Harry Potter and other films

On Friday, I, like most of the world, ventured out of my pit and went to see Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part Two. I know what you're thinking; this guy's cool, wow, I wish I was him. But really, we all like Harry Potter, we grew up with it.

The film itself is quite good, thematically speaking it's decent, we all know the Harry Potter story, and yes it is gripping - respect to J K Rowling where it's due - it's action packed, there's romance etc etc. Basically, all the things that should be in a film are there, so it's good, right? Well no, to me it's not actually that great. It moves too fast, splitting it in to two films is a good idea, but in part 1 they drag things out too long, so everything seems a bit rushed. As a fantasy fight scene goes I couldn't help thinking that Lord of The Rings is so much better. The dramatic death of he who should not be named is rather disappointing, it's just like every other wizard fight, two colored beams aimed at each other, one overpowers the other, bad guy dies. And then there's the fact that we all know what's going to happen, not just because we've read the book, but also because it's too cliche in every sense. As a piece of filmography it is an interesting watch, and it's just one of those films you absolutely have to watch, but, in reality, it's just not that great.

Also, the service at VUE cinema was awful. I bought tickets online before hand, thinking it could be a sell-out, seeing that there's masses of Harry Potter geeks out there, but it wasn't. Anyway, I bought Student tickets, because I am a student. Collected my tickets and went to that annoying guy that tells you which screen your in, and believe me he was extra annoying. He tells me I can't go in because my student card isn't valid as it doesn't have an expiration date, but he completely disregards the fact that I used it at another VUE cinema about a week earlier and they said nothing. No disrespect to this guy, obviously he's just doing his job, but sometimes you can forget procedure to make everyone's life easier, I am quite obviously a student. In the end I asked the lady for a refund and she said I could go in at teen rates which meant lying about my age, and I did feel bad about that, but this guy annoyed me.

Brief interlude on the poor customer service of VUE over I return to other films.

I rented four films from Blockbuster, on Blu-Ray, ooohhhhh, aahhhhhh. The Dilema with Vince Vaughn and the fat guy that's got famous recently from comedy's. It was decent, can't say I was blown away by it, or that it bored me, it was a nice film to watch when I couldn't really be bothered to do anything else. There were a few laughs, but nothing noteworthy.

Then I watched Unknown with Liam Neeson. Another one of his stupid films which hold no logic other than the fact the Neeson is a beast and he can take on the world and win. The film is flawed, I'm sure they made it up as they went along. It goes on for too long, it's not interesting and I haven't really got that much to say about it.

Now, to The Adjustment Bureau. The principle at heart of the film is poor because it's just not possible, but then the same could be said of Inception. But despite this flawed principle it is an extremely endearing film, I truly feel that I need to know what is going to happen, but what happens isn't that great. It seems to die a rather painful death at the end with a "moral", that is that life can change to your feelings. Wow, well done Sherlock if you work at something you get it. The idea of a life plan is silly anyway, I believe in Existentialism anyway, so take that Adjustment Bureau.

Finally, I borrowed Submarine, Richard Ayode's acclaimed indie comedy. Yes it's funny, and yes I enjoyed it, but it seemed to drag out and got a little bit annoying, in fact, I dont actually know what happened in the end.

My week of films has been fun, re-reading this it appears that I didn't actually enjoy any of the films, but I did, it's just that reflecting on them I seem them as opaque; there's no depth to them and they can all be explained away, or mocked...

Freedom is strength.