Deathly Hallows

Deathly Hallows was certainly an interesting experience and, dare I say, a good film. As I've mentioned before, I'm not a raving super fan for the Harry Potter world; I'm fully aware that both the films and, yes, the books have a whole lot of flaws. However, I must admit I am a sucker for some hype and considering this is the last, a midnight premiere seemed like a decent idea. There were a ton of things going through my head during the film and I figured it deserved an incoherent, illogical, childish blog post of its own right. Be prepared for nonsense.


First things first; now that I've been to one, I wouldn't recommend midnight premieres, at least for super huge movies. it is an experience fraught with anxiety and stress and panic--at least for me. Between moving in through crowds of people and finding seats in a sold-out cinema and being unnecessarily worried that I would see some people from school, the first part of the evening was a generally unpleasant experience. Please, don't go through with that. Then I had to sit through all these trailers and I'm telling you, whenever I see movie trailers, my faith in human just disappears entirely. I was in a thoroughly bad mood when the film started. However, it was totally worth it in the end. I will bullet point my thoughts, I suppose. I will stress that I see very, very few films and therefore my comments are going to be nostalgia-filled, largely innocuous comments that no one should listen to. Though of course, if my instruction is the inly thing stopping you from paying much attention to my thoughts, then you need help. Anyway.


--Shell Cottage is so freaking pretty. It was almost exactly like I pictured it in the book. And Dobby's grave! I loved that.
--I will never, never, never like the guy who plays Bill in the films. Ever. Grr.
--Griphook was cool.
--Mr. Ollivander! This was a total nostalgia trip, this part. it's cool to see him in the bookend films. In the 1st film, Mr. Ollivander's shop was one of my favorite parts because I was five years old and his shop looked like an old-fashioned English shoe shop. So there.
--Waitwaitwait. Harry had to clarify what a horcrux is? What? Basically everyone in the developed world knows what a horcrux is at this point, yes? And if you're seeing part two obviously you've seen part one , yes? So why did we need to clarify that? God. Not cool.
--And oh yeah, fucking Bill again and his melodramatic lines. Like he gets like one line in this film and it's totally trite. I'm really not okay with Bill. Plus, Charlie was cooler in the books anyway.
--How I loved seeing Helena behave like Hermione, if only for a brief period of time. Helena's awesome, as we all know.
--So why did they change the Gringotts hall thing? I was extremely excited to see the hall because I get nostalgic over stupid things like that, and they go and change it. I liked the original Gringotts hall more, I must say. But otherwise, that bit was alright.
--Woah awesome graphics for the inner world of Gringotts. That was a hell of a lot more than I was expecting, wow.
--The dragon too! Awesome work with the dragon, guys. That looked cool.
--Hey, Bellatrix's vault looked just like I imagined it. I guess one cannot veer to far away from another's imagination with something like that, but still.
--I was really interested with how they'd animate this scene in the vault and I thought they did it reasonably well, especially considering it kinda went on too long for my liking in the book. Also, I do take issues with this scene, in the book and the film, simply because I do not think, technically, a person could survive that. Just, from a mathematical standpoint, it doesn't seem to make sense. Just my opinion.
--Also how was Harry to know that was the cup without seeing the memory about it? Maybe I missed something here but still? Was it from Voldemort's mind?
--Oh god, the dragon leaving Gringotts bit was great. I loved when it broke through the roof and just kinda stayed there a minute. That was awesome.
--I really wasn't into the guy who play Aberforth. I don't know, something just didn't click with me. Something seemed a bit off.
--Actually, I'm not really bothered that they left out the majority of the business about Dumbledore's past. If I had to cut something,Ii too would have cut those parts out. We pretty much got the gist of it all anyway.
--The Ariana's picture bit was exactly how I imagined it. Exactly.
--In the book, the whole stuff about the Carrows and practicing the cruciatis curse on 1st years is completely over the top and should have been left out entirely in the movie.
--The Room of Requirement at that point was not quite as awesome-looking as I would have liked. But hey it's nice to see all the old faces again, eh?
--my least favorite bit in the entire Harry Potter series. Books and film. Sending all the Slytherins to the dungeons. What the fuck? Despite a hell of a lot of evidence that all Slytherins are evil, we've been told repeatedly that "no, they just know who their friends are" and how everyone chooses their destiny and whatnot, and then it's like 'no, we all hate you, go away'. I just hate that.
--I didn't like how they animated Rowena Ravenclaw. Also, she seemed rather different in the film. And oh yeah if she's a Ravenclaw why is she being so immature and stupid?
--THE RICKETY BRIDGE THING. About my favorite thing in the world, that bridge, I about died when it burned. However, I will say that in the case of a battle, I would stay the fuck off that bridge cause in our world Health and Safety would not be cool with that bridge, and this is without fire and whatnot shooting everywhere. Neville almost deserved to die for being an idiot there.
--Mcgonagall, why are you the most amazing human being ever? And I'd totally never noticed Seamus' proclivity for pyrotechnics until now, but in hindsight that was an awesome line.
--Loved how they didn't change the Chamber of Secrets, that was fantastic. That scene was cool.
--The kiss. The kiss. The kiss...didn't work for me. Was it ever going to live up to expectations? No. But it was totally emotionless and they even started getting violins out for it and ugh, it just could've been so, so much better.
--BEST PART IN THE ENTIRE SERIES. CORNISH FREAKING PIXIES IN THE ROOM OF REQUIREMENT. Literally no one else has acknowledged how amazing it is that they were in there. You're all mad.
--The Room of Requirement scene was just amazing.
--I swear there's an emerald in the Diadem of Ravenclaw. It's probably my eyes being odd, but I swear it's so.
--Ugh, god, the killing of Snape scene was so, so sad.
--I take serious issue with the first parts of the Pencieve, because it looks too glossy and too surreal and the imagery is too much like happy tumblr pictures, and oh yeah, the young Snape didn't look right to me.
--The rest of the Pencieve was good! The bit after Lily died, with Snape, was sad beyond all reason.
--I wish we could've seen more of Hagrid in this film. Two times? Really? He's like my favorite character and that's just not okay.
--Bonnie is a terrible Ginny. Just terrible. I know she was super young when she started in this, as was everyone, so who am I to criticize? But still.
--LUPIN. OH GOD, LUPIN. NO. Saddest thing ever. I've been madly in love with Lupin ever since Azkaban, btw.
--The Limbo world was a lot like how I expected it to be. I'm not sure if I liked it or not, though.
--Narcissa, you are the coolest.
--The Neville speech was bland and ridiculous. It put a damper in how cool Neville was in all of this. Also Neville&Luna are far superior to both Harry&Ginny and, yes, Hermione&Ron, in my mind.
--Awkward Voldemort hugs for the win, no?
--So, Voldemort's death I have mixed feelings on. First off, I really disliked Harry's super ostentatious Doctor-like speech right before he kills Voldemort that was in the book, so it was good that a lot of that was gone. However, I do wish he was killed in front of others. Also, I don't see why Voldemort couldn't have died in a semi-normal fashion, rather than seemingly exploding into confetti or whatever happened there.
--Hahaha Filch, you're awesome.
--The ending was better than I expected. I thought it'd be too surreal--like the first bits of the Pencieve--and I thought it'd look too strange. It was a bit too glossy I suppose, but if I'm gonna allow gloss at anywhere in this film, obviously it's gonna be here.


I sound really cynical, but I actually thought it was awesome. However, I have one, big, niggling thought on the film, and it is this. If the Harry Potter crew were aware of the many criticisms thrown at them by the fans and were aware and capable of making a film that is both a great film in its own right and a film that does the book justice, why the fuck did it take them so long to make an obvious attempt at achieving that? Why did they just plough through six(partially seven--Part 1 I liked too) movies worth of em brassing mediocrity if they were capable of something like this? This is what confused, and slightly annoyed, me most.


Anyway, that's my take on the matter. I suppose the next week or so will consist of a run through of the other seven films. I have no sappy quotes to end with, nor do I think it worthy to talk about the timelessness or whatever of the Harry Potter franchise, as no doubt you've heard all of that by now. So I'm gonna go for now.

Night, all!

Leaves the Unbearable Music And Then Goes(He's Like The 1980's)

I finished NaNoWriMo. successfully. 50,004. Yaaaay. I'm pleased and a friend owes me a cookie for it. I was getting so tired of it. Now, I just have to get through Oh My God I Never Want To Write A Single Word Ever Again December. OMGINWTWASWEVD.



My first day of the month was met with a headache, a piano lesson, two tests, a weird gym class, too much homework, and an advent calender. Hey guys, 24 days until Christmas! it's shame I'm in the mood now, I'll be all vibed-out by the big day. I just don't want snow yet. The place I used to live in England got snow already, albeit a few centimeters and everyone's going so crazy. I love how the adults are all like "There is NO CONCEIVABLE WAY I can get through this inch of snow to get my kids to school!". they won the snow race for once. Good for them. They can take it. White Christmases are wonderful, but white Marchs are not.



So that's my thoughts on Christmas. Oh goodness, I want Peter Doherty's Book Of Albion. I'd die for it. That and, oh wow, I want a new romantic jacket. I found a purple one in my mom's closet(we're doing a fashion show in Spanish and our them is 80s. But that gets a whole other paragraph, nach) and it was cool, but of course I can never wear it for fear of humiliation. Because I'm dumb. At least I cannot wear it at school and whatnot. I want a black jacket with gold button things. OR a Libertines one, but those are probably super rare thanks to them. And I want high top Converse, either navy or olive. And, whoa, LEGWARMERS. I've no excuses for that. Why am I rambling?



I had the best piano lesson today--it was pretty fun, my teacher said I'm doing really well. So that's something. On the way back from that, it was raining hard and I listened to Peter's Grace/Wastelands. My rainy day music, but it rarely rains 'round here, since we're lacking in atmosphere( those sound like really shit lyrics in the first verse of a first song of an imaginery record. All happy-like). I like his chord changes.



my favorite keys are, major--F sharp. Minor--F sharp. I realised this the other day and I was like, hey, that's a bit odd. F sharp is both one of the happier majors and one of the sadder minors. They do their job. See Tim Minchin's F Sharp for more slightly self indulgent music nonsense.


Anyway, oh yeah, I saw Brandon Flowers on Friday and it was AMAZING. He played the entire album, which I believe is a first in a live show, and he looked amazing, and he's an amazing performer. And the whole flamingo hotel room stuff is silly, but lightly fascinating. I love him live--seriously, there's just so much energy in him when he's live, it makes the whole thing completely spectacular. Plus, he played Losing Touch, the first verse of Human, and BRIGHTSIDE. I wasn't expecting Killers songs, honestly, so I was in awe when I heard those. It's been nearly two years since my first Killers show. To hear Brightside live again is just weird. part of me is telling me that this is the song that kinda kickstarted my entire middle school music tastes, and that it's euphoric hearing again. Another part of me treats it as a totally different song, because so much has changed between now and then. Brightside is basically a song of memories for me. A Memory Song. They're so odd to hear live. Overall, awesome. I have photos to add somewhere when I have the time.

And I fiiiiinally saw Harry Potter.There are many other internet people to give your more interesting critiques, go read these. I thought it was overall quite good, generally true to the book, all the usual stuff was fine. The book's boring bits were in the first half, I thought, so it suffered from that. There were too many random awkward bits to try to lighten the incessantly dark mood. Also, I miss Hogwarts and all its various people. But overall not bad, not bad.

All I've done so far in school is almost fail two tests(probably), learn that my Spanish teacher's going to talk endlessly in Spanish, and suffer through gym. Fashion shows. In Spanish. Oh, hell. And 80s? I mean, come on, is there anything more boring? 70s pretty please, that's the best decade. Punk and disco and salmon pink, yesyesyes. And everyone in my group hates me because a.) I don't have half that neon crap and b.) If I did, there's no way I will willingly wear it in front of twenty other people. Mark Corrigan has talked before of "not wanting to die of anxiety" and it makes me smile, but that's my exact headset--this thing needs to happen without my anxiety killing me. And everyone's like "wear a leotard...and tights...and leather jackets...and those poofy shoulders" and I end up staring daggers and raising my eyebrows. Like, really? You expect me to wear those? No fucking way. Nooooo way. Growl.

And of course there's gym when I lately become treated as almost sub-human for not talking as much as other people. The Curse of the Introvert. Hey, I am kinda almost normal too. I do have a brain. So shut up. Four square and swear words under my breath.

Oh my God, Peeeepp Shooooww!! Oh My God oh my god oh my god oh my god oh wwooooooooowww. There aren't enough words to say my feelings on this. One, David Mitchell is still fucking adorable. Two, Jez and this new girl will be super interesting to follow. Three, SUPERHANS, I HAVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH. Four, International Superhans Day should totally be an actual thing. Five, Superhan's Birthing Tips made my day. Six, I'm weird for knowing that the burger king scene was the first scene they filmed. Seven, the title is from the show and I love it. Eight, why is it when you think you know a lot about birth, there's always so much more out there to be learned? Nine, Sophie gets weirder every series. And finally, that last scene was wonderful. I've never seen mark happy...ever! It was so beautiful like that. I can't believe it. Made my day yet again.

Also, go watch the new Killers vid. Pleeeassse.

Happy December. 24 Days.