Costco or the like with cotton in our ears.....so if you see two people with cotton in their ears buying #7 running around in the store singing "la-la-la I can't hear you" that will be US. It's to protect YOU. And if you reveal to us how it ends before we get to find out for ourselves, I'm personally gonna send the spirits of my two long dead great-grandparents Grover and Lottie Horn to getcha.
And if that thought doesn't scare the stuffing out of you, it should.
(originally posted on my Telegraph July, 16, 2007)
Expecto Maggie
