From: Kong
Date: 29 Mar 2009
Time: 04:49:35
Remote Name: 63.239.248.1
OK, so at least within this anonymous forum I'm willing to admit it: I am a Harry Potter movie freak. I haven't even read the books, I wouldn't be caught dead with one in my hand. I was accidentally seduced by The Order of the Phoenix while flipping channels one night. It was repeating regularly on HBO, and after skipping past it a few times to find something better, I finally flipped back to it and caught the final showdown where the kids go to the Department of Mysteries and end up fighting the Death Eaters and Lord Voldemort. I tried not to get sucked in, then I tried not to enjoy it, I mean, this is fucking Harry Potter after all and I'm not 12 years old! It was no use, after that I had to see the whole movie and then had to see it again. Less than a year later I've watched all five films too many times to count and I can barely wait for Half-Blood Prince to come out in July. I'm still scratching my head on what exactly it is I love about this series so much. I mean, frankly, the acting sucks, by the young actors anyway. They do OK for as young as they all are, but sometimes it's just really terrible. Emma Watson is the weak link in the main three, it feels like she has potential but maybe just not enough real life experience to draw upon. Her attempts to seem upset or sad or worried especially come off phony, as if she's never really experienced these feelings intensely enough to put them into her character. I actually think Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe do pretty good most of the time, Radcliffe especially in the last 3 films has really come into his own as a young actor.
But Matthew Lewis (plays Neville Longbottom) and Tom Felton (plays Draco Malfoy) are truly painful to watch in their attempts to act. Their lines come out like they're reading off cue cards, they fumble over words they can barely pronounce, their emotions seem labored and artificial, they nearly always sound unnatural and contrived. Sometimes it feels like I'm watching a middle school play with a multi-hundred million dollar budget. Why aren't these kids taking acting lessons in between films? They seem to try and make up for it by filling the adult roles with lots of great actors, which helps but doesn't cure the problem.
So what exactly is it then that I love so much about these films? It's the same old good versus evil theme, and Voldemort as the half-pure leader of the evil "pure-blood" faction is a transparent allegory for the eugenic ideology of Hitler and Nazi Germany, and as nearly every other mainstream movie on the subject has already stated to death, there's nothing more to such ideas than pure evil, right?
I need more complex themes and characters in my life, heroes who aren't always heroic and noble, bad guys who have some decency inside them, and horrible atrocities (like racial purging) that started with noble ideas (like Social Darwinism and Eugenics) instead of just simple evil and power and control that must be overcome by our infallible, sanctified heroes. In general I need characters and stories that are complicated and thought-provoking, that are more like real people and real life and less like our paranoid delusions of black and white, good versus evil.
So what is it about Harry Potter then? Well, I think it's style for one. These films are just cool, especially 3-5 (1 & 2 are very juvenile.) They are charming as hell too, I always really love the characters even when they are acted poorly. And they are fun movies, hilarious at times, with very original things going on even if the overall plot is more than a little trite. And I truly connect with Harry, something about all his pain and anger and how that makes him a brave and powerful wizard. I really just get caught up in the fantasy of it all, and I rarely ever like this kind of fantasy film.
So there it is folks, laugh all you want but for some reason I can't fully explain I love Harry Potter. What does that make me then, a Harry Head?
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