Harry and the Gang Ends 8 Films with a Whimper

As a die-hard Harry Potter fan, I went into the movie theatre 10 years ago to see the first film adaptation with scepticism. Like most fans, this feeling was purely that the film would not live up to my expectations, that something would be missing or changed which is blasphemy, and that the actress portraying Hermione Granger wouldn’t be cute enough. I walked out of the film a satisfied fan because the first film was almost scene-by-scene the book, almost nothing was changed or missing, and Emma Watson was cute and adorable.

One of the only reasons I continued to pay to watch mediocre sequels.

Over the years, my expectations that someone could fit 500-700 pages into a 2-hour movie without butchering the book went down and I let some things go without much criticism. And then I saw the trailer for the seventh film part deux. I was blown away by how awesome it was. The pace was fast, the scenes moving, and Mrs. Weasley fought like she meant to kill. After seeing the trailer a dozen times, I set a date and prepared to see the final film of the series in IMAX to end the series in style.

To get you up to speed: Harry, Ron, and Hermione are out to destroy several magical objects called Horcruxes so that they canfinally defeat the Dark Lord/He Who Must Not Be Named/Lord Voldemort. Thing is, they only have hunches of where and what these darn things are so they’re running around a bank (Gringrotts) and a school (Hogwarts) while trying to escape from everything that’s trying to kill them (a dragon, Death Eaters, Lord Voldemort, giants, etc).

“Why do I need glasses when I know magic?!?”

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 didn’t live up to the hype nor to how the trailer portrayed the film, the latter of which should have been obvious but I didn’t want to believe it. All the big scenes were covered by the film, even the moan-worthy 19 years later scene, but nothing was particularly memorable or rewatchable. 3D simply meant that the characters appeared to be 3 inches closer to my face, the pace was fluctuated between slow and slower, even the Battle of Hogwarts scenes, and none of the supporting actors could get anything more than 1 line or said something for cheap laughs which I didn’t laugh at. By the end I only felt a sense of relief that the movie wasn’t longer and agony that I spent $19 for a movie.

That being said,  I wouldn’t completely stay away from the film. Additional elements in the Battle of Hogwarts that weren’t in the book were fine by me, everything looked beautiful and Mrs. Weasley said her fan-famous PG 13 line. All in all, the franchise comes to a satisfactory end and thank-god the cast was perfect, save for Ginny Weasley. But hey, if JK Rowling supposedly says it’s awesome, who am I to judge?

Commencement: a Rebirth

In honour of all my friends and other graduates celebrating the end of an era around the world, I share with you the commencement address from one of the most influential people of the world. I hope her thought-proving words will inspire you to believe that extreme difficulties can be overcome and the extraordinary accomplishments we can achieve.

Before Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling was divorced, jobless, a single-parent and one unpaid month of rent from becoming homeless. But then, like magic, she had an idea and her life changed forever. Although I haven’t written a book, much less seven, or become a billionaire (except on Neopets), the life she experienced parallels my own in so many ways.

“Looking back at the 21-year-old that I was at graduation, is a slightly uncomfortable experience for the 42-year-old that she has become. Half my lifetime ago, I was striking an uneasy balance between the ambition I had for myself, and what those closest to me expected of me.”

Two years ago, I sat in an uncomfortable plastic chair in an ice-rink-turned-auditorium with my fellow 2009 Burnaby Mountain Secondary graduates. Wearing my black gown and cap with the tassel placed on the right, I heard family and friends politely clap for people they had no concern for and cheer wildly for people they paid to sit like sardines for. I watched classmates go upstage to receive their scholarships and I walked on the same stage to receive my University of Toronto Book Award: a 400-page encyclopaedia. I took a picture with my fake diploma, because none of us had technically graduated, and wondered what I would be eating afterwards: sushi or Chinese food. Just some of the difficult decisions I was concerned about.

Like J.K., looking back at the 17-year-old that I was at graduation is also an uncomfortable experience.