The Road to Deathly Hallows - Passing the Chamber of Secrets

Stage 2 of the Road to Deathly Hallows is now complete - I finished Chamber of Secrets Sunday night, but it took me until last night to watch the film version, thanks to work and being kind of tired.

It is interesting now to go back and read Chamber post-Prince. JKR said that the Half-Blood Prince storyline was originally in there, and to me its rather obvious where it would have come in as well - surely Snape's comments would have been in the book that the trio got the Polyjuice Potion recipe from ('Moste Potente Potions')? I don't really know how having that information so early would have affected the series as a whole though, and even know as I think about it, I don't know if that is going to be important in Deathly Hallows at all, though it does raise the question as to why Voldemort accepted him as a Death Eater when he wasn't pure-blood - perhaps because he hated the fact he was a half-blood so much?

There is a theory going around the Internet that the different books of the series 'mirror' each other - books 2 and 6, 4 and 5 with Goblet being the turning point and therefore book 7 will mirror 1. While it is a bit of a cool theory, and I can see their links, I don't necessarily see this as being important (or even intentional) but there is no doubting that Prince and Chamber are closely linked, right down to the fact that the Bloomsbury versions have very similar colour schemes!

Originally Chamber was probably my least favorite, but as I've grown older (and with Prince) I've come to see it in a rather different light. I like the prejudice themes, and the backstory, and you begin to see just a hint of the politics of the Ministry of Magic. The diary, which seemed so small, and something least likely to pop up again, is possibly the most important part of the whole story. When it was originally said by JKR that something significant occurs in Chamber, I was sure it was Gryffindor's sword that was going to be explained. That's one of the great things about Potter, you can be so sure, and end up so wrong!

The film version of Chamber of Secrets was the first film I saw after when I consider that I became 'truly obsessed'. I actually saw it three times at the cinemas, a record which still holds to this day. The acting was so much better than Stone, but to this day I still sometimes laugh at the change in Dan and Rupert's voices :P. To me, it shows how fantastic an actor Dan is that at such a young age he was able to act against Dobby, and for it to look completely believeable - there are adult actors who have been unable to achieve that! There are still some faults with the film - while I love the themes in the score, the score itself is too similar to Stone for my liking. Also, while the ending is beautifully emotional, its still so weird that all the focus went to Hagrid. I know they obviously wanted a different ending to Stone, but surely, they could have come up with something better. Not to mention the repetition of lines - something I'm glad they stopped by Azkaban. Oh, and I can't help but smile at all the Harry/Ginny moments. So cute!

I think a thought I had last night summed up my thoughts on Chamber of Secrets rather well. As Harry and Ginny are about to leave the Chamber in the film, Harry says to her 'Don't worry, it's just a memory.' The truth is it is so, so much more than a memory.

The Road to Deathly Hallows - Slight Detour Number 1

I was just thinking - there is really two forms of the 'Road to Deathly Hallows' - one based on time, and one based on reading the books. Well this post is a time based one that I'd like to acknowledge.

After approximately 3 weeks of checking my Hotmail account and the Village website almost daily, Order of the Phoenix tickets were finally released. It was rather odd, actually. Village changed the title of the film on their coming soon page late last week, so I knew it was soon. And, finally, on Tuesday evening, the bit of green text appeared on the page, saying that tickets were available, so I checked, and it was only for Dandenong, Waverley Gardens and Shepparton. So I went down yesterday to Karingal to find out, and after hanging around for a while waiting for them to open, discovered it was today. When I went down today, it turns out they opened slightly earlier, so I had 4 people in front of me (including Karen from work) and with 10 tickets, the privilege of being the biggest order so far. When I mentioned about the website she said that was odd and that they had strict instructions not to sell them until today, so who knows. I also got 3 of those Movie Millions things, from which I know have a $7.50 ticket and two times $2.50 choc tops :)

I'm also trying to track down the Order of the Phoenix video game. As mentioned recently, I just got a Wii, so I really want the Wii version rather than the PS2 one, and had decided I would be happy to pay either $80 for the Wii or $50 for the PS2. You can then imagine my annoyance to see that Target has the Wii version at an introductory price of $85 (plus discount). I then went to Big W today only to find that they are holding it off show for their Toy Sale and even then it will still be $90! So now I'm getting Dana to check Toys R Us and I'll look at Kmart as well, but I really can't believe neither Target or Big W are prepared to offer it at $20 off the RRP.

There's been quite a bit of HP film news on the TV this week, with Sunrise, Today and A Current Affair all having "exclusives". I would like to know how interviewing Dan Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint for a film can be considered exclusive when other media outlets in Australia and the rest of the world also got interviews. They all ask the same questions as well - I can't help but wonder if there was an interviewer who didn't ask Dan about the kiss. Richard Wilkins then proceeeded to talk about the possible spoilers from that supposed hacker (one part of which I accidentally read when stupid me did a Google search for Harry Potter). Luckily it was about the part I had read, but if I had been Emma Watson (who is probably resigned to that sort of stuff happening by now) or hadn't already read that, I would have been mightily unimpressed. I'm assuming he did the interviewing for Today as well, but I missed that, due to the fact that 1. I had put the TV Remote in the wrong spot and 2. as Sunrise had advertised that they had the interviews I was taping them, even though I don't like Sunrise. Looking back, it turns out that I could have actually watched the Sunrise interviews, as it was when I was home and awake, as compared to Today, which was while I was asleep. Anyway, now that problem is unlikely to happen again. I bought a PVR from Aldi today (which was a rather enlightening experience - the line outside the store was longer than the lines I've been in for Harry Potter books (everyone was buying either the PVR or garden pumps for some reason), and they were so used to it and organised they should sell Harry Potter books. I'd hate to work there though - it would be like Toy Sale every week!) which has twin (SD) tuners so I shall be able to tape both.

So that's another of the time-based milestones on the way to the Deathly Hallows release - that's uni, uni exams and ticket preordering down, only stocktake, the film, uni results (which I'm not looking forward to!) and toy sale to go!

The Road to Deathly Hallows - The One Month Milestone

(I've just discovered where the 'Road to Deathly Hallows' came from - subconsciously pinched it from MuggleCast. Sorry, but I like it, so its staying.)

It's one month to go today! It feels only yesterday that the date was announced and it seemed so far away. At that point I had 13 weeks of uni which I hadn't even started, plus exams, and now all I have is one exam left tomorrow, followed by stocktake, then the film and then.....the book.

My feelings are kind of all mixed up inside; a combination of excitement over the weekend, the desperation to know the answers to questions I've been wondering about for 7 years now, and sadness at the fact that so much will be over. These are, after all, the books that have affected my life so much, giving me a world to escape to, indirectly influencing my career choice, showing that some of my problems are so small as compared to what Harry has to face. Life will go on, certainly, but there won't be the same amount of theorising and discussion, and less of the minute details to discuss over and over.

But those of us that are around for this event are lucky. Lucky to be part of something that the world has never really seen before, and may not see again. Lucky that we were able to do such theorising and discussion, that the next generations will not be able to do, who will instead treat the books like we do The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings - read them over and over, perhaps discuss their implications on society, but never be able to have hours-long conversations on what will happen next, or if Snape is good or evil. We are so lucky in that regard.

What will happen in the future post-Book 7 to the fandom, and the books as whole, we can only guess. But one thing is for certain - the magic of the Harry Potter books will never disappear.

I won a wii!

Well, to be technical, I won the silent auction held a work for the Nintendo Wii that the store won for having displayed their Nintendo section correctly (or something along those lines). So I still had to pay for it, but saved myself somewhere between $50 to $100, and my sibling are putting in as well, so its a joint effort. I had been considering getting one, so the timing was great. I've always been a Sony girl, but I'm no hard-core gamer person (i.e. my favourite games are the Harry Potter ones and Buzz and the like!) and while I was planning to wait for the PS3 to come down in price, it doesn't have full compatibility with PS2 games, and as my sister informs me, the EyeToy doesn't work either, so we aren't holding out much hope for the other USB games to work. So now I have a PS2 and a Wii, which at first I was a touch disappointed with when I first played with other peoples, as I felt it wasn't as responsive as I expected, but playing it now I'm either used to it, or the sensor bar wasn't set up properly the first time.

It's also solved my slight Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix dilemma - if I was going to buy one I was going to wait til the Toy Sales, but the game comes out next week, so I was trying to decide whether to buy it on PS2 or hold off. Decision made now! Mind you, I'll probably end up with the PS2 and PC versions as well, seeing as they've gone back to each being different, but I'll wait 'til they're cheap.

The Road to Deathly Hallows

I thought that I'd take a short break from studying for my Accounting Information Systems and Financial Modelling subject (and yes, it really is as boring as it sounds) for a bit of Deathly Hallows discussion.

My plan is to read each book and watch each corresponding film (where one exists, that is) with the plan of finishing Half-Blood Prince the night of July 20th. How that is going to fit with stocktake and the Toy Sale I do not know, but I shall try my best. This is a method I use for most book and film releases (and exams as well, I find the escapism does wonders for my brain), except I rarely time it right (I ended up skipping most of Order of the Phoenix for Half-Blood Prince, and I was halfway though Goblet of Fire for the film, but then again that was 2005, and I had year 12 to contend with that year). This plan obviously isn't going to work for the film as I don't want to leave myself 10 days to read Half-Blood Prince, but hey, book overrides film.

Anyway, on Thursday I completed Philosopher's Stone, and I watched the film last night. Both for the final time without knowing the end (or so I expect, anyway). I was thinking as I read and watched (obviously) and there were two things in particular that interested me in particular. First of all, Professor McGonagall was there when Harry was delivered to the Dursley's, but has never (that I can remember) mentioned it to him. I don't think that it's going to play any part in Deathly Hallows, but I wouldn't mind seeing his reaction to this piece of news. I don't know why, but it interests me, like other bits and pieces that aren't important to the storyline (like how the Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts are chosen).

The other was that the first conversation Harry and Dumbledore ever have is in front of the Mirror of Erised. Again, not something that is going to affect Deathly Hallows, but interesting that from the start the two of them seem to have a relationship beyond that of headmaster and student, without the relationship growing to become that; it just naturally starts that way.

Also, its funny how the film seemed so awesome when it came out, and yet now the visual effects seem so not-so-great. Not to mention how little and cute all the kids were. It's still a wonderful film, but you can't help but laugh at parts now.

Stay tuned as the Road to Deathly Hallows continues...

Sick

I hate being sick.

Admittedly, it's only a cold and there is others far-worse off than I am (not to mention that no one likes being sick). Not to mention it's kind of my fault - it's what you get when you spend 5 days just going from uni to work to sleep and then the cycle starts again. Naturally it had to be the week before exams as well.

Moving on to better things - I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End last night and was rather pleasantly surprised. I didn't particulary like the second one, I felt that the sword-fighting scenes, especially at the end between Norrington and Will and Jack, were too long, and the jokes felt a little mouldy. Oh ,and how one of Will's lines changed between the trailer and the film.(However I did like the scenes with the cannibals and the bone cage). My feelings going into the 3rd then intensified with the trailer (Jack was in 95% of it, and the 2nd one had left off with the impression the film was going to be about finding Jack, what with the 'At World's End' subtitle and all) and then again with the reviews coming in (and Richard Wilkins actually saying why he didn't like a film) and then again with not hearing anyone say they liked it until Saturday - the day before I actually saw it!

So, as you see, I went in with absolutely no expectations, and this was probably for the better, as I did truly enjoy it. It certainly has it faults, but is just a good, fun movie. It has a fantastic score, there was a bit more in the way of character development, some clever visual effects and managed to evoke emotions in a way that neither of the first 2 did (although that could be because I was sick as well), not to mention filming something with the same angles and camera movements that I imagined something in HP. Most people's complaints was with the length as 3 hours is very very long, but I actually didn't notice time zooming past like I did with the second. However, how I will feel about that on a second watching, especially on DVD, may be a different story.

Like I said, it has it's faults. Plotlines do get a little messy in the middle, with some unnecessary ones. There are a couple of bits and pieces that I think could have been hinted at a little more in the second. Some of the stuff with Jack, although a cool visual effect, was unnecessary in my opinion, and added unnecessarily to the length. I missed the more natural looking cinematography of the 1st and 2nd, especially at the end fight. Again they don't age the characters when there's a time difference. Also I felt there was a few explanations missing. But the good makes up for the bad. (As a side note, I'd read on the Internet that they were supposed to be showing The Golden Compass trailer with it, but they didn't. At least they had the Phoenix one. And the cinema was full of Phoenix stuff.)

In some ways you almost feel that the second was unnecessary, and didn't contribute much to the storyline at all. But how I would have edited it down to just one and not have it 4 hours long I have no idea, so I won't complain. Much.

And the ending is one I didn't expect at all. Especially the scene after the credits. There's rumours going around about a fourth. Although I hope they don't, it could be quite interesting to see how the story goes.