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November 2010

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Extended camping trip part 1.

November 21, 2010

I don’t know whether or not to say SPOILER ALERT but the book’s been out for a while.  I guess if you haven’t seen the movie and actually care about the differences between the book and movie (join us, we’ve got jackets and the derision of our peers), then don’t read this.

I’ma break this down into things I liked and things I didn’t: seems simplest.

Things I liked.

  • The entire scene with Bathilda’s house.  When I say I liked it, I don’t mean I enjoyed the scene, just that it was as pants-wettingly terrifying as when I read it in the book.  Beautifully creepy and awful.  
  • Xenophilius Lovegood.  He was nicely wacky at the wedding, and his terror and desperation were very well portrayed in his second scene.  
  • The scene where Ron gets Splinched.  Really good job by E-Wats there, pretty much exactly how I pictured it in the book.  Hermione’s still being her brilliant, efficient self, but also flipping out a little and crying and scared and the whole thing just felt very, very real. 
  • Story of the Deathly Hallows.  I was a little worried when I saw the animation start, but I didn’t think it was cheesy: something about it made it the perfect combination of fantastical and morbid.  
  • Every scene with Fred and George.  Actors do a perfect job, and the writers, too.  
  • The interaction between Ron and Hermione.  I was hoping for more, I guess, but I think they got the dynamic well, especially after Ron returns (his apologetic nonsense).  There were also two extra lines that I kind of loved: when Harry’s trying to run away, Ron’s response of “we can’t leave Hermione, we wouldn’t last two days without her” was so sweet and SO TRUE.  She’s saving their collective rears the entire last book.  I also really liked her response to Harry’s question of “are you still mad at him?” – “I’m always mad at him.”  TRUTH.  Both seemed like little self-aware inside jokes for dorks like me who got too invested in thinking about the books. 
  • Rupert Grint.  Dude’s been one of my faves since the first movie, but he did a really good job in this one.  Knows how to convey emotion in his face, and every scene with Hermione (especially those when he’s trying to get back in her good graces) were quite well done.
  • Charity Burbage.  All the chills from reading it the first time around showed up, and I more fully appreciated Snape being absolutely unable to do anything for her.
  • The scene in the frozen pond with the sword.  I was actively shivering watching Harry, and that scene was also pretty much exactly how I pictured it.
  • Frickin’ Dobby.  Wept.  And I don’t cry in movies.   

Things I did not like.

  • Harry and Hermione dancing.  Really?  That was the most awkward thing ever, mostly because I’m not sure that was Harry attempting to be awkward, but actually how Daniel Radcliffe functions normally.  Not that I don’t love the kid, but seriously watch an interview or two.  Yes, I laughed, no, it did not need to be in the movie.
  • Voldemort’s scene with needing a different Death Eater’s wand.  Voldemort doesn’t ask for volunteers; he commands.  He doesn’t reference the amount of praise a follower would get for volunteering his wand.  And when he chooses Lucius, and he responds with “My Lord?” Voldemort does not do a mocking voice of “My Lord?”  No.  He’s not a petty, sassy bully.  He’s pure, straight evil and power.
  • Mad-Eye’s death.  Specifically the little time they spent on it.  And, in general, that battle, and how it’s poorly done.  Harry using the Disarming Charm is a huge point in the book: he refuses to sink to his enemy’s level to fight.  That whole battle is a big, huge, THIS IS SIRIUS (yeah I did it, shut it) moment of doom and they were kinda like “poor Hedwig, lawlz Hagrid landing in a pond, btdubs Mad-Eye’s dead.”
  • Ron’s bloodlust in the cafe.  I originally really disliked his desire to kill Dolohov and …Rowle?  (slipping on the names), but my friend Jack pointed out that he actually liked it.  It showed that Ron, growing up in the Wizarding world, had seen and heard about just how evil these people are, while Harry and Hermione did not.  I was pissed because Ron is super nervous about even thinking about having to kill them in the book, so to me, the movie “messed it up,” but Jack’s take is a cool one.  
  • The end of the Horcrux’s fantasy scene.  You were doing so well at staying true to the books until you made the whole audience uncomfortable.  The words were supposed to be what hurt Ron, not super awk H/Hr macking. 
  • They best be showing Dobby’s effing headstone next movie, that’s all I’m saying.
  • The eye in Umbridge’s door.  He let her keep it!  Not okay!
  • This isn’t really this movie’s fault, but I actually laughed at the beginning when Bill Weasley has to be like “yeah, werewolf.”  That’s because the last movie was Harry Potter and the Whoopsie We Decided to Leave Out the Whole Damn Battle Scene and Replace It With Helena Bonham Carter Acting Wacky and Alan Rickman Refusing to Shout His Lines.  And I love both of them, I do.  She plays a very convincing Bellatrix.  And his voice sounds like chocolates on a pillow made of velvet.  But there’s supposed to be shouting and a battle scene.  

Probably will add edits at some point, but if you’ve got an opinion on it, please comment!  I’m always curious about what other people think.

    Uncategorized

    One third of your life? Lies. It’s all you think about.

    November 7, 2010

    Sidenote: they just opened a Chipotle about 5 minutes from me, which means I’ma be spherical by Christmas (think Violet Beauregarde but instead of juice, full of burrito).  

    I’m in law school, but I don’t pretend like I’m the only person whose sleep schedule is messed up.  (More like my life schedule: whatever, dinner can totally happen at 9:30 when I take a death nap from 6 to 9.) Most students seem to suffer from this, grad school, undergrad, whatever, and I love watching the articles and news reports showing that students aren’t getting enough sleep.  This is because I know every person between the ages of 15 and 29 is staring at the screen going “Say it ain’t so!  Next thing you know you’ll be telling us that Lindsay Lohan has done un-Disney-like things and Soulja Boy isn’t a good rapper!”  We KNOW, people.  EVERYONE knows.  We don’t sleep correctly. 

    I’ve never been a morning person, but I’m pretty sure most young people aren’t.  Waking up to an alarm, I’ve figured out, is retribution for the fact that you don’t remember being born and what a rude awakening that must have been.  It doesn’t matter if it’s 6:15 or 10 AM, if you don’t want to wake up, the first emotion you feel in the morning is rage.

    The alarm noise (I’m convinced they develop it by walking around and recruiting people you found irritating in highschool, bagpipers, and any one related by fewer than three degrees of separation to Fran Drescher) is basically a giant IHATEYOUIHATEYOU every morning, and if you have a comfortable bed, good luck.  Snooze button?  Let’s put off life for a bit longer.  Is it raining?  Hit it once.  Cold?  Hit it twice.  Raining AND cold?  Three times.  If you hit the trifecta of rain, cold, and still dark outside…sorry guys, not gonna make it in today.  Bed is better than the frickin’ Mount Doom outside.  Except at least Mount Doom would be warm.

    The rest of the morning is a blast and a half.  I don’t know what my favorite part is, since it’s so hard to choose.  The lines left on my face because I had the bad luck to sleep on a crease of my pillow?  The fact that my muscles are so weak that a six-year-old could take me in a playground fight and I’m anticipating being defeated by the orange juice lid?  The fact that my eyes are doing a sultry half-closed look due to puffiness and dark circles that might attract a raccoon but no other organism?  The fact that I have to drink a cup of coffee just to hit equilibrium?  Yeah mornings, that’s how I like it.  On Mondays and Wednesdays I get to go to torts and get shouted at for a while because our professor (while totally competent and clear) is a little WACKY so she SHOUTS some of her POINTS and at 8:15 in the Goddamn MORNING it’s like having another ALARM so I just want to PUNCH IT but “it” is a PROFESSOR so that’s probably a bad CALL but this goes on for two HOURS and by the end of it I’m like LESS LURNING MOAR SLEEPING PLZ.  And seriously, she’s a good professor, I’m getting the material, but still.

    Other than your supposedly main body of sleep done during the night, there are these things called “naps.”  Naps are kind of like a deal with the devil, or eating at Coldstone: at the moment, it’s wonderful, but not worth the price you pay in the long run.  
    There are rules to napping.

    1. You will nap longer than you wanted to.
    20-minute power naps become hour-long dozes.  45 minutes becomes an hour and a half.  Didn’t set an alarm for your nap?  Rookie mistake, and you gon’ be out for three hours.  Why you gotta be like that, bed.

    2. You will feel like an idiot when you wake up.
    If you didn’t mean to nap, you’ll feel like an idiot because you gave into sleep, but even if you meant to nap, you will feel silly upon waking.  You may look at the clock, see that it’s 7:45 and assume you’ll be late for class/work.  You may rise and fall, not realizing one of your legs is asleep.  You make wake up with a feeling I can only describe as HUNNNHHH?  which, defined, means “I have forgotten everything that has ever happened to me and am very confused right now.”  The Goldfish State, as it were. 

    3. You will waste time at either end of the nap preparing for and recovering from it.
    Changing clothes, closing blinds, listening to music, whatever.  Attempting to fall asleep however it works best for you.  Then, on the other end, you will take wayyyyy too much time getting yourself out of bed, adjusting to the light, and remembering how to make words with your mouth again.

    4. You’ll tell everyone about your nap.

    One other hard and fast rule about sleeping: instead of using the “fall back” extra hour to your advantage, you will waste that hour on YouTube and Facebook or decide laundry needs to get done instead of actually going to bed.  And Spring Forward?  Kiss that hour of sleep goodbye; you’re not gonna adjust your schedule.  Am I RIGHT? Is that just me?….nevermind. 

    Not my best work here, I know, but I had this post mostly crafted a few days ago and haven’t posted in a while, so here you go!