Deconstructing Harry

Four years after reading the book for the first (and last) time, WB has finally released Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince, or should I say Harry Potter and the Half-Good Movie?

Anyway, yesterday I finally managed to make it to the cinema together with my friend and favourite blogger (should I add owner of a pair of incredibly cool yet well priced Hermès sandals? -thanks for the pic!-) Agnes. The movie starts, we remain quiet, then laugh, then look at each other wondering "what the hell?", then scoff, and then... then it was over.

I have to admit I am never impressed by the HP movies. I am not a big fan of books made movies, except, and oddly enough, LOTR so I had prepared myself for the big disappointment, which wasn't that bad after all. Or was it?

Once the movie was over I thought it was OK, then I returned home and started screaming all the things that had gone wrong and realised I could not decide whether it is a good or bad version of the book. Frustrating, so frustrating... I decided to give it a thought overnight and start typing with a fresher mind and colder nerves just now.

As interesting as I find my own feelings toward the film, I guess what you want to read is a "yeah guys, I feel just as you do about certain scenes" so here it goes:

First and foremost WHY THE HELL DO THEY BURN THE BURROW DOWN?????????????? How? Where? When? Who thought it would be a good idea to add that to the script? Can anyone please fire that person? And are the Weasleys made of ice then? Someone burns your house down, you watch it burn and do nothing despite the fact that unlike us muggles you can actually do magic and then go back to school as if nothing had happened? That non existent reaction or longer discussion during the film only proves that it was totally unnecesary.

Second and not less important the films shows Harry Potter is a total coward. A kid who consistently breaks school rules in order to save the world is told by the headmaster to "go downstairs and do nothing" while five deadly deatheaters (actually three deatheaters, a most faithful spy and a very scared kid) attack said headmaster and he complies???????? In the book Harry is paralised and under the invisibility cloak, unable to move or help Dumbledore even if he aches to do so. Through that passage of the book you can feel his agony, his pain and desperation, in the movie you watch in disbelief how Harry turns into a helpless sissy. That is not my Harry Potter (nor the seventh book one either actually... My Harry Potter should have died at the end of the seventh book, but one can't have everything).

Third major mistake, Harry and Ginny's relationship. The book has a lot more passion and hormones into it that actually make the story somewhat brighter despite the gloomy air that J.K. conveys (most brilliantly) to the whole book. In the movie? In the movie Ginny ties Harry's shoelace (Whatever...).

And the Half-Blood Prince? How on Earth do you title a movie HP and the Half-Blood Prince and turn the HBP's story into a secondary and totally background plot? Oh well, they can't make both book fans and non fans happy at the same time, can they?

As for the missing bits...

1.- I wanted to see Fenrir Greyback bite Bill, who doesn't even have a part on the movie.
2.- Bill is suppossed to marry Fleur at the begining of the seventh book, why is no one planning the wedding?
3.- Where's the new Minister of Magic?

But even worse...

4.- WHERE IS THE BATTLE OF HOGWARTS????????????????????
5.- WHERE IS THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX? on holidays?
6.- WHERE IS DUMBLEDORE'S FUNERAL?

Of course there were some brilliant parts. I could feel my hair standing to end in the cave scene, just as I had imagined it, maybe even more spectacular specially when Dumbledore fills the cave with flames... just awesome, absolutelly legendary. They also manage to make a very fun Harry under the effects of Felix Felicis, and a really cute Ron in Quidditch practice. The first 45 minutes are great, the scene where they convince Slughorn to go back to Hogwarts is very nicely done, and the bits and pieces of memories that appear on the Pensieve too, still the ring scene was missing, and that would have explained a lot of Voldemort's ideas and actions.

Over all the movie is Half-Good, still it leaves a lot of missing bits that could have easily been included instead of the totally unnecesary scenes.

I can't help but wonder how are they going to manage to put the seventh book in two movies... Ahhg, I feel a lot less frustrated after this!

Thanks for reading, don't forget your comments! Such is Life

Harridans, embarrasements and bushrangers

After half a month of silence my muse has decided to make a very short appearance, so short that she has left a few ragged thoughts with no connection between them whatsoever (Ah! "whatsoever" one of my favourite words in English!).

I woke up with a word in my head: Harridan, a word I have never used in English and that I actually didn't even know what it meant until a couple of minutes ago (hence the post and its title). Harridan: A vicious female, known for her evil tendencies towards male co-workers. What a discovery. Considering this evening I had the first real contact with my future co-workers, the word is not very inspiring or promising.

Today the law firm I'm going to work for from september on invited all the new hires to a cocktail party. The first impression was great, but now I have made a very weird connection between the recurrent word of the day: Harridan. Three interpretations are possible:

1.- There is no connection whatsoever between said word and my future work life (The most normal/likely interpretation).
2.- Will I be a harridan?
3.- Will my female co-workers be harridans?

Firgers crossed, praying for option 1, still unsettling.

It was a nice meeting actually, forty new hires and some of the partners we are going to work with in a couple of months. It was all going very smoothly until I started talking with a guy that looked so young I thought he was one of the new hires, just like me. I started talking to him in a light tone, as if he was one of my future colleagues and not my future boss. And then... then he said he had also studied in my university long ago. Long ago? my brain is unable to make the connection so my mouth says: So you have swithched jobs? he laughs and we keep talking and then another partner comments of his looking so young despite all the all-nighters he's done in the last 17 years... I felt really stupid, but maybe he doesn't even remember by now! I just hope I will work with some other partner, for my own mental health.

To add pain to the aggravation the partner that interviewed me in May didn't remember me... I blame it on my haircut.

Still thrilled about all this job stuff, despite the not so shiny beginning. Come September it will get a lot better, I'm 100% sure of that.

Liking and disliking words I have realised embarrasement is a word I don't like in English, it sounds too much like the spanish word for pregnancy in my opinion...

And bushranger? Another very fun word I learnt today. I once told you I stole Ned Kelly's last words to give a nice title to this very random blog, didn't I? Well, as I sit in front of my TV while I watch Heath Ledger's very boring movie based on the life of this bushranger I surf the web to learn a little bit more about him (I honestly don't think he could be as boring as he seems in the movie) and discover he was a bushranger. I like the word so much I may actually add it to my list of favourite words in English together with whatsoever and some other words (honestly is #1 on that list, of course! and awesome and random fight for second place)

I am sooooo disappointed right now... I was expecting a very poetic-sad-dramatic scene to picture Ned Kelly's last words and it was just like the movie: boring.

Anyway... time to go. I'll try not to think too much about this afternoon. Such is Life!

Next on SiL: Harry Potter and the Half-blood prince... I have the feeling I'm going to find the movie somewhat annoying. Ohhhh somewhat another word that goes to the list!!

10 things I would love to do instead of studying

Ahhh, whoever invented wishful thinking never had to go through this... Such is Life, no, Life is cruel, that has been my motto for the last ten days. Is this going to be over anytime soon? Monday you say? By Monday I may be a zombie or, freakishly better, a wraith. Days pass slowly while I go through the same boring, dull, long pages.

As seconds tick by at an incredibly slow speed I have come up with ten things I would love (or die) to do instead of studying:

1.- Watch TV, more specifically: Disney Channel (can't really explain what drags me to that channel every time I turn TV on, guess I am just childish).

2.- Read books, light books, mistery books, any kind of literature other than the notes I have in front of me.

3.- Sit in a bar (preferrably outside) and share some beers with my friends.

4.- Paint my toenails in some shade of dark blue or red.

5.- Spend each and every afternoon tanning in the swimmingpool (which combines very well with number 2).

6.- Deal with all the paperwork I've been putting off (this is not something I'd love to do but that I have to do if I want to start working after the summer).

7.- Get away from Madrid, no matter the destination (well, it actually matters, but I sound more desperate if I say it doesn't).

8.- Catch up with friends I haven't seen in ages (this should be in the must-do list too... :P).

9.- Wear real clothes, not sweatpants and old t-shirts/ PJs all day long.

10.- Have something actually fun to write on this blog. I'm starting to suspect my muse is back to hating me... what have I done this time??

Here are my ten, if you have any other suggestion... all you have to do is comment!!

Enjoy your summer while you can, it doesn't last for ever! Such. is. life (I mean: life. is. cruel.)