Wed 2 Nov 2005
…Harry Potter.
I had no interest in reading the books nor in watching the movies, simply because the series was so overhyped and it seems like every kid, young adult, and most of my peers are under the Harry Potter spell. I even walked by the living room once when visiting my parents and they were watching some Harry Potter movies. And not even subtitled versions! I typically avoid trendy stuff in general (with the exception of Cancun, but boy, am I glad I went when I did given the weather-beaten town now).
So imagine my consternation when Mr. W and another one of his close friends (whom I’m also familiar with) jumped in on me about how they’re going to watch the new Harry Potter movie when it comes out and they’re so excited and the books were so great and they’re planning a big group to go and stand early in line, etc. I politely turned down their invitation to go along, explaining that I couldn’t possibly watch the movie because I hadn’t read the books and hadn’t seen the prior movies so I wouldn’t be able to understand what was going on. Mr. W’s solution? “Well, I guess you’ll just have to come over to my house and watch the first 3 movies and catch up.”
I watched all 3 movies last week.
Harry Potter is SO much better than Lord of the Rings. Karen was right. Those LOTR dwarfs were retarded to be walking around, tripping and starving and freezing and victimized by various magical things when they had Gandalf as their friend and mystical flying animals in their realm. If Harry Potter were in charge of getting rid of the ring, he would’ve flown on a broomstick over the volcano and done it already, or ridden a dragon, or ANYTHING. It woudn’t have taken 3 DVDs of 3 hours in length each. (This is how little I care about LOTR. I bought the first 2 DVDs, slept thru them, loaned them to William and Raquel, haven’t seen them since, and I don’t even care to find out if the couple still has them or whether they returned the DVDs to my ex, who never returned them to me.)
I’ve been walking around for a few days in a sort of confused Harry Potter haze, avoiding knobby-limbed trees in case it decided to “wump” me to death, hearing the buzz of an insect fly past my ear and thinking it’s the Golden Snitch and where the hell are the Seekers to snatch it and win the Quidditch game…
Yeah, I’ll be watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when it’s released on November 18, 2005.
The movies do not do the books justice, I read the first 3 books in a week, and have been hooked ever since
I’ve never read the books but I have been told they are really wonderful too. Maybe you should read the books. I didn’t like LOTR #2 movie and Patrick was weirded out by the 3rd movie’s homoeroticism…
Wow, Thomas…another one. I suppose you’ll be watching the movie, too?
I can’t get past the guilt of reading Harry Potter when I should be reading “The Rape of Nanking” or the Book of John in the Bible or doing research for my own book.
I don’t remember homoeroticism in LOTR #3. That’s Return of the King, right? I just remember that the movie pretends to end like 4 times before it actually does.
So William and I have racked our brains and we just really don’t remember borrowing the LOTR. Did you give them to “you know who” to give to us? Did you give them to us directly? This is really starting to bug me – am I loosing my mind? Maybe we gave them back to J and he has them. I just really don’t know……but I’m not one to keep other people’s stuff. I know we don’t have them. We just packed and unpacked everything when we moved and couldn’t find anything. I’ll buy you any movie of your choice to make up for it……….I really think I’m just losing it! (If we did see it, it obviously didn’t make that much of an impression, huh?)
I dunno Cindy… LOTR and Harry Potter are two different types of movies! One was classic fantasy, and the other based more on wizardry and magic.
I think LOTR was aimed more for an adult audience with Harry Potter being for all ages, and especially appealing to teens and preteens. That’s not to say Harry Potter isn’t enjoyable by an adult. I’ve only seen the first Harry Potter movie, and it was good, but I don’t know about being better than the LOTR movies.
In Return of the King, there was lots of “homoeroticism” between the two hobbits, Frodo and Sam. They weren’t really being homoerotic, it’s just that hobbits are apparently very personal with their friendliness.
I will watch the movie, but I can’t imagine it doing the book justice, in my opinion the fourth book was the best one in the series to date. Now on the other hand amovie which I cannot wait to see is The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. That was tge firstsaga I ever read, and still carry fond memories of that series.
Raquel — a couple times when you guys were over at my house, William would say, “We still haven’t gotten around to watching Lord of the Rings yet,” and I’d tell him not to worry about it, no rush, I don’t need it back. Maybe you guys really didn’t watch it, ever. If that’s the case, you guys didn’t miss out on much, in my opinion. You don’t need to replace the movie! It’s fine. I really don’t care to see it again, ever. But thank you for the thought.
Mark — I don’t have any impression of homoeroticism, but then again, I don’t have an impression of much in those movies, except for the confusion and the subsequent snoozing.
Thomas — never read it, don’t know much about it. I did see the preview for the movie, tho, and it looks pretty neat.