An Atrocity

Rating: Null/10 (15 July 2011)

An atrocity was committed tonight. One of the highest order. Worse than the horror that was 6th movie. Dare I say worse even then the terror that Voldemort inspired? I do. It was absolutely dreadful. And how J.K. Rowling approved of this ending to her brilliant series, I will never know.
I kept a tally of the mistakes they made tonight. By my count, there were 95 of them. NINETY-FIVE! That is absolutely ridiculous. Now before I begin the list I must make note of two points. The first is that some mistakes were so atrocious that I multiply counted those for these are the ones that absolutely should not have been avoided. These are the ones that represent the spirit of the series and us, the fans. And thus by destroying them, the film has destroyed a part of us as well. The second point is that there were many minor mistakes as well. But these need not be counted for they are not the ones that matter.
Now I understand that there is a need to go for theatricality. But they could have done so and followed the books. Look at adaptations of LotR and Stephen King. Those follow the original works amazingly. And those books aren't nearly as popular as Harry Potter has become. Harry Potter is not only popular, but also a gateway. It is the start of a path for many to begin reading. And as such it deserves the utmost care and respect.
Do you know what happens when someone sees a horrible movie based off a book they haven't read? They almost always do not want to read the book. That saddens me greatly. The movies don't have to be as good the books. I'd never expect that. But they could try a hell of a lot harder. And by not trying they're effectively killing off a large portion of passionate readers, would be writers, and amazing creativity.
Worse than that though is the number of us who have essentially dedicated our lives to the series. And many of us have put so much stock in the series, that it is a huge slap in the face. No. Worse than that. It's like they've destroyed a part of our soul.
For myself at least, I identified so much so with Harry that when I first started the series, I longed for nothing more than to go to Hogwarts. To belong somewhere. To no longer be mistreated and ignored by friends and family. (For those of them that read this, yes, I was sorely mistaken about this then. But I never knew it at the time) And then strangely enough, I got my acceptance letter. I got into a college where I was accepted readily by my peers regardless of my beliefs. At college I found my Hogwarts, my Gryffindor, my Ron, my Hermione, my Neville, my Luna. And while at college, I lost my grandmother. She is my Dumbledore, even now. She guides me at every step.
Perhaps I am outrageous in my claims to many. In fact I hope that is the case because that would mean that only a few share my sad experience. Alas, I do not believe this to be the case. I think that many people connect with the books on as deep a level as I did even if perhaps they did not know why. It is to those deeper connections that I write to now. But even so, I write this for myself because my soul cannot sit idly by as a crime such as this is committed against it.
For the full review go here: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150225265191370 If you've made it this far, I commend you and thank you for reading this. And if you'd like to tell me what you thought of this or the movie, email me at TheWarlock77241 at-sign live.com.
Mike 'Merlin' Patterson