Yes, I’m a geek. And so is my wife, and our son. The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth! :coolsmiley:
(Apropos to panties — now, if my wife had just remained a horny geek, all would be well and you folks would have never met me…Â :huh: )
Our family pre-ordered Deathly Hallows months ago, and we received it on the second day of publication. For the most part, my wife, my son and I read it together out loud. Here’s a creepy coincidence: we took the book with us on a camping trip. We happened to read the chapters which took place in the tent, while we ourselves were in a tent!
All credit to Rowling for weaving a wonderfully complex story. As we read chapter after chapter, I was thinking, “wait a minute, things were complicated enough at the end of Book Six. And now she’s ADDING complications? How can this story possibly end coherently?” Well, the saga finished with a most satisfying bang, and everything made sense.
We also saw the Order of the Phoenix movie, and that was a disappointment. As the series progresses, the books and the films are becoming increasingly disconnected. The primary culprit would appear to be editing. Rowling said that she wanted to retain editorial control over the films, but she would appear to have lost it.
Think about it — the first HP book was under 200 pages, and it was made into a 2.5-hour film. Books Four through Seven are all over 600 pages — but Warner Bros. is STILL making films of the same length. The Order of the Phoenix movie was actually ten minutes SHORTER than Sorceror’s Stone. Adding back ten carefully-planned minutes to this most recent film could have cleaned up so many dangling plot details. This would have not made Film Five any longer than the well-received Film One.
I don’t know why the later films are being handled so brutally. It’s getting to the point where, if you haven’t read the books, you won’t understand the shorthand versions of what they show you in the films. Kreacher, Cho, Ginny, and Dumbledore all get short shrift in Film Five, in ways that will seriously impact the story later on.
I started noticing this editing problem with the Goblet of Fire film. Cutting Dobby out of that film will cause problems later. Woe to the director of Film Seven, who will be told to clean up the mess they’ve made in the previous three films. The Potter film series will end up, unfortunately, like the Star Wars series — loads of potential, but plot holes everywhere.
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