I'm a Harry Potter fool. I've read the books, seen the movies, have a character figurine on display in my office and a larger than life size framed poster in my spare bedroom. So it may come as a surprise that I won't be attending the movie tonight...or this weekend for that matter.
For the next few films, I learned my lesson and attending a show the day of the release, but at a reasonable time of day. Since so many of the films were released near a holiday, I'd then usually see the movie a second time with my family a few weeks later.
With this history, it's probably terribly unclear as to why I won't be one of the first in line to see the penultimate film this weekend.
The reason is this: my favorite character in the Harry Potter series is, and always has been, Professor Snape. He is the reason why I became interested in the series in the first place: in 2001, I attended Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone with my grandmother. She'd read the first few books. I hadn't.
As we left the theater, I was completely intrigued by the Snape character: he was bad, but yet he wasn't. He obviously wasn't a fan of Harry, but then he saved him from Voldemort. I wanted to know more so when I arrived home for Christmas a few weeks later, I trotted off to my childhood bedroom with my mother's copies of the first four books and started reading.
My interest in Snape continue and by the final chapters of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I was convinced that Severus Snape was one of the most fascinating, complex fictional characters ever created. I read and reread the scene of Snape in Professor Moody's hospital room, showing Cornelius Fudge his Dark Mark and assuring him that Voldemort was, in fact, back, imagining how marvelous that exchange would play out on film.
I continued to read the books and watch the films as they were released and could barely contain my excitement in 2005, when
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire finally opened in theaters.
Christoper Columbus, the director of the first two films, stayed very true to the books. In fact, the first movie is basically a word for word retelling of the first book. Alfonso Cuaron strayed a bit from the storyline in the third film, omitting a fair amount of the history of the Marauders' school days, but for the most part, he kept the main storyline in tact.
Then in 2005 Mike Newell basically butchered the fourth movie.
Now, no offense to Mike Newell. He's directed some great stuff, Mona Lisa Smile and Four Weddings and a Funeral, in particular, but he turned a book about the rise of the an evil not-quite-dead megalomaniac and the attempts at resistance by the small group who didn't deny his existence into a movie about teenage romance, winter dances, and a inter-school competition that only turns dark in the last ten minutes of the movie.
AND HE CUT OUT THE SCENE WITH SNAPE IN THE HOSPITAL.
The great debate that began following the release of the fourth book was that Snape was a spy, a double-agent, but was he really on Dumbledore's side? And yet somehow the director of the fourth film didn't see it appropriate to actually reveal that Snape was a Death Eater!
The movies only went downhill from there. Since the history of the Marauders had been omitted from the third film and Snape's big reveal from the fourth film, the entire back story of that generation went out the window.
My high hopes for the sixth movie revolved around the fact that, you know, (SPOILER ALERT), Snape is the half-blood prince. He also had some pretty awesome scenes in the book from the unbreakable bond at Spinners End to his attempts at discovering Draco's plan to his final actions in the castle before fleeing with a group of Death Eaters.
I was actually shocked that so many of Snape's scenes were kept in the sixth movie, but at this point, the damage has been done.
The final book didn't help the cause much. To find out that at the end of the day, the explanation of Snape's actions ultimately boiled down to a school yard crush was tremendously disappointing. Sure, that could have been part of the justification, but in my mind a character seeming as complex and tortured and brave as Snape deserved so much more.
The point at which Snape is redeemed in Harry's mind doesn't come until late in the last book so it will be contained in the second part of the final film. During the first part, we'll likely just follow the three main characters as they traipse around the countryside, camping, and saving the world on their own, 'cause you know, that's what most seventeen year olds spend their time doing. Who needs adults?
(And yes, I totally appreciate the irony of my complaining that a book/movie series about a bunch of WIZARDS isn't realistic.)
Snape will be back at Hogwarts doing all the difficult work and laying the groundwork for Harry to return to the castle, but I doubt we'll see that because it's so much more important that we find out what Harry names his kids and the movie is already several hours long.
I'm not bitter. Really.
See I'm still smiling.
Reverie Top, Anthropologie
Beribboned Buds Cardi, Anthropologie
Tulip Pencil Skirt, Banana Republic
Hue Tights, Macys
AK Anne Klein Pumps, Macys
Bright Bulb Posts, Anthropologie
Necklace, Banana Republic
Nonpareil Bracelet, Anthropologie
And at the end of the day, I still plan on going to the movie next weekend with my family and I'll watch it half a dozen times when HBO starts showing it sometime next year and then I'll buy it when it's released on blu ray.
But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Or that I approve of it.
Happy Friday!
