August 11, 2011

I Post At The Close

After Brer totally didn’t take me to see it, I was afraid I wouldn’t see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in theaters. This bothered me, as I’d seen all the others in theaters. Finally, it came down to Monday. I had the day off, no game in from Gamefly… I had nothing to do. I envisioned myself alone all day, eaten up by depression. Fuck that, I said! So I asked Cara to go with me to the movie, and she said yes, and then I had something to do to distract me AND I got to see all the Harry Potter movies in theaters! It all works out.

I think I have more to say around the movie than about the movie itself, though. We saw the Sherlock Homes: A Game of Shadows trailer, which looks fantastic. (I really liked the direction they took Holmes in the last movie, okay?) Glad to finally see that. I used the crazy-ass Candy Dispensing Machine just to see what it would do. Oddly enough, it dispensed candy. This allowed me to have some Shockers, which I hadn’t had in awhile. Shockers are still quite good candy, in case you were wondering.

I also just couldn’t get over what Overthinking It said about Harry Potter. I normally totally agree with those guys, but they said, in one of the podcasts of theirs I was catching up on, that Harry Potter is a “fully realized world.” Harry Potter is a lot of fun in a lot of ways, but let’s be honest: that’s one of the books biggest problems. It’s obvious she made up this world as she went along. It isn’t a cohesive whole in any way whatsoever. They then broke into a discussion about how it just SEEMS like a complete world, but has a lot of vagueness in it, which I might buy more, but it still felt a stretch.

But yeah, there was a movie I watched. It was fun. The fact that all the good parts of the wasteland that is book 7 were in this movie really helped things out. Of course, there were some dumb things. I don’t know if this was pulled from the book or not, it’s been to long, but using “The lightning has struck” as a code phrase for Harry Potter arriving is beyond stupid. That’s way the fuck too obvious. No wonder Death Eaters were breaking down their door immediately. And, of course, the epilogue was as stupid as it ever was. But you can’t say the movie didn’t want to please. It constantly kept things moving, and kept things very action-packed. It didn’t waste time explaining a lot of backstory, assuming that viewers would already know it, or that it’s so nonsensical anyway that they’d be better off just not knowing the details. Frankly, that’s just fine with me. There’s just a throwaway line or two about all the Elder Wand bullshit, and that’s enough.

There’s just really not much to say. It was a fitting end that used the source material well. Seeing all the fighting at Hogwarts was awesome. Of course it was. It’s not like they’re going to come this far and not give us some badass visuals for all that. I didn’t leave all “Wow, that was a really good film” like I did with the sixth film. But I was satisfied. It was sad leaving all that behind again, to some extent. Of course it was. As much as I bitch about Harry Potter, and I do bitch, I am a fan, and I did enjoy the series, for serious. I’m glad I saw it. I’m glad I was there for it. There’s no surprises or unexpected high or low points in the movie. If you want to see it, you’ll see it. Probably already have. And you’ve enjoyed it. But there you go.

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