Monday, July 25, 2011

Laundry and Harry Potter

Ever worry about the names you've picked for your characters? I have, but I never worried about Landry's name until last night. Here's a sample of the family conversation.

Child #2: Dad, what actor would you like to play opposite of in a movie?

Hubby (after much debate): Mom's boyfriend from Star Trek, then she'd see I'm much better looking than him.

Me: I only like him is Star Trek, his other movies he's kind of scuzzy.

Child #1: Spock?

Me: (Internal thought: Yeah Spock was nice looking, oh! she means the Karl Urban AKA McKoy) You mean McKoy?

Child #1: Oh, yeah.

Hubby: What? You liked McKoy??

Me: Yeah, but not really McKoy. The actor is the one I chose to play Landry in the movie.

Child #2: Every time I hear his name I think laundry.
I go into instant terror mode--Oh, no people think it's pronounced laundry, why would they think that? I can't have my hero making people think of piles of dirty clothes! Then I remember she's only 12 and no one else has mentioned the Laaaandry vs lawndry problem before.

Do you ever freak out like this over little things?

Ok, and now...I finally made it to the theater to see Harry Potter the last installment. It was really sad the whole time because I kept thinking, "this is it. The last one ever."

I'm not going to go into detail, but I did want to comment on my good friend Michael's post from last week. I didn't comment there because I hadn't seen the movie yet.

He brought up a lot of valid points for things he felt let him down in the movie--but he also didn't read the last four books. So, I wanted to answer some of his problem areas. Go read his post to understand my answers. :)

Possible Spoiler Alert

1) Bellatrix Lestrange. This is the scene I was waiting for and I agree I felt a bit let down, but not as much as you because I have read the book. That's also why I was so looking forward to it. This was the Mama Bear moment for Mrs. Weasley and I felt the movie rushed through it. There was so much emotion and I imagined a much more epic battle than what the movie portrayed. There is more dialogue in the book, more...just more in the words. This is actually the first spot in the book where everyone learns Harry is still alive. Voldemort is there fighting and Harry throws off his invisibility cloak (which is one of the deathly hallows but you never learn that in the movie.)

2) J.K. Rowling's World. I didn't have to think about this one long. The reason you don't see massive death tolls on the Deatheaters is because that's not how the good guys fight. There are more deaths in the book, but just on principle they would try and take the enemy alive.

3) Voldemort. For this one you just need to read the books. The movie is different than the book. Neville actually attacks Voldemort and is knocked down with a curse. Voldemort then says "we need your kind, Neville." Neville replies when hell freezes over and Dumbledore's Army!" That's it and then Voldemort starts torturing him in front of everyone. Then... oh, just read the books already!

During the last week I've read tons of posts on the movie and there were other discussions I want to comment on.

In the end, Neville was the real hero not Harry. A lot of people like to harp on Harry and say he isn't a hero, but what I loved about the books was that it proved a hero never does anything alone. Everyone gets to be the hero at different moments in time. The "hero" is usually the one people are following, but a good hero accepts that he can't do it alone and lets others reach their potential as well. In the end, Harry was willing to die to stop the killing. He had no idea he wouldn't die. This was his hero moment.

No one watched the final duel. This bothered me too. He kills Voldemort and then walks in and everyone's just  hanging out. No cheering or anything. In the book everyone is there and they watch the duel of words. They hear the conversation about Snape, Dumbledore and love between Harry and Voldemort. To me that was an important part of Snape's redemption--not just in Harry's eyes, but everyone else that was around to hear. (Snape was secretly one of my favorite characters all along and I never thought he was the bad guy! Glad I was right.) And when Voldemort falls there is the "one shivering second of silence, the shock of the moment suspended: and then the tumult broke around Harry as the screams and the cheers and the roars of the watchers rent the air." Then there is the giant group hug where everyone is determined to touch the Boy Who Lived.

Ah, now I'm all teary.

8 comments:

  1. I know a real-life Landry, and I've never once thought of laundry when I see him! Also, Karl Urban = hottie.

    Still haven't seen HP 7.2, but the mounds of reviews I keep reading have more or less convinced me to stick with the books. I imagine I'll see it eventually. Alan Rickman is also good-looking, in that "wow, he's too old for me but I'll stare at him anyway" kind of way.

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  2. Everyone in my theater cheered when Bellatrix died, so I guess it was good enough. No panic over names, although I'm sure most people couldn't pronounce Ernx.

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  3. I'm still waiting on watching the HP 7.2, but have read the books. The name game is something I don't get stumped on much because I have a notebook that I jot down potential name in all the time. Names is one of my favorite things.

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  4. I like the name Landry, and I never once thought of laundry while reading it.

    I do similar things with presents. When I'm in the store (or busy knitting it), I get this feeling that the recipient will love the gift. Then after I have it and am wrapping the thing, I get this feeling that I've screwed up somehow. It's the wrong thing.

    What usually happens is that the recipient loves the gift (or at least says they do), and my panic was all for nothing.

    Take a deep breath. A 12-year-old who has never heard the name is no way to gauge how the name is read by those who have heard the name.

    And I loved HP 7.2. I read the book so long ago that I've forgotten most of the intricacies. I found that this helps me enjoy the movie more. Otherwise, I become that annoying person who nitpicks and compares every little difference.

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  5. Thanks for the shout out.

    I think honestly that directors should make movies so that people who haven't read the books can enjoy them. They did that for Lord of the Rings. It should be possible with everything else.

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  6. Agree about the glossing over of Belatrix's death - I wanted more!! And yeah, when Harry wins a Quiddich tourny, it's party's galore, but killing Valdemort - nothing. (although I understand, since there were losses there)

    I wrote an MG ghost story (actually, am rewriting now) and yesterday I read a recently-published MG ghost story (by a bestselling author) who had 2 secondary characters with the same names as my mc's. Dangitanyway!!
    erica

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  7. I've been meaning to comment on this for days now and just couldn't find the necessary time to think and them paste my thoughts over in the comment section here :)

    The answer to your question is "Yes. I totally freak out from time to time over little things."

    And as far as HP goes a few thoughts :)
    I think it was said somewhere in the first part of HBP that the invisibility cloak is also one of the deathly hallows so in the second part they just went with that with no mentioning it again.
    I completely agree with everything else you said though.
    And would like to add (because you've read the books), that it's funny how Voldemort chose his enemy in Harry, how he felt threatened by him and tried to kill him when he was a baby and throughout the series, but how in the end it's Neville killed Nagini.
    I find it beyond interesting how in the end it's the other boy who was born the same day as Harry ends up being the one to kill the last of Voldemort's horcruxes.

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  8. Clearly I'm reading your blog posts out of order, but I love this post too. I'd had enough time between reading the book and watching the movie to just sit back and enjoy Harry Potter part 2. I did this on purpose, because if I hadn't, I know all these things would have driven me crazy too. But there are some things (like Harry and Voldemort fighting alone) that there was just no reason to change. I don't get why they did that. But I still loved the movie. I'll be going back to see it again at the movies any day now! :-)

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