Harry Potter

So I never got my Bruno review up....my bad. Midnight showings basically put me out of commission for a few days. It was hilarious. It would probably offend you.

Anyway, I decided to make up for it and post a Harry Potter review. Don't worry, i didn't actually go see it (I'm against seeing/reading the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises). Instead, I got a friend's, who saw the movie last night at midnight. Here's his review:

Wands at the ready. First things first, I didn’t read the 6th book before seeing the movie. So in other words I’ve read all of the books except for the last two. And I guess it makes a little bit of a difference, especially time line related (the movies do tend to skip around things here and there), but coming into this movie I knew less than 20% of the book’s plot.

And it didn’t matter one bit.

Putting the books aside and focusing on cinematic direction, David Yates is able to set an even darker tone than Order of the Phoenix early on and it really stays true though out the film. The first few scenes alone are reason enough to keep him around for the last movie(s).

Special effects are back in full force, especially during the jaw dropping scene in the cave with the massive fire spell cast by Dumbledore. The Quiddich scenes were shot perfectly with just the right touch of real versus computer made. And of course the music, sound design, and mixing were TOP notch. I still can’t get over the awesome cracking sound during spell dueling, an art form that has grown far more dangerous since the younger movies. Awesomely intense scenes.

But its the acting that truly makes Half-Blood Prince as smart and compelling as it is. You could have millions of dollars in special effects (cough cough… Transformers) but you can’t CGI charismatic, witty acting. And our three main characters are finally believable as young adults thanks to the much needed maturity of the script. The screen play is brilliantly adapted from the the book (which undoubtedly has a massive amount of dialogue), not afraid to surprise the audience with a laugh or two in between the serious, and at times intense for a PG movie, scenes.

There’s no denying that Daniel Radcliffe IS Harry Potter. A boy who knows he is bound for great things but is entirely unsure of his abilities and emotions at the same time. He does the whole “speak without speaking” thing well, especially during the one-on-one scenes with Dumbledore. Of course Alan Rickman is still genius as Snape, he steals nearly every freakin’ scene he’s in. My only regret is that Voldemort doesn’t make an appearance in this installment. It wasn’t a major set back, but it left out a little sliver of the overall “bad guy” feel from Phoenix. But none the less, this movie is immensely dark and eerie from start to finish.

Its safe to say I was satisfied. Not “I read the book and it follows the book-to-film rules” satisfied - I’m movie buff satisfied. I genuinely LIKED this Harry Potter movie. It might not be as action packed as the previous film, but it takes a greater emotional piece from your pie. And it definitely leaves you wanting more. Lets hope the final installment answers all our questions.


And if you're curious about who this other blogger is, check him out in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Yz9sYSD38 (he's beatboxing)

I Like the sound of this...

Sorry dear followers I've been absent so long. Summer makes me extremely lazy. I'm going to the midnight showing of Bruno, so hopefully I can post my thoughts on that later.

Anyway, while I have time to spare at a certain internship, I started playing around on imdb.com and found some interesting news. Apparently Quentin Tarantino is already talking a prequel to Inglorious Basterds (woot) due out August 21. I'm all for it. Anymore film time with the Basterds, I'll be a happy camper. On a side note, Inglorious was a pretty long movie - 2:28 at Cannes. A few of us speculated that it might get cut, but the opposite happened. Yes, the final running time of the film is now 2:29. Wonder what last-minute of footage was thrown back into the mix....
http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/07/09/action-movie-sequel-time-the-expendables-2-and-more-inglorious-basterds-prequel-talk/