Crowded Upstairs

I think it's well-known by at least half of you that I love Harry Potter. Really, really love it. I enjoy the movies, for the most part, but I always think I would enjoy them more if I were completely unfamiliar with the books. I get somewhat distracted by what's missing or changed. Still, the movies are dazzling enough in their own right that I can appreciate them for themselves.

This entry is FULL OF SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

First, though, my thoughts on the trailers which preceded it. ( I don't know if trailers count as spoilers, really, but just in case. )

Right, so, the film itself. Overall it was pleasing. The parts that got left out, though, disappointed me deeply.

( These are the things I liked. )

( These are the things I didn't like. )

Overall, Kevin gave it 2.5 stars out of 4. I'm a little more generous; I'll say 3 stars out of 4 because the list of things I liked is longer than the list of things I didn't. But the things I didn't like were intensely disappointing.

JK Rowling did a webchat via her publisher and answered a LOT of unanswered questions! MASSIVE SPOILERS, of course.

http://www.bloomsbury.com/harrypotter/content.asp?sec=3&sec2=1

Wow. It sure looks like my f'list is divided over this conclusion to the Potter canon. Half of you hate it and half of you love it. I'm in the latter half.

Am I sad? Sure. Some of my favorite characters are gone. Won't say who, but yeah.

Am I happy with the ending? I found it perfectly satisfactory.

( Some things I specifically loved, hated, or called. TONS OF SPOILERS. Turned white to avoid spoiling those who haven't read yet. )

I know some of you didn't like it. I won't argue with you. For me, though...it was a good way to say goodbye. There's one more part I want to talk about, but that gets its own f'locked post.

Can you tell I've got Harry on the brain? I've seen these posted in a few different places, and they're SO funny. Some of them read like harebrained crackfic summaries.

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: Ron kills Bellatrix Lestrange after converting to Scientology Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: Hermione Granger launches a dastardly terrorist plot because J K Rowling got bored Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: Harry burns down Hogwarts, and everybody celebrates after doing battle with an evil dragon in a pink tutu Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: James Bond is killed by Nymphadora Tonks by using Wingardium Leviosa Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: Hermione gets pregnant by Salazar Slytherin in a passage written by Salman Rushdie Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: Voldemort gets suspended by LJ Abuse for writing underage slash fic using the Whomping Willow Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

Thank you, morningstar4, for the exciting head's up!

*takes a deep breath*

STUART TOWNSEND HAS SIGNED ON FOR THE SIXTH HARRY POTTER FILM.

Confirmation: http://www.movievine.com/casting/article00670.shtml

At long last, my theory about all my fandoms being related has come full circle!

The New York Times has released their review of the final Harry Potter book.

WARNINGS: There are spoilers for the previous books. There are also some minor spoilers for THIS book; while it doesn't so much as hint about who dies, the spoilers include mentions of characters and objects mentioned along the way which will be coming back to make important appearances, as well as a brief and tantalizing explanation of what exactly the Deathly Hallows are. So if you're trying to remain completely unspoiled, you might not want to read the review.

If you'd like to take the plunge, you'll find it here. But don't say I didn't warn you!

morningstar4 has invited her friends to post, on a particular journal entry, their predictions for the last Harry Potter book, which as we all know comes out next month. Then, after we've read the book, we can come back and see who was right, who was close, who was completely off base, and who was just insane.

I'm joining with her in this idea, and inviting all my fellow Harry fans to post their predictions in comments on this entry. These are the predictions I made on her journal; chime in with yours!

~ I think that if Ron and Hermione don't finally get together by the end of the book, I will tear my hair out from the UST. ;)

~ I think Percy Weasley will die. Yes, I truly do. He's going to bet on the wrong pony one last time and pay the price.

~ Rowling said once that one of the characters will manage to perform magic quite late in life, and as we haven't seen that yet, I imagine it's going to come into play in the seventh book. I think that person will be Filch.

~ My favorite and most serious prediction: I think one of the horcruxes is Hogwarts, and the school will have to be demolished in order to defeat Voldemort. Out of the ashes of Hogwarts will rise a new school, with Harry as headmaster, that they will dub the Phoenix Academy. Okay, I'm being ever so slightly facetious about the name bit, but I really do think the school is a horcrux. After all, didn't Dumbledore say that most, if not all, of the horcruxes were somehow intimately connected with the four founders? And what's more intimately connected with Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw than Hogwarts itself?

~ Addendum to that -- I think they will bring about the destruction of the school through a combined effort by the four houses. The students will have to combine their powers in order to pull off something that massive, and it's going to require the participation of representatives of each of the four houses.