geeking out over here

Oh lord.



I of course went to the midnight show of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. This was my favorite book so I was super excited to see everything on the big screen. I was less excited to hang out with twelve year old fan girls and guys shrieking in the theatre for over an hour before the movie started. My friends and I kept our cool. We sat there in our matching Harry Potter shirts and played HP themed hangman. Some ladies who worked at the theatre were tossing out candy if you answered their triva questions correctly. I tried to refrain from answering but couldn't help myself. Free candy and showing up the 12 yr olds - worth being a total dork for.

hey I'm going to spoil things for you if you haven't seen it so there


I loved this moive more than I thought I would. Hands down, my favorite movie so far. This one isn't as action heavy as some of the others; there's nothing like the ministry showdown from OOP. Most of the focus is on the teenage relationshippy drama, but the movie does a good job of combining that with the attacks from the death eaters, Dumbledore teaching Harry, and Draco's super angst.

So firstly, the teen drama. Harry suddenly realizes that hey Ginny's a girl but she's dating Dean and the two of them are all makey outy in front of everyone. No explosion from Ron about it though. Ron and Hermione are super akward and adorable but Lavender Brown wrangles him away from Hermione. The girl who plays Lavender was amazing. Seriously she committed to that role and I could not help but crack up every time she was on screen.

I was actually really impressed with the acting in the movie. The kids are growing up and getting so much better. Ron was the stand out for me. I mean, he usually gets short-changed in the movies but I think he made the most of every scene he was in. When he was under the love potion I about peed my pants. He was perfect! So funny and goofy and again he just committed to the part. No hiding that he is my favorite and I love him. Hermione had her moments too - I hardly noticed her eyebrows waggling at all.

Harry was a little stiff as usual, which is too bad. But after taking the Felix Felicitus (or however you spell that) he was hilarious. Pinchers! He managed to make me crack up just by saying "Hi." My favorite Harry moment was when he touched Slytherin's ring (although Dumbledore never tells him it was Slytherin nor connected Voldemort to Slytherin - ACK). Harry gets a flash of images and when he comes out of it he does that creepy neck twitch that he does when he's tapping into that connection with Voldemort.

The extra scene of the Burrow burning down was prety cool, even if Harry totally should have been killed then. Who runs out into the cornfield after Bellatrix LeStrange? Not me man. But it gave them the chance to show how unsafe everywhere is but Hogwarts.

Bellatix is pretty much made of awesome. Helana knows what she's doing. I loved her dancing on the tables in the great hall, smashing everything in reach. I was dissapointed that we didn't get to see the Carrows, even though I'm really sure I saw promos of their WANTED posters. Hopefully they're on a deleted scene or something.

The cave scene was great. Kept me on the edge of my seat, mumbling to Harry not to touch that freaking water. And everyone in the theatre jumped and shrieked when that hand reached out and grabbed him. The inferni were so creepy. They cut that great line after that scene though, where Dumbledore tells Harry that he isn't afraid because Harry is there.

The tower scene was really changed from the book, but I was ok with it. Although, to be fair, you just cannot apperate in Hogwarts, I don't care if you are Dumbledore. Harry isn't frozen in place and all the other deatheaters join in to watch Draco kill Dumbledore. I think it was easier to feel for Draco in the movie than in the book. In the book he was really whiney and in the movie he was more depressed and desperate. Harry's about to jump in when Snape comes in and tells Harry to be quiet. This moment is why I'm ok with the change. Because Harry makes an instant choice to trust Snape. Which makes Snape killing Dumbledore all the worse.

Uhhhhhh Snape. I wish that they had given him more lines at the end when Harry's calling him a coward. I also kind of wish Snape had been a little angrier at Harry. But I'll deal. And why didn't Harry freak the shit out when Snape is announced as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? There really isn't any Harry/Snape direct conflict in the movie which is super sad.

This moive is hella long - 2.5 hours - but they still had to cut a lot from the book. I was dissapointed that we only got TWO memories of Tom Riddle. I'm pretty sure they should have at least put the one with the cup in, because we don't get the sense that Riddle liked to make his horcurxes out of historically significant magical items nor do we see the cup. I wonder how they're going to have the trio learn about this in the seventh movie. The other change that bothered me was the whole Harry/Ginny kiss/relationship. More like lack of relationship and single peck in the room of requirement. It was nice to see Harry happy with her in the book for awhile.

And of course there isn't a funeral for Dumbledore. Nada. Harry does pick up Dumbledore's wand at the end (it's just sitting on his desk? really?) but there's no song from Fawkes or Harry procliaming that he's Dumbledore's man through and through. Sigh. The ending is actually a let down, but I was so excited from everything else that I didn't care. That might change next time through.


Needless to say, I'm seeing this movie again. I'm going on Sunday to see it with my little brother and my mom and I think I'm going again after that with friends. Oh and if you're interested, I blogged about the book at my other journal: girlreads. Here is the link to that entry: HP Baby

Let's talk about those eyebrows

I haven't been to that many movies lately. But, my brother came home this weekend and I was craving popcorn like whoa so we hustled over to the theatre to see Star Trek. If you haven't seen it then don't read the rest of this sucker.

So, here's the deal. I'm not a trekkie. I am pretty sure I've never seen an episode of Star Trek in any of its variations. I maybe caught a few minutes at a high school party one (yeah B-town parties know how to rock) but that's about it. So I did not expect to get a whole lot of the inside jokes or have any preconceived notions of the movie. I also only saw one trailer way forever ago.

That being said I was ah-mazed at how much of this movie felt familiar to me. I think that Star Trek is so ingrained into cultural consciousness that it's hard not to be somewhat aware of it. Although I do watch a lot of Futurama which references Star Trek a lot, maybe that's just it. After the movie my brother and I were talking about it and he pointed out that I know a lot more about this Star Trek world than I think. We had a fun time at the movie, thought there were a lot of points where some die-hard fans were laughing or clapping and I was just like uhhh whut? But at the same time I don't think I really missed anything that kept me from enjoying the movie.



I like to see movies a lot. Now I'm all for seeing Oscar-worthy, meaningful, change-my-life movies, but there is just something about summer blockbusters that gets my ass into the theatres. This movie reminded me why I love going to movies, because this movie has so much of what I love to see in movies. Space, romance, time-travel, bar fights, back stories, witty banter, and eyebrows. I loved this movie.



Now sciencey people are harping about how black holes just don't work that way - but frankly I don't care. It worked for me in Donnie Darko and it's working for me now. There's no other way to restart a series and maintain room for a creative storyline. Otherwise all the bigger geeks would ruin what is going to happen and then I'd be pissed. Now I can enjoy the sequels they do (what what rumor has it that the cast is signed for at least two!) without knowing what's going to happen.



This movie was visually appealing. I'm not really sure what that big canyon is doing in Iowa, but hey it looked really good so I'll take it. The space ships, the buildings, ice caves, everything just looked impressive.



I thought the acting was really good. Pine managed to have a little Shatner in his performance but didn't go over to cheesy - all I can picture now is the Shatner from the Family Guy episodes hopping all over the place. The secondary characters were all pretty good too. Though, I have to wonder why all of the kids snuck into these big jobs and the other senior officers just shuffled away. Especially with the dude Uhura replaced. He didn't even say anything - he was just like oh yeah I can't speak Romulan, peace out guys. But whatevs.



What was Winona Ryder doing in this movie? I saw her face and just what the hell?



Annnnnd can we talk about Spock? I didn't know that guy could kick so much ass. From the moment he stuck it to the man by rejecting the Vulcan something-something academy, I knew I was going to like him. I loved the dialogue between him and Kirk. And that scene where Uhura was all pissy about him not treating her like teacher's pet. Even though he's this big stoic guy with emotional repression issues, I think that the movie did a great job in balancing the human and Vulcan in him. I love, love that he's got the girl that Kirk's been eyeing up. And Quinto looked like he could be related to Nemoy. Freaky. As I said on twitter, I would get all makey-outy on this Spock. Contrary to my dating record, smart guys are pretty high up on my hot list.



The bad guy in this movie seemed almost like an afterthought though. I mean he's there, destroying planets and what-not, but I'm more interested in Spock kicking Kirk's ass. I think for me it was because Nero wasn't that distinguishable from the other Romulans on his ship. At least not to me. It was hard to tell sometimes who the main bad dude was. Although, to be fair, face tattoos.



I'm not even going to try to hide how much of the dork that I am about this movie. I'm seeing this one again, at least one more time. Hopefully at the Imax this week. And I may have loudly claimed that I'm buying the d.v.d. as soon as it comes out.