OMG, A Good Harry Potter Movie!

I need to start this off with a disclaimer: I LOVE the Harry Potter books. I am a huge fan, and it is very difficult for me to see them from a non-fan perspective. That said, I am not much of a fan of the movies. Though I do refrain from complaining about every single detail that the filmmakers left out, I am fully convinced that movies will never come close to the awesomeness of the books, and I have been generally disappointed with the adaptations. Now, I just accept that they're not going to be great and try to enjoy what I can.

So when I went to see Half-Blood Prince at midnight, my expectations were not that high. I was amazed to discover that this movie is actually good! Not just good in comparison to the others or good enough considering the book is over 600 pages long, but good as in if I went to see it without reading Harry Potter, I probably would have liked it! Miracle!

Half-Blood Prince does things the other Harry Potter movies don't seem to have considered, like portraying the plot in a visual manner and including visualized details that make the books so exquisite. It sticks to the main plot and still captures the essence of the book while adapting the story to tell it visually.

The opening sequence is the epitome of the switch in filmmaking styles. Without anyone saying a word, Death Eaters fly through a gloomy London wreaking havoc on the muggle world without any of the normal humans realizing what's wrong. Now, Death Eaters don't fly, but showing that they have become powerful enough to affect not just the wizards but the normal people as well helps set the scene very well while still portraying the world cinematically. It differs greatly from the opening of the book, but it still gets the same point across, and for me, that is the sign of a great adaptation.

Apart from its relation to the books, this film is very well balanced between plot, details, and visuals. Without detracting from the story, the film has lots of great moments that help it to make the leap from decent to enjoyable. I loved Harry's ecstatic strut through Hogwarts after he's taken a luck potion. At the same time, the dark lighting and muted colors that pervade the film help show that Voldemort is out there and that evil is beginning to take over, not only setting the tone for this movie but also setting up the next two.

The acting in this film was much improved as well. I am not a fan of Daniel Radcliffe (who plays Harry), but he actually acted this time! It was incredible! All right, so he's been getting better in the last few films, but I actually enjoyed watching him grow from an awkward teen to a potential lover, and he played his part very well. It is always a pleasure to watch Alan Rickman as Snape and Tom Felton as Draco Malfory, and both of them truly embodied their characters in this film, Rickman being his usual sulkily brilliant self and Felton developing from nasty comic relief to a truly deep dark character.

There were parts of the movie that were less than fantastic. Blowing up the Weasley house seemed rather pointless, and the ending lacked excitement (where did the final battle go?!), but on the whole, I really enjoyed this film, and I can't wait to see it in IMAX!

Jurassic Park

I’m not going to talk about Benjamin now because Jurassic Park is awesome in its own right and deserves its own post. Where to start? The seamless weaving of action sequences and chaos theory, the unity between sound, image, and message, “objects in mirror are closer than they appear”? I think I will concentrate on the scene in which Muldoon hunts the raptor. Over the course of the film, Muldoon has been one of the more cautious characters, repeatedly saying that the animals are smart and unpredictable and that they will never be safe. Nonetheless, in this sequence, Muldoon hunts the raptor, presumably thinking he can kill her. However, just as he is preparing to shoot, a raptor he had not seen comes at him from the side and eats him following Muldoon’s final words: “Clever girl.” This scene exemplifies the film’s use of organic unity and shows how the film combines many formal and thematic elements to produce the greatest effect in its audience. Because we know that Muldoon respects the raptors greatly from his previous comments on their intelligence and lethal power, we would expect him not to underestimate their abilities. However, when the raptors defeat him anyway by outsmarting him, the film emphasizes its main idea that no matter what, nature will “find a way” to remain unpredictable, and there is no safe way to deal with the dinosaurs because of this unpredictability. Though we know this by this point in the film, we still feel suspense as Muldoon hunts the raptor because we know that the animals are intelligent, and as he says, they are hunting him too. The suspense keeps the audience very involved in the film emotionally which keeps them interested and helps get the point across that these animals should not be messed with. Furthermore, the fact that the raptor attacks from the side while distracting from the front shows how well thought-out the plot is because it refers to Grant’s attempt to scare the kid at the dig, showing that no line or action in the film is wasted, everything is connected, which further supports chaos theory. Formally, the scene is effective because it is cross-cut with Sattler’s own encounter with a raptor which adds to the foreboding mood of the scene, helping to increase suspense. It is also effective that everything is quiet and all movements are slow, building suspense that we know will culminate in some confrontation. Once the raptor has jumped out of the bushes, it stops before attacking Muldoon, giving him time to say, “Clever girl,” before it eats him, showing us that even in the face of death, he respects the raptors’ intelligence and emphasizing that they will find a way to overcome all opposition, further supporting the idea that “life finds a way,” and there are no controlled environments. In all, this scene sums up the main ideas of the film while still maintaining suspense and showing the film’s unity.

Adventureland: The Real Deal

Adventureland is not the kind of movie I would normally go for. I'm not a huge fan of "the makers of Superbad" and movies that portray the lives of young people trying to make their way in life tend to bore me. So when I went to see Adventureland, I wasn't expecting much, and I was surprised to discover that Adventureland is quite a good film.

This movie is real--the characters, the plot, everything. As a film major about to enter the real world, I can tell you that trying to get a summer job with a useless degree and no work experience is quite the daunting task, and James's (Jesse Eisenberg) lack of skill at finding a job hit home (a little too well). I too have discussed why being a humanities major is useless. Frequently. In much the same manner as these ex-students. So for me, this world is very, very real.

A great thing about this film is that it's NOT over the top. James and his coworkers do drugs, but they're not addicts or total losers; they're just kids unwinding after work. The movie's "hot chick" is attractive, but she's no model. You can still see why she's working at a theme park instead of running off to Hollywood. And the relationships have conflict, and they're not perfect. But most of all, the stories are not cookie-cutter narratives. James and Em (Kristen Stewart) hang out and get to know each other before anything happens, and when it does, they're not automatically in love forever. The film feels real because it's not perfect or stereotypical: it just follows a few college-aged kids going through their summer.

At the same time, it's not boring. There's a loose plot, but it's not so loose that you're wondering when you walked into an avant-garde film. It keeps you interested while still being realistic. That's what impressed me most about the film. Too often films that strive for realism give up an intriguing story to portray life as it is, but Adventureland beautifully melds both into a film that is definitely worth seeing.

So if you have a penchant for young adult stories or you're wondering what to do with your life, Adventureland was made for you. But even if this isn't your kind of movie, you might want to see it just because it is one of the few movies out there that actually tries to show something real.