The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Ever wanted to go to Hogwarts? Wanted to visit Ollivander's Wand Shop? Or have a butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks? Well, pretty soon your going to get your chance. Check out the concept art for the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando.

My Take on Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Saw Half Blood Prince yesterday as it opened nation-wide, and I have to say, despite the changes from the novel, I thought it was a good movie.

I've seen mixed reviews from fans of the books (here's one from Erika Olson on Redbox) and many dislike the changes and what was left out, but with books as large as the latter in the series, it's hard to get all the details into a 2 1/2 hour movie. Wikipedia has a good summary of the differences from the book to the movie.

There were a few changes that seem to have been made just for the sake of changing something, but I think it's best to hold judgment until we see the finished product, as in the end of the movie franchise's two-part Deathly Hallows. With adapting the movies from the novels, there are a lot of considerations that are made and with similar action coming in the last two movies, the director/producers didn't want the last three movies to seem repetitive. Once we see their vision for the end of the series, our view of Half Blood Prince may change.

One thing that I did note in the film was that the ending felt rushed. No spoilers here, but once we got to the climatic ending, it just happens and boom that's it. This is the best part of the book, and it just seems too rushed on the big screen. My other concern was that the entertaining Half Blood Prince plotline (who was he? how was he so good at potions? why did he choose that name?) was sort of put on the backburner. Even the reveal of who the Prince is was quickly put out there and then dropped.

The major bright point of the movie was its humor. From Ron to Slughorn to Harry, this film was big on laughs. Overall it was a good Potter film, but like those before it, the quality of the books is hard to duplicate on the big screen, and the details of the novels win out as usual.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Only a few more days:

Half-Blood Prince pushed to 2009

Here's something else to blame the writer's strike for, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince won't open in November. It is now scheduled for July 2009. Boo.

Poll: Goblet of Fire Picked as Top HP Book

I started this blog almost a year ago and have included polls on the sidebar since the beginning. The polls have ranged from sports topics to television and movies to any other random thing I can think of to poll. But once a poll closed, I just took it down and put up the next one (mostly because I only get about 4-5 votes each time. Thank you loyal readers!). Well, I've decided to start keeping track of the poll results, so once a poll closes, I'll do a post on it and talk about how and why I voted the way I did. Without further ado, here's the first poll post.

After a few weeks and a total of 16 votes (not a huge sampling, but the blog isn't exactly USA Today), Goblet of Fire is chosen as the reader's favorite Harry Potter book. I personally voted for Half-Blood Prince, but enjoyed Goblet of Fire as well.

Here's how the poll turned out:

The Sorcerer's Stone	0 (0%)
The Chamber of Secrets	1 (6%)
The Prisoner of Azkaban	4 (25%)
The Goblet of Fire	5 (31%)
The Order of the Phoenix	2 (12%)
The Half-Blood Prince	3 (18%)
The Deathly Hallows	1 (6%)

I'm still working on Deathly Hallows and am really enjoying it, but I think Half-Blood Prince will still be my favorite. I was most disappointed with Order of the Phoenix. I just found it too long with not enough advancement of the story. I believe I read that JK Rowling would have edited it down if she had had more time with it. It is still a fantastic story, but it just takes too long to get to the good stuff.

Next poll: Your favorite Star Wars film