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Harry Potter Appreciation Thread!

I've never read any books and watched any of the movies. I don't know why, but I never wanted to.
 
kissybissy said:
I've never read any books and watched any of the movies. I don't know why, but I never wanted to.
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I definitely recommend to read the books! Or at least the first one, you'll see that you probably are hooked to read the rest :p The story will really suck you into it!

I started reading also only a few years ago, the book that got me was Prisoner of Azkaban. I got it as a present in 2001 but didn't read it until many years later because I thought I don't like fantasy books (!!!) How wrong was I! :lol:
 
The One. said:
I definitely
I started reading also only a few years ago, the book that got me was Prisoner of Azkaban. I got it as a present in 2001 but didn't read it until many years later because I thought I don't like fantasy books (!!!) How wrong was I! :lol:
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:D The exact same thing happened to me about ten years ago when my mum bought Prisoner of Azkaban for me. I told her I didn't want to read it because I wasn't interested in fantasy, but I couldn't have been more wrong about the book. I'm re-reading the series once again while waiting for the final film's premiere.

WB released the very final Harry Potter film trailer yesterday/Thursday. The end is really getting near...

 
I'm re-reading them too :D Just started Goblet of Fire.

I thought the first part of DH wasn't the best of the bunch but from the trailers the last part looks pretty good. Really can't wait to see it but it will be weird when it's over :mellow:
 
kissybissy said:
I've never read any books and watched any of the movies. I don't know why, but I never wanted to.
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I second The One's recommendation, and add that this is coming from Mikage Souji, hater of all things modern! If even I like them, it's because they're good, lol.

To everyone else, I don't know if any of you are aware of this, but J.K. Rowling is announcing something about HP tomorrow. Visit www.pottermore.com, it's cryptic as of right now, but it will supposedly contain something soon?

The announcement is 1 day and six hours away from the time this post was written, according to her JKRowlingAnnounces YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/JKRowlingAnnounces

She has made it clear, however, that the announcement is NOT pertaining to more books.
 
^ Oh that's interesting, I wonder what is it? 20 hrs at the moment.
 
Pottermore. Hmm, well I'm just a wee bit disappointed. I was hoping for sth else
 
I've always loved Harry Potter ever since I read the first book! I do think the books are better than the movies, but they are both great!

Mikage Souji said:
In case anyone missed it. She did say from the beginning it wasn't going to be any more books.
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I can't wait!! Even though she always said there wouldn't be anymore books, I was just hoping that maybe she might. But this Pottermore sounds very interesting, can't wait to see it :)
 
What did you guys think? Personally, I LOVE IT! Obviously there are always little things that I would change/hoped would be included but after 7 HP films, I've learned to just not get too bothered. It all went by too quickly :( I cried at that end (my entire theatre too). Who went to the midnight? We got special 3D glasses :wild:

It's crazy what a difference one day makes though.. my midnight theatre was super quiet.. you could hear a pin drop. But my theatre yesterday (Fri 11pm) was so loud, I couldn't believe it! The guy in front of me kept texting people and the girl beside me kept explaining things to her friend. :no:
 
I saw film 8 yesterday, was amazing! I cried so much at Snape's death and his "memories". I also thought the fighting scenes were excellent. This movie was non-stop action, and I liked that!

I thought that the Weasley twin death was a bit anti-climatic. I mean, in the book Ron was a LOT more upset!

Overall, I'd rank the movies in this order:

1. Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (yes, it was that good!)
2. Deathly Hallows, Part 1
3. Half Blood Prince
4. Goblet Of Fire
5. Prisoner Of Azkaban
6. The Order Of The Phoenix
7. Chamber Of Secrets
8. Sorcerer's Stone

Overall, just a great ending to a great series of movies. I don't think I own another series that has lasted this long...perhaps Nightmare On Elm Street, but that was horror.

This was definitely a record breaking film series, and will be enjoyed by many for years to come. I hope the DVD release isn't too far off!
 
I just came back from seeing it...

...and I adored it! It was heartbreaking, thought-provoking, emotive, really the greatest Harry Potter film of them all. Snape's death scene was filmed with such emotion and attention to detail, it was really fantastic. I wish they would have included the part where Harry finds the first half of Lily's letter to Sirius and a torn picture of himself as a baby and James in Grimmauld Place, and later discovers through Snape's memories that the missing half of the letter and picture (Lily's signature and "love", along with her picture) was in Snape's possession all along. Overall, the whole pensieve sequence could have gone much better, really expanding on the later years of their friendship, showing how her romantic attachment to James Potter caused them to drift apart, and really shown how much of a lowlife jerk (and he was) James had been to Snape throughout their entire Hogwarts career. Even with all that, however, Snape's loyalty to Lily never faltered, and although he had a bit of disdain for Harry, he protected him from the shadows since they met so that Lily's sacrifice would not be in vain.

I really do think the Harry Potter series is a rarity among contemporary fiction, especially among children's literature, which often tends to work in terms of black-and-white good/evil, win/lose, etc. I think the Harry Potter series presents life in its most realistic manner--there are no wholly good or evil people (even Dumbledore, a highly respected wizard thought to be the antithesis of Voldemort, had a dark side and a manipulative streak [i.e. manipulating both Harry and Snape, presumably "for the greater good," as his old friend Grindelwald would have said]. By the same token, Voldemort himself was not born a monster--he was denied love as a child, and the bleak circumstances under which he developed permitted his pathology to progress and proliferate into the self-destructive madness it became at its zenith. Thus, we are able to understand how this came about, something which is not often explained in children's books, which typically read like nationalist history books with the good guys' being bloody perfect and the bad guys being just plain evil, period). Similarly, there are no "total" victories--the novels have many Pyrrhic victories, among them the Battle at the Ministry of Magic, which results in Sirius' death, and the Battle of Hogwarts, which results in the death of Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, and Fred Weasley, among others. I think that's important for children to understand--the concept of sacrifice and the reasons why people do it.

Snape was arguably the best person out of all the adult characters. Although he could be cruel at times [most notably to Harry, at whom I think he projected his image of James, even though the two were nothing alike--if anything, Harry really resembles Snape more than he does his father, in regards to personality]. Yet, even despite this minor flaw, he always knew where his loyalties were, and sacrificed everything to protect the child of a man who tormented him for his whole life [the Marauders were total b--tards, let's face it] for the woman he loved. Moreover, he could have easily turned Sirius Black in without causing any real damage to the Order or danger to Harry (and justifiably too, as much as I love Sirius, he was a total b--tard to Severus), but he never did. I don't think one could say something like that of any of the other adult characters (Remus Lupin, for example, was the "idle bystander" of the Marauder bunch--refusing to wholly partake in their bullying, but failing to report any of it to the proper school authorities for Snape's sake). They all seem to be very set on protecting their lot and don't particularly care for protecting anyone else, especially not people whom they consider enemies. The only other characters I could think of who ever displayed altruism towards people they disliked are, interestingly enough, Draco Malfoy [saves Harry by not giving him away at Malfoy Manor, even though exposing him could have brought him great rewards] and Harry [saves Malfoy twice in the Deathly Hallows novel].

With that said, I absolutely adored the film. I cried at Snape's death scene, something which I seldom do. It is a rare occurrence to see me cry, and even rarer that a film would evoke such emotions in me. However, Snape was an extraordinary being in an ordinary world, a true hero and arguably the bravest of them all (along with Harry). I've been in love with his character for ages now, really, in love with the whole series--it is a gem among the mud that is contemporary fiction. Every time I read it or watch the films, I experience something truly fantastic. It is art at its finest, ingenious for its time, just truly amazing.

My one issue regarding the films, particularly Order of the Phoenix, was with the way they filmed the scene of Sirius' death. I think they should have brought more emotion into it--after all, he was virtually Harry's foster father (similar to how Molly Weasley is sort of his foster mother). Another thing they should have really addressed was Percy Weasley's realization of his errors and subsequent reconciliation with his family at the death of Fred Weasley--they left that loose end untied.

Overall, though, the film was fantastic. It truly did justice to the greater concepts of the final book.
 
I saw the film at a midnight showing last week on Wednesday in 3D and it was honestly one of the best movie experiences I've ever had. The theatre was full of HP fans and I even spotted one girl with a T-shirt with the words "Always" on it. :D

There was cheering and applause in the audience after every single memorable moment in the film, and even during the trailers when they showed the trailer for the new Planet of the Apes film featuring Tom Felton. A few people (myself included) cheered when Harry said the famous line about Snape (my favorite character) in the epilogue. I also heard a lot of crying in the audience during scenes when known characters were killed. There was a girl next to me who was near hysterical when the film ended as she was openly sobbing and looked quite upset. It really felt like the end of an era last night. However, as the credits started rolling everyone stayed in their seats and cheered for every single actor whose name came up on the screen. You had to wait a while to see Alan Rickman's name up there but once it was shown, he got the biggest applause out of all the adult actors (alongside Ralph Fiennes)! It was a really rare experience, as movie audiences in my homecountry (Finland) hardly ever get this excited about a film.

I really liked the film a lot and it's definitely my favorite of the lot. I haven't really liked the slow pacing in the previous films whereas the pace in this one was just right. There was a perfect balance of high-speed action sequences and more quiet, sombre moments which made the film really enjoyable to watch. The only real problem I had with the film was that the editing was awkward in parts (there's a scene where Harry mentions Lupin's son, who hasn't been brought up before in the film, and I couldn't figure out what Prof. McGonagall gave the students permission to blow up before seeing the film for the second time) and I wish that the Prince's Tale had been just a few minutes longer. It would have been nice if they had included the exchange between Snape and Dumbledore where Dumbledore asks Snape how many men and women Snape has seen die to which he answers "Lately, only those whom I could not save". It would have tied in nicely with the opening scene of Deathly Hallows Part 1 where Snape is forced to watch the murder of Charity Burbage and created more depth to his character.

The scenes I enjoyed the most were the ones where Snape was featured and probably King's Cross. I was also really surprised that I actually loved the epilogue and it even made me tear up a little. I'm not a huge fan of the epilogue in the book, apart from that line Harry says about Severus Snape in the last page of the book.
 
^Another Severus fan, I see. He really is the greatest and most complex character out of the bunch. I so want to see the film again. My favourite scenes were also the ones which featured or made mention of Snape, and the scene where Harry finds the resurrection stone inside the golden snitch.
 
Marquis de Sade said:
^Another Severus fan, I see. He really is the greatest and most complex character out of the bunch. I so want to see the film again. My favourite scenes were also the ones which featured or made mention of Snape, and the scene where Harry finds the resurrection stone inside the golden snitch.
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A Snape fan indeed, ever since the chapter "Snape's Worst Memory" in Order of the Phoenix. :D It's definitely worth seeing the film more than once as you catch little things that you might have missed in the first viewing. For example, I couldn't remember much anything about the Prince's Tale after seeing the film for the first time, other than that I loved it. Dan also did a great job portraying Harry, he's come a long way as an actor in these last few years.
 
The film was brilliant, but yet I still think the book is a bit better. There were changes to the film that I liked better to what happened in the film (Snape vs McGonagall duel in the Great Hall, Snape's death moving to the boathouse instead of the Shrieking Shack, Harry and Voldemort dueling all around the castle before coming back to the entrance courtyard again, etc.) and there were changes that I didn't like or were a bit cringey (Bellatrix Lestrange's death being the biggest failure in the film). Other changes that I didn't like were: hardly any amount of the Battle of Hogwarts was shown, around 3 minutes at most (this I'm very upset about), no mention of Harry's Invisibility Cloak even though it was one of the three Deathly Hallows, Fred's death scene being cut and the ending (Harry has just defeated the most evil man imaginable, the war has stopped, no more fighting, yet all everyone can do at the end is sit around and joke? No thank you for Harry? No mourning their dead? Come on...). I just hope these scenes are included in the DVD release of the film. I thought all the actors/actresses portrayed their characters brilliantly though, especially Alan Rickman as Snape and Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort, and I loved the extra humour they added in for Maggie Smith as McGonagall! :D
 
Easily the best movie I've seen all year. I thought it was totally heartbreaking starting from the Snape flashback all the way to the end. About audience reactions: one girl actually screamed in the beginning as soon as Voldemort appeared on screen and everyone laughed lol. Then they clapped at Molly Weasley's famous one liner. I love that scene, but of course it seemed better in the book.
 
No need even mentioning (I'll do it anyway) it wasn't as good as the book, just alright. For me it's hard to really love the Harry Potter movies because the books are so good and there are always errors and things missing from the movies I wish they would've included. There was so much action for me it felt like everything just happened too quickly and if I hadn't read the book the whole experience would've been a bit empty. I also feel like the emotion was missing from some of the scenes, especially from those where someone died (even though I had to hold my tears when Fred died). And I actually had totally forgotten Lupin dies! :bugeyed
Overall I thought it could've been better but I've never liked too much of the movies so considering that it was alright :D I thought I would feel weird and sad after the movie but actually I'm not..

But anyway, I also loved all scenes with Snape, the actor (I forgot his name) has done a brilliant job portraying him. I've always loved Rupert playing Ron, too.
And Draco 19 years later.. :lol:
 
Big HP fan but much prefer the books to the films. Don't get me wrong, they did a great job with the films but nothing compared to what my mind had conjured up by reading. Will still buy the whole box set of the films when they are avaiable.
 
I'm a big Harry potter fan too!! :)
My favourite part of ALL the movies is in the 8th part when Dumbledore askes Severus "After all this time?" and he answers "Always" :heart: (scene starts at 6:18)

 
Ok, y'all's posts are way to long for me to read, so... I love Snape. Yaayy! I'm glad to have been able to display my heartfelt and emotional thoughts. Kay, bye.
 
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