The seventh and final book.
For the first time ever, I purposefully went to one of those midnight bookstore release parties. It was July 21, 2007 (the seventh book was so close to being released 7/7/7!) and I joined throngs of others, both in costume and in street clothes to wait, crammed shoulder to shoulder, for hours and hours in a parking lot, waiting for a book I could pick up the following day at Wal-Mart in thirty seconds. After all, they printed forty-seven billion copies of the book. It’s not as if we were experiencing a Harry Potter print shortage.
But it was the last one. I was now a fan and simply couldn’t let the opportunity slip by. And to be honest, it was kind of fun. I’m not sure I’ll ever do that again (unless, of course, it’s for one of my books) but at least I’ve done it once.
Book Review
I got home from the midnight release around 1:30 in the morning and immediately began reading. I wanted to read the book as fast as possible so as to avoid any spoilers the world at large may reveal. I read for maybe an hour before falling asleep. I then picked it up first thing the next morning and read it in a single sitting. I think I spent 14 hours on it all together.
I had a few problems with the way some story lines wrapped up. Most of all, Snape’s, because I felt like he deserved so much more, after Book 6 and the revelations about his own past. I won’t go into details, to avoid spoiling anything; but if you’ve read it, hopefully you know what I mean.
I think the worst part of the book was the very end where Voldemort conjured up a nuclear bomb and killed every character in the book except for Hagrid. I did not see that coming.
Movie Review
The seventh book, as pretty much everyone on the planet knows by now, has been split into two movies. As of this writing, I’ve seen one. I will see the other half in, oh, about, eighty-five hours. The reason for splitting the movie into two parts is based on the simple principle of “why see one movie when you can see two at twice the price?” I’m sure the studio execs are kicking themselves for not turning the entire movie franchise into seventeen films.
When I first saw this film, I was a bit disappointed by the pacing. The movie seemed to run at two speeds: 1) frenetic action sequences and 2) sitting in the woods doing nothing. And there seemed to be a LOT of sitting in the woods doing nothing, which is sad given how much of the book was still left out (in spite of it being two movies).
The second time I saw the film, I liked it a lot more. The camping scenes didn’t feel as long and I was fully prepared for the frenetic action. I pretty much took back everything bad I had to say about the first viewing.
My only lasting complaint, really, is the way the films are getting darker and darker. And I don’t mean psychologically. I mean actually darker. It’s bad enough that so many scenes are so dimly lit, but the entire movie series has gradually moved from color to being filmed in black and white. It’s like the opposite of the Wizard of Oz.
When I see the final film this week, I’m planning on bringing a flashlight, just so I can find my popcorn.
on July 15, 2011 at 1:23 pm
Did you like the movie??!!
Happy Friday Charlie!