Why I Hated the New Harry Potter Movie

Stardate 07-27-2008

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was probably my second favorite book from the series. I spent more time reading, listening and thinking about this book than any of the others, because after reading it, I was bursting with desire to understand how everything was going to turn out for Harry. Of course, Half Blood Prince teaches us about Voldemort's life and the Horcruxes. Its where Harry learns how to destroy a Horcrux. And of course, it sets up what Harry must do in order to defeat the Dark Lord. Not only that, but it furthered the Snape, good v evil debate.

I hated the Half Blood Prince movie because it cut out everything that was great about the book, and went into too much detail about the less important plot points. I was infuriated that they added two completely original scenes that were not in the book. This made me really mad because they waste our time with two extra pointless scenes, but take out about 80% of the Harry/Dumbledore/Voldemort flashbacks.

I was trying to think back at the important information that we learned from the flash backs in the book that were not in the movie and that technically, movie Harry would not know. Most important would be that Dumbledore never even taught him how to destroy a Horcrux. He would not know about the other possible Horcruxes such as the cup. He would not know that Voldemort used a valuable object from each of the 4 great houses for his horcruxes. I also didn't like that Dumbledore seemed completely caught off guard when they finally saw the true flashback memory from Professor Slughorn. He acted like he had never even considered this a possibility. Why would they dumb down Dumbledore?

And though not a crucial part of the story, I was most pissed off that there was no fighting after Dumbledore was killed. In the book, there is fighting between the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters both before and after Dumbledore dies. The movie was just so boring and slow, and I kept telling myself, "Don't worry it will be worth it when we see the huge wizard duel at the end after Dumbledore dies." I about blew up when they killed Dumbledore, and then peacefully walked out. Such garbage.

Now I'm really worried about the The Deathly Hallows because the same moron who did the screen adaptation and who directed Half Blood Prince, are also the idiots behind Deathly Hallows.

And what I can't figure out is that everyone I talk to tells me that they like the movie. Its almost as if people are afraid to say anything negative about a Harry Potter movie. Please share your thoughts about the movie here.

The Greatness Continues

Stardate 07-15-2009

The enhancements of Jane Austen's novels just keep getting better and better. Thanks to the smashing success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the publisher is back for round two. Coming out in September will be Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Even better news is that they have taken even more liberties. Zombies featured 85% of Austen's text and 15% new story. Sea Monsters will have 60% of Austen's text and 40% new story.


Check out this excellent book trailer:



I still have not read Zombies, but it will most likely be the next book I buy. I thought we were going to read it for book club.

Are Transformers Made of Adamantium?

Stardate 07-09-2009

I've been living like a bachelor this week. My female and the children are staying up at my parents house. Bachelor life is great. The house stays clean and I get to read and go to as many movies as I want. This week I hit both Transformers 2 and Wolverine. I enjoyed Transformers and was disappointed with Wolverine.

Here is my beef with Wolverine. First off was the bad guy Zero. He was obviously supposed to be the first super soldier in the secret Weapons program. This not accurate. Everyone knows that Captain America was Weapon I. Next, I was not happy that the Adamantium came from outer space. Everyone knows that Adamantium is the second most indestructible metal on earth. The most industructible metal on earth is Captain America's shield. What really happened is that the Weapons program was attempting to re-create the sheild and could not. The best they could do was create Adamantium.

The movie felt choppy and didn't seem to flow very well. I also didn't like that they turned Deadpool into Weapon XI. They are planning a spin off the Deadpool story and I'm not quite sure how interesting its going to be since we already know his fate. The one thing that I really did like about the movie was the end fight scene when Deadpool was using multiple mutant powers while attacking Wolverine. That was very cool.

I actually really enjoyed Transformers. I don't know why everyone is hacking on it so much. Its an action movie that was full of action. What more do you expect? There was one thing that bugged me and that was the Cylon "Skin Job" Decepticon. What was with that Michael Bay? What bugs me even more is that Michael Bay went on a huge rant about McG (who I hate) for making some of the Terminators in Terminator Salvation look too much like the Transformers, but apperently, he has no problem ripping off Battlestar Galactica.