Harry Potter and the Multi-billion Dollar Industry
So yes I am one of the jillion people who purchased the book the weekend that it was released and I finished it this past tuesday. I must say that while they are not the best written books in the world (...and I would be hard pressed to find many well written books these days, but then again I am not the biggest book worm in the world either so I am sure I am missing out on a lot.) but anyone who can get an entire generation of kids interested in reading books than I say more power to you. And what a power Rowling is now. All around the city you can find someone carrying myself included until recently the tell tale purple colored book (sans that pesky book jacket) . While the third book will surely always be my favorite one of the series I think this one comes in second.
When I finished it I felt the need to take a look at the films once again (yeah, I spent our hard earned ducats on those too!) to see how they stood up in terms of time. I am nearly done with the second film and will be starting the third one tonight. The biggest problem with the first two films (aside from the fact that all the young actors grew up incredibly fast and look quite a bit older than 12 years old which I believe is supposed to be Harry's age in the second book) is that everything seems very sterile and a little too disneyfied, while the books managed to maintain a certain amount of gritty reality. This was drastically improved upon by Alfonso Cuarón's interpretation of the third installment adding a depth and darkness to the film series in what is by far one the best fantasy films of the past couple of years (barring of course Jackson's LOTR). Yet again, as with the second, in this third film the actors look much older than the ages that they are supposed to be portraying. Alas, I trust that Mr. Radcliffe, Mr. Grint, and Ms.Watson are making a mint as they will no doubt have a great deal of difficulty finding work once they are done with these films. I must also say that while the movies are enjoyable overall, nothing is better than a book where you use your own imagination to visualize what is happening as you are reading. It is a great, great thing. It even makes it more interesting when the filmmakers happen to have the same image as you. I know that I am not saying anything new here but it never hurts to say it again.
From a lover of films perspective I am looking forward to seeing the incomparable Ralph Fiennes as "You Know Who" in the fourth installment.
Anyway I hope those of you that are reading the book are enjoying it and for those of you who aren't, jump on the bandwagon already cause Rowling could really use the money.
QUOTE OF THE DAY (a double dose)
"Hmmm....let's see here...Brian...see you at Disneyland..BRING MONEY"
"Honey, it's time you started acting like the pieceaschimdt you are"
"that's pewterschmidt Peter"
When I finished it I felt the need to take a look at the films once again (yeah, I spent our hard earned ducats on those too!) to see how they stood up in terms of time. I am nearly done with the second film and will be starting the third one tonight. The biggest problem with the first two films (aside from the fact that all the young actors grew up incredibly fast and look quite a bit older than 12 years old which I believe is supposed to be Harry's age in the second book) is that everything seems very sterile and a little too disneyfied, while the books managed to maintain a certain amount of gritty reality. This was drastically improved upon by Alfonso Cuarón's interpretation of the third installment adding a depth and darkness to the film series in what is by far one the best fantasy films of the past couple of years (barring of course Jackson's LOTR). Yet again, as with the second, in this third film the actors look much older than the ages that they are supposed to be portraying. Alas, I trust that Mr. Radcliffe, Mr. Grint, and Ms.Watson are making a mint as they will no doubt have a great deal of difficulty finding work once they are done with these films. I must also say that while the movies are enjoyable overall, nothing is better than a book where you use your own imagination to visualize what is happening as you are reading. It is a great, great thing. It even makes it more interesting when the filmmakers happen to have the same image as you. I know that I am not saying anything new here but it never hurts to say it again.
From a lover of films perspective I am looking forward to seeing the incomparable Ralph Fiennes as "You Know Who" in the fourth installment.
Anyway I hope those of you that are reading the book are enjoying it and for those of you who aren't, jump on the bandwagon already cause Rowling could really use the money.
QUOTE OF THE DAY (a double dose)
"Hmmm....let's see here...Brian...see you at Disneyland..BRING MONEY"
"Honey, it's time you started acting like the pieceaschimdt you are"
"that's pewterschmidt Peter"
posted by MVH at
4:43 PM
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