more than meets the eye

I just watched the latest Harry Potter movie. And I Hated it. Hate with a capital “H”.

Okay, perhaps that was a bit harsh, it ‘looked’ good, but I really did not like it. Granted, the fifth book was not as full of adventure and excitement as the ones before it (and after). It was more focused on Harry’s development as a teenage boy, and how he dealt with his peers and other wizarding folk that were trying to stop him from telling the world about Voldemort’s return. That sort of teen-drama is not very exciting; even if Harry is The Boy Who Lived, he has his ‘normal’ moments too. Moments which will consume all but 10% of the movie. 

So the director didn’t have much action to work with, and unfortunately all of the subplots and backstories that were so interesting in the book were either barely glossed over on film or not shown at all. I’d really recommend just reading the book over watching this installment in the Potter movies, it doesn’t do it justice in any way at all.

Now Transformers on the other hand… I saw that movie the week before and it was amazing. Sometimes the humor was a little over the top (the scene where the Autobots are all hiding in the backyard comes to mind), but everything else – the cars, the voice-acting, the epic inter-city robot battles - it was stellar. My only complaint was that they didn’t actually play the Transformers theme at all during the movie. I was really looking forward to a new, jazzified version of that 80’s classic.

In summary: No to Order of the Phoenix on film (yes to the book, however). And a big YES to Transformers. Yes, yes, yes.