Harry feels that HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 is Harry's Favorite of the Series Thus Far!

I love the HARRY POTTER series of films. With each new episode, I get struck with a very real sense that the series will not only go down as one of the most successful franchises in Box Office history, not only the strongest young cast series of all time, but also... just flat out - one of the best franchises in film history. After my first viewing of HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1, I felt instantly that this was the best of the series to date. Since that screening, Yoko & I have rewatched the whole series, and then went to the HARRY POTTER YULE BALL and Midnight Screening of HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS Part 1 at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar... and yes, I still feel that HP&TDHP1 is the best thus far. I still have big gobs of love for AZKABAN, but the reality is... AZKABAN is the best of the HOGWARTS films... and breaking these characters out of Hogwarts has been long overdue. So much of the drama that takes place in Hogwarts has always felt like child abuse, just on the notion of... well... Ok. In the real world, if a kid tells an adult something, we often consider that the child made it up. So as a result, kids don't trust adults with things they know to be outlandish... but in the world of HARRY POTTER - where Memories can be stored and shared with others... How can there ever be a question about truth? Memory would be admissible as evidence. I mean. Why would Sirius Black even be a prisoner, all they'd have to do is search his memory, see what happened. It is there, isn't it? At the very least, there's always an elder wizard right around the corner to give them advice, help them on their way... or just bend the rules to their benefit. Give them a convenient cloak of invisibility - or a charm that turns back time. Or a really pimp broom. In THE DEATHLY HALLOWS Part 1, very quickly - we have our characters completely isolated from all adult contact. When they are with others... people die. They're on a quest that they barely understand, no longer under the watchful protection of anyone but themselves. They're hunting for a series of objects that Voldemort has divvied up his soul into - and they don't know what they are or where they are... they just know they exist and that "He who will not be mentioned" can't die, till they are all destroyed. And they only know of one, the one that Dumbledore and Harry tried to find and destroy, that turned out to be a fake in the last film. Not only do they not know where these horcruxes are, or what they are... but they don't know how to destroy them. SO... they're wandering around, rudderless... aggravated and picking at each other for not being more informed or useful. It tests the friendships and pulls on each of them in their own way. Taking them out of school, plunking them down in the wilderness gives an epic sweep to the film that is just not there in the previous installments. Instead we watch how these young, almost adults handle being alone. Clutching to radio broadcasts about who died today, who was captured today... the news of the day. With the bad guys now controlling the MINISTRY OF MAGIC - and a REWARD poster for the capture of HARRY POTTER... The kids have to put to use what they've learned to not only survive, but go on the attack... So basically... This is the RED DAWN of HARRY POTTER films - and well.... WOLVERINES!!! This film is also where Harry, Ron & Hermione say goodbye to Childhood. The Dursleys flee from the trouble that is Harry. Ron leaves his family behind to help Harry. And Hermione, she erases the very memory and record of her existence from not just her parents memory, but their physical records as well... then walks out of their lives. Possibly forever. There's not a single letter delivered by Owl in this film. There's no scrumptious wizardly snacks. This is about Hermione and her BAG OF TRICKS, that I feel she stole off of Felix... This is camping and protective spells. This is sitting around trying to figure stuff out with the slimmest of notions of what to go on. Meanwhile, characters are dying. Beloved ones. Yet... the balance of humor and tragedy is handled fairly and evenly. Throughout the film the excellenct casting of the elder characters & the younger shine. Throughout the film, there's a dread & a hopelessness to the story. Things seem extraordinarily bleak... but, Harry Potter is the chosen one - and if there's anything to prophecy, it's that they tend to come true in a world of magic. Here though... by the end of the film, you definitely feel... HARRY POTTER IS FUCKED. Seriously. That's where I'm at. Really. I mean. Harry doesn't even have his super wand anymore. He's running around with spares that he picked up from various goons. One of his last remaining super-magical friends... well, they're gone. Actually a couple of em... poof. Yeah, it's looking bad. But I know there's like a white dragon, a destroyed Hogwarts and a big last epic wizard battle to be had, at least according to that big Part 1 & Part 2 trailer that Warners put out - because those scenes aren't in this movie. And I don't want to know what happens next. I'm very nearly at the end of this cinematic saga - and I'm mainly spoiler free. That's incredibly fun. Because at this point, I'm full of theories... and these films are a discovery, each and every one. That said, that row of chatty cunts that made sexy whistles and comments everytime Potter had his shirt off. Seriously - you middle-aged Potter Porn readers - keep your mouth shut at the midnight premiere of the films. What the hell is wrong with you? SHUT THE FUCK UP! Sorry, got distracted there. Where were we? Harry Potter. Man, at one level this film feels like a jackpot on casting children into roles they'd play to adulthood... in real times. That are crazy insane fantasies. But amongst all the attention of Harry & his mates... Let's talk about Voldemort. Think about this series from the Dark Lord's perspective. First... you were dead. Sort of a pissed off memory that everyone knew was too fucking bad to stay dead. Then... He started growing out of the back of a teacher's head, under Dumbledore's very staff. Next thing we know, he's out at night drinking UNICORN BLOOD and gaining strength. Then, he comes all the way back to life... peak of physical strength... minus only a nose. I mean, this evil bastard has cheat death, born out of the top of one of his arch-enemy's beloved mentors' very skull, all the way to noseless bad muther... Now, everyone said he was bad, but this fucker is now heading the government, having mixed bloods and muggles put to death, or worse. His enemy, this fucking clueless virgin with a broken wand & no real hope, just waiting to fuck it all up. And you have the death star of wands and basically controlling the world. 4 years out from death. I mean. Jesus. What a rise to EVIL POWER! This bastard is just... slits for nostrils man. CREEPY! He absolutely looks like the George Washington of Evil. And I can't wait to see this bastard go down. So, um. Yeah. I really liked this latest Harry Potter movie. OH - and there is a CARTOON!!! And it is an awesome cartoon! Really. Right in the middle. And it totally works. RED DAWN did not have a cartoon. Is that why RED DAWN rules... or fails in comparison? Question that boggles my mind. Who could ever think they could similarly rule? This is really getting great. I've no idea where it is going, only that I'm going!