In case you were wondering, I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows today.  I had tickets for the first (non-midnight) showing, which was at 11:00am.  But, I think I already told you that.

At the time I bought them, I did not know that my mom was going to take the kids overnight for a couple nights, so I ended up having to leave at 7:45 to drive up to her house and be back in time to see the movie.

Anyway, the movie was great!  I have read several not-so-stellar reviews, all penned by people who were obviously morons.  Just kidding.  But they were all penned by people who obviously did not read the books.

Complaining about the darker tone, the lack of screen time for characters other than Harry, Ron, and Hermione, or the slow pace is kind of, um, not the fault of the director; that’s how the book was written.

I think that the only way to critique a book based on the movie is to have read the book.  You can also judge the movie as a stand alone, but issues you have with where the author of the book chose to take the story are not fair criticisms of a movie based on said book.  [Steps down from soapbox]

The movie was an excellent adaptation of the book.  There were many scenes that played out exactly as written, right down to word-for-word dialogue.  There is nothing more thrilling than seeing a beloved book come to life precisely as you saw it in your head.  (Okay, there may be some things, but you know what I mean.)

There were some scenes that were made more cinematic through minor deviations from the book, and I felt like those changes worked to make the movie better.

There were also a few changes I didn’t particularly find necessary that I did not like.  One in particular still bothered me after the movie was over.  I don’t want to reveal any spoilers, but it has to do with that thing that was in Dolores Umbridge’s office door.  Harry takes it in the book.  Given his reason for doing so, I don’t think it was true to his character for him to leave it there in the movie.

I think the director did a great job of keeping the pace moving in what is a very slow-moving book.

Yes, this is a darker movie than the others, but that’s the point.  There is not a lot of joy and wonder in a world under control of dark wizards, where suffering and death are around every corner.  The kids have grown up.  They are considered of age in the wizarding world.  They are undertaking a task that most adults would fail at.  Darkness is sort of a given.

Speaking of growing up, the actors that portray Harry, Ron, and Hermione have grown up, too.  Their acting in this film is levels above the others.  There is one scene in particular with Hermione and Bellatrix Lastrange that was absolutely chilling without any special effects or gratuitous violence, simply because of Emma Watson’s stellar acting.

Not all the Harry Potter movies are good without reading the book (*cough* Goblet of Fire), but I think this movie stands on its own quite well.

I thought the movie was so good that I would be willing to pay to see it again in the theater.

I cannot wait to see “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1,” next Friday.  Not only because I absolutely love the Harry Potter franchise, but also because this will be the first movie I have seen in 3D.  It’s hard to believe, since almost every movie is 3D these days, but I don’t get to the theater very often.  In fact, the last movie I saw in the theater was “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” last summer.

This is also going to be the first Harry Potter movie that I watched after reading the book, so that should be interesting.  With the other movies, I didn’t know what they had wrong or what they cut out until after I had seen the movies a few times first.  This time I will have the book fresh in my mind, since I am re-reading it this week.  I hope that doesn’t take away from the experience.

Last summer, after I saw Half-Blood Prince, I had to find out if Snape really killed Dumbledore.  Snape is my favorite character and I knew he had to be a good guy.  So, when I got home, I borrowed my son’s first Harry Potter book and I didn’t stop until I got through all 7 books a month and a day later.

I like to joke about that being the reason I stopped believing in Christianity a couple months later.  After all, Harry Potter is satanic, right?

I ran out of stuff to do while stuck in bed yesterday, so I looked online for something to watch on my laptop.  I found this show called Happy Town on ABC.  I watched the first 5 episodes.  (Not all at once.)  I got into it.  It was on again last night, so today I watched the 6th episode today.

Since every show I ever watch, ever, gets canceled, I decided to check the ratings.  I went to wikipedia and learned that on May 17, ABC announced the show was getting cut after it airs the remaining episodes.

The interesting thing – maddening thing – about that is that as of May 17, they had only aired 3 episodes.  Three episodes?!?  I can’t believe that the executives at ABC made the call to cancel a show after only 3 episodes.

After last night’s episode, there are only two left.  Now I will never get to find out who the Magic Man is, what Chloe’s deal is, or why Old Lady Haplin is so creepy.

Man, people have no patience these days.

I put all of my Guster CDs away when I stopped listening to secular music. I pulled out all of my CDs on this past November 6, shortly after I left Christianity. I only know the date because I was looking at their website that night and saw that they were playing in Burlington the next day. It was the 10th anniversary of the album “Lost and Gone Forever.” I would have loved to see that, but it was sold out.

Here’s a video of a live acoustic performance of the song “Demons,” from the 1997 album “Goldfly.”  This is one of my favorite Guster songs.

So, when I saw that the movie was a dark horse Oscar contender, I excitedly read the article.

When I finished, I started writing a post about it.  As I wrote it, I began to wonder why I was feeling so negative about Pixar, the front runner for the Oscar in question.  Sure, I loved Mr. Fox and I want it to win, but “Up” was a great movie, according to everyone I know who watched it, and I love many of Pixar’s other works.  “Monsters, Inc.” is one of my all time favorite kids movies.  “Ratatouille” was absolutely charming.  And who doesn’t love “Cars”?  (He did what in his cup?)

Then it dawned on me that the writer of the article wanted me to feel that way.

The piece sets up the scene: Pixar is always a shoo-in for the Academy Award for best animated feature.

Here comes “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” with it’s little budget.  “Up” had a big budget!  (The rich guy is always the bad one!)

Mr. Fox is a “piece of art” and it reflects director Wes Anderson’s style.   “Up” is computer generated.

Pixar has already won 4 Oscars.  Mr. Fox is a long-shot competitor.

Then, there’s this quote from an unnamed Disney executive (from an evil corporation, no doubt).

“It’s not even a contest.”

What a classless jerk.

Finally, the article tosses out the word “underdog” and closes out with Roald Dahl’s widow, for emotional effect.

The stage is set: big, corporate, Disney/Pixar – with their big budget, four Oscars, and classless executives – CG mainstream animation versus little, quirky, artsy, Wes Anderson-directed, low-budget, stop-motion animation movie that pays homage to a beloved children’s author.

Who are you rooting for?

I understand that the article was about “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” and that’s why there was so much more focus on that film.  And it was a delightful film.

But, I was disappointed to realize how manipulated we are by the media, even in an article about something as innocuous as animated movies.  The writer wanted to paint a picture of a David and Goliath scenario, no matter how much of a stretch that is, and the reader leaves with an unexplained dislike of that corporate behemoth Disney-Pixar.

I’m still rooting for Mr. Fox because I adored that movie.  But, I am no longer feeling like Pixar is a bad guy.

I can’t say the same for how I feel about the media.

GeekSugar has a series of Tech Dating 101 posts that I normally ignore, due to the fact that I am not dating and that, even if I was, I find dating advice to be generally inane, but I saw a link to a post on emoticon overuse and, curious about other people’s thoughts on punctuation facial expressions, I thought I would  see what the tech dating expert at GeekSugar had to say on the topic.

Best quote:

I received some solid emoticon advice recently: “Don’t ever use an emoticon smiley face with a guy you don’t want to make out with.”

LOL

The post turned out to be about a woman who wasn’t sure if she wanted to date a guy due to his overuse of emoticons in text messages.  She thought it was too weird.

Dude, run far away from this girl, seriously.

Honestly, it seems that there would be so many other things to evaluate when dating.  I can’t imagine emoticon use being high on the list.

Oh, yeah, and I am so glad that I am not dating.

I have a sort of love-hate relationship with emoticons.  My opinion ranges from completely stupid to useful at conveying tone in a medium inherently prone to misunderstanding.

One rule I do have is to not use them in blog posts.  It seriously detracts from the impression one gets of my intelligence level.  (I think this post is an obvious exception.)

I use them in certain settings, but overall I am not a big fan.  Often, when I do use them, it’s to mock the online/IM culture or to be sarcastic, like when I say “YAY!”  There are a few people that I do use them with, mostly close friends, who use them also.

I’m not sure if I have ever used one with a guy that I wouldn’t make out with.

So, what do you think about emoticons?  Love ‘em?  Hate ‘em?  Don’t care, so much so that you want the minutes back that you spent reading this post?

Leave a comment.

I am a big fan of the Terminator franchise, including The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series, which was an excellent show that, unfortunately, got canceled.

The first movie was cheesy, for obvious reasons.  It was 1984.  What wasn’t cheesy?  But the premise was interesting and it is a classic.

Terminator 2 was a great movie.  The 80s cheese factor was gone.  There was a nice balance of moving the story forward and action with good special effects.  And, hello, a Guns N’ Roses theme song didn’t hurt either.

We’ll just forget the third movie ever happened.  I suppose it moved the plot a long, but in order to do so, we had to sit through a boring, awful movie.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which ran for two seasons on FOX, was awesome.  The show took the franchise in an interesting new direction.  There was a lot going on with the time line.  They really pushed the idea of time travel and explored the many worlds theory.  The show was great sci-fi for people who like to be left thinking and trying to wrap their brains around what just happened.  (That would be me.)

When I heard about Terminator Salvation, the fact that I was watching a really great Terminator TV show gave me hope that the movie would not leave me totally disappointed, as the third film had.  But the sorry state of action films these days left me skeptical.

It turns out, I was not the least bit disappointed.  I thought the movie was great.  It had a fair amount of action, but nothing that was forced or over-the-top and out-of-place.  There was a lot of emotion in the film without the gratuitous sexual content, as is often the case when a director want to cover up a lack of talent in acting and/or writing.  The story line was interesting and the fact that it takes place at the very beginning of John Connor’s leadership of the resistance, left room for yet another sequel.

For Terminator fans, as if there are any who have not yet seen it, Terminator Salvation is definitely worth watching.

I’m one to talk.  Over-analyze is my middle name.  I don’t take myself too seriously, though.  If anything, I don’t take myself seriously enough.

I’m not a big Bob Dylan fan, so that may be why I don’t get what the big deal is that he recorded the songs traditionally, but I totally get why he did.  They are Christmas songs.  If they are not recorded traditionally, there is really little point to them.

You played this right down the middle, doing classic holiday songs in traditional arrangements. Did you know going in you wanted to play it straight?
Oh sure, there wasn’t any other way to play it. These songs are part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight too.

My favorite line in the piece has to be this next one.  I just thought it was a great line.

The Chicago Tribune felt this record needed more irreverence. Doesn’t that miss the point?
Well sure it does, that’s an irresponsible statement anyway. Isn’t there enough irreverence in the world? Who would need more? Especially at Christmas time.

You can buy Christmas In the Heart at Amazon.com. “All of Bob Dylan’s U.S. current and future royalties from sales of Christmas In The Heart will be donated in perpetuity to Feeding America, guaranteeing that more than four million meals will be provided to over 1.4 million people in need in this country during this year’s holiday season.”

It’s everything an adult wants in an animated film – interesting visuals, believable characters (even if they’re furry), and intelligent writing.

Check out 7 Things Parents Should Know about Fantastic Mr. Fox, even if you are not a parent.