So I just did a search on my blog because I knew I wrote some reviews of Harry Potter stuff somewhere back there. I found it: Harry Potter Review. I wrote it on July 25th two years ago. Here I am writing more Potter reviews two years later almost to the day. How weird is that?

This review is of the sixth movie which we saw last night. It left an impression because I had Harry Potter dreams all night long, which were amplified by the incredible monsoon storm that raged so loudly so much of the night and early morning. I’m pretty sure that Emmett and Edward Cullen hit some home runs in my back yard last night!

Speaking of the Twilight digression, there’s much to be said with the Potter movie release, aftermath of Twilight and knowledge that both series have more movies in the works. What I find interesting isn’t that there are so many comparisons being made but rather the mere fact that they’re being compared at all. One is magic, one is vampires, yet both struck an amazing accord with fans. One is twice as long as the other, yet both left fans wanting more. Personally, I’m just tickled both were written because I thoroughly enjoyed them and loved being reminded how much fun reading can be.

Now, back to the movie. I thought the sixth movie was excellent. I preface this with the acknowledgment that I was a reader of the books because I think if you weren’t there would be a lot more questions and uncertainty when the credits began to roll, especially if this was your first HP movie. This book/movie in the series was extremely transitional and background filling. I had forgotten how much so until the movie last night. The movie couldn’t capture the depth of what was learned in the book but they skimmed it nicely, in my opinion. We learned that Snape was a brilliant wizard and were left questioning where his allegiances lay. Dumbledore hints to Potter’s invaluable worth and trusts him with very difficult and challenging work. The future relationships of the main characters take more focus. In fact, I’d forgotten about how prevalent the love potion and love story lines were in the sixth installment. When Ron fell off the sofa in a state of love sickness I couldn’t suppress the laughter. I’ve always enjoyed watching Harry Potter come to life on the big screen and this movie was no disappointment. The characters are older and enjoyable to watch. I’m so so so glad there haven’t been any major cast changes over the years, that really ruins sequels for me. I was sad that we lost the original Dumbledore actor because he was perfect for me. I think it’s amazing and some sort of record to make this many movies with so little cast changes though and I applaud the responsible parties for that.

Watching the show sparks an interest to go back and re-read the books as I’ve forgotten so much over the years. I think true Harry Potter fans will be very satisfied with this last movie. If they’re anything like me they’re already wishing we could evaporate to the release of the final two!

Spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn’t finished the last books! I can’t sit on some of my thoughts any longer. Don’t worry though, I’ve pointed out when/where you can start skipping. *wink*

You can’t please everyone all the time. That’s just reality. But there’s no way getting around the amazing phenomenon created by J.K. Rowling’s series on Harry Potter. Call it whatever you want but at the end of the day millions of kids and adults alike have jumped into books and that has been unprecedented in my lifetime. The movies are added fluff and have captured an audience all their own even for those who have never read any of the books. I don’t think anyone can argue the success of it all.
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It was a full weekend of reading for us. We bought two Harry Potter books on Saturday and started reading that afternoon. I had too many interruptions with dinner and bedtime routines to get more than about halfway before bed and finished last night. But Blake stayed up until the wee hours of Sunday morning to finish. He was a little anxious for me to get through it yesterday. I won’t give any spoilers at this time but I have to say I was happy to be proven right about my theories. I have decided that I need to go back and re-read books five and six again because there was a lot that came up in this one that I couldn’t quite remember.

We also took in the most recent Potter movie while on vacation. It was everything I expected and I enjoyed it. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of the Weasley twin’s mischief but you simply can’t fit much more than they did into the time window for a movie. It’s so fun to go back and see some of the early shows when the trio were so young. It’s always kind of weird to watch actors grow up with a series. It’s also interesting to see what it does to your reading experience once you have an actor’s rendition of a character in your head. Pre-movie was a time when you had to create the image of the characters in your mind but with the movies coming out during the book series it flip flopped - at least for me. In the later books I could see and hear the actors like Snape and Rita Skeeter in my head as I read about them.

It’s been such a fun and interesting journey with Harry Potter. There was so much hype about it when they first came out that I had no interest in reading it whatsoever. But then about a week before the movie came out both my husband and I decided maybe we’d read it as we’d already heard so much speculation about what they’d have to cut out to make it a movie. There was a book sitting at his mom’s and I picked it up to start reading. I didn’t put it back down until I was finished. It was a fast and engaging read and we were both really glad we’d read the book just days before the movie came out so we’d understand more what was going on. After that it was easy to want to read the next book installments even though they continually got longer and longer.

As we talked about it yesterday a little my husband pointed out something very important. It was that these were written as children/youth books. Therefore some of the storyline and developments were more basic than I may have liked, or at least as my imagination flourished, as the series progressed, but to keep it in perspective I think it was right on. The fact that it could engage so many adult readers is a tribute to the style of writing and story in my mind. For more fun reveiws visit Blake. *wink*

Anyone else out there a Harry Potter fan? What has your experience been?

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