Expecto Petronum

I'm sitting on the couch watching "Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix" with my mom. Yes, this is how I chose to spend my Friday evening/ Saturday morning. Don't judge

Once upon a time, I gave into the Harry Potter hype. Not one to read much outside of what was assigned in school, the thought of reading such an intimidating novel was daunting (Disclaimer: each book is HUGE). But truthfully, I figured that since everyone else was reading it, it might be worth the time investment. So I began. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone and it was bloody brilliant.

Slowly, I managed to persuade those around me to get into it. I lent out my books, bought them for people as gifts, and turned my mom into a believer. She ended up being more sucked into the land of Witchcraft and Wizardry then the average cape-bearing 12 year old. I actually caught her crying, in her bed,while reading the last one.

The thing is, as pathetic as that reaction may seem to the naked eye, its rather a clear example of how powerful these books are. Due to laziness and several other distractions, I only read up to the middle of the forth one: Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. My knowledge of Harry Potter past that point has all been based upon the movies.

My mom, being a true die-hard fan, bought the collectors edition of all the Harry Potter films on DVD. This collection includes interactive games, bookmarks, bonus features, and more. Expensive is an understatement, but its worth it. With each book, comes more struggles, more adventures and more plot twists, making each movie get better and better. Some critics say they don't like the "dark turn" the films have taken, which is the fault of no one except for the change in directors, but I strongly disagree. Yes, the first movie was more a family film where 5+ children would be happily entertained. And yes, the rating did seem to become more PG-13, R-ish as they progressed, but by no means is that a negative thing.

Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix is one of the best movies I have ever seen: thematically and visually. Thematically it touches upon several points: the obvious-good v. evil, adolescence, questioning authority/what you're told, friendship, leadership, control of the mind and body, trust, distrust, deception, murder, loss, optimism :) , wrong impressions, loneliness, etc. Visually, it, by far, can be up there with movies like Pan's Labyrinth, Transformers and Wanted. I think it can surpass them. Why? Because these special effects have nothing to do with reality. I know that sounds obvious, since they are special effects, but they explore a completely different reality.

Harry Potter is the definition of innovative.

Seriously. Expecto Petronum. Like, what the fuck is that? It is a spell. It's spell that you say to fight off dementors. What does it mean? It means to expel your happiest thoughts, therefore, killing the dementors with positivity. Its brilliant. Its original. Its definitely innovative. These books are filled with cool shit like this. She thinks of the most captivating ways to bring us into her world of magic. That is a hard task to accomplish. Usually your imagination is hard to convey to those who aren't in your head. Thats what makes a great fiction writer, because they are so loquacious that they can fully describe their imagination to a stranger and still manage to be cohesive and captivating. J.K. Rowling invented this entire intricate world, with government, rules and regulations, an education system, and a maximum security prison, and managed to clearly depict it to her fellow readers.

Her descriptions are so vivid and inspiring that movies were created, and each director managed to transfer her words to the silver screen.

People always say that the books are better than the movies. People like having the ability to have their own interpretation as oppose to being told what to think, hence why books are better-they leave room for imagination. Me on the other hand, I prefer the visual aspect. I am a visual learner and I stay true to the title. Don't get me wrong, I love books, but sometimes my imagination is too complicated and too intense for me to handle sometimes. I need a little structure and movies def provide that.

With that said, I loved this movie. It was the best Harry Potter film yet. Please see it.

That was the point of my story.

Sorry for the abrupt ending. I'm sleepy.

Here's a little bit of HP humor for the evening...



Shout out to my fellow Georgetown RAs :)