We’ve long been fans of Harry Potter. I have a cousin to thank for that. She raved on and on and ON, and so I picked up the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
It wasn’t bad.
In fact, it was good.
That led to me picking up the second book, and the third.
And that led to the series of middle-of-the-night adventures relating to Harry Potter that found me at a movie theater, instead of in my bed, a few weeks ago when the fifth sixth* movie, Half-Blood Prince, was released.
Sometime before the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, came out, I took Bob with me on a long plane ride and stuck Sorcerer’s Stone in a convenient place.
I wasn’t surprised that he loved it. I was surprised at how fast he read it. We had to pick up Chamber of Secrets, the second book, during our layover.
We’ve been to three midnight book parties and four midnight movie screenings. We’ve stayed up late into the night, reading the books, and we’ve listened to the audio versions enough to wear some of the CDs out. Though sleep has become more precious than money during the years of our Harry Potter mania, we willingly forsake it for the sake of the story.
Because it is such a story.
If you have only seen the movies, you’re missing it. Read the books! If you have only read the books, well, I can’t say that I blame you, though the first two movies, and the fifth, Order of the Phoenix, are worth your time (my review of Order of the Phoenix is here). But how can you only see some of them? How do you know for yourself that the movies are or aren’t good?
This last movie, Half-Blood Prince, didn’t quite do what I expected, what I wanted. I know they have to change the story to fit it in the longer-than-usual movie time. I know they take some liberties and all of that. I’m even willing to forgive them.
But this movie, this movie, should have left me devastated.
I should have been sobbing. Even though I knew the ending, even though I knew the surprise, I should have been changed at the end, moved emotionally. The story is good enough, the details are there.
But I wasn’t.
It wasn’t because of the gaggles of kids around me, cheering and clapping and acting, in general, as though this was a Jonas Brothers concert and not a movie. I understand their enthusiasm. I like to think I share it (if expressed a little bit differently).
No, the movie is missing something. I haven’t blogged a review because I have been hoping to discover that “something.”
Maybe what this movie needs is simply a second viewing.
We will, of course, be viewing it a second time. That probably won’t happen until after we buy the DVD, though I do think, this winter, a rereading of the series is in order. Ooo, I’m getting all excited as I think about that…
*Thanks to my brother for correcting my numbering in the combox. I’ll have to noogie him soon for calling me a goober on Facebook, though!
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