the book, THE MOVIE, Hermione, and Lily

[johnkclark]

 "krules" <kempermentor at ...> wrote:
 
> "My disappointment in the last book[...]"

What?! It was the best book in the series. From highest to lowest this is the order I'd rate them; 7,4, 5 and 6 tie, 3,2,1.

> "The movie shows Hermione sneaking up on her parents from behind and obliviating them, obliterating their life.  Yes!  That's exactly what my mind's eye saw."

I liked that part of the movie a lot, sometimes in the real world you only have 2 choices, a bad one and a dreadful one and the best you can do is the best you can do.

> "No convo about alternative actions like going to Australia with full awareness of what little danger they would be in."  

But of course they wouldn't go to Australia if they knew they had a daughter and she was in grave danger.

>"I was more interested in seeing was an abashment of Harry for his use of the Cruciatus"

Yes, I too wish the movie included Harry using the Cruciatus, but in the book the best thing about it was that afterward Harry was not the least bit embarrassed for doing so, and good for him; Harry had far too much on his plate for that sort of insipid nasty-nice self indulgence, he's got a war to fight. 

>"Slytherins represented in force against Voldemort, a redemption for Draco"

You can't redeem everyone! Snape was redeemed and Sirius Black was redeemed  and so was his brother, even Dudley was redeemed and that is quite enough redemptions for one book series. Unfortunately Percy, the most pointless character in the entire tail was also redeemed. Think how much more interesting it would be if the trio weren't caught and dragged off to Malfoy Manner because Harry made a stupid slip of the tongue but because of Percy'd treachery and betrayal, I have a hunch Rowling planed to do just that but at the last second lost her nerve.  We haven't seem Percy since the third film and I didn't miss him; I understand he's in the last film but I must have blinked because I didn't see him.

 >"the first Goblin to go up in flames?  Well that particular death is a bit wanky.  The Goblin is still under the Imperious cast by Ron who upon seeing his cursed Goblin ablaze essentially remarks, 'that sucks'.  And it kind of does."

Yes, death sucks.

  >"Is Ron resposible for the Goblin's death or is the dragon" 

People die in war and people kill in war, even good people like Ron.

 " Will this pass my Slytherin inclusion test?" 

Why must all or even most Slytherins have a secret heart of gold? Some people are just bastards and with only 3 exceptions (Snape, Regulus and Slughorn)  Slytherin's are, although they run the spectrum from very impolite and unpleasant to homicidal. 

>"I'm annoyed by this because I wanted Harry to use the Cruciatus."

I agree.

 > "A flawed hero is an interesting hero. " 

I agree.

> "And I wanted to see McG abash him."  

I disagree, it wasn't in the book nor should it have been, she too had a war to fight. Those Slytherins were lucky, and when a commando infiltrates a enemy stronghold he tends to kill people and not just punish them.

> "Fred's dead, baby.  Fred's dead."

I wish they had shown Fred's death too. And I too loved Pulp Fiction, I wish Quentin Tarantino had directed one of the Potter movies.

>"Exposition on wands.  Elder wand snapped."

So far all my criticisms of the movie involved what was not on the screen, what was actually shown was great EXCEPT for that one scene where Harry renounces the Elder Wand; and I can't entirely blame the movie makers for that blunder, it was the worst scene in the book too. Far too many science fiction and fantasy stories end up with the lost land of the dinosaurs blowing up or the time traveling car getting hit by a train or the Philosopher's Stone being deliberately destroyed or Dr. Frankenstein's notes on the secrets of life being burned because "there are some things man was not meant to know". Well I want to know!

  John K Clark