The Half-Blood Prince

I expected that life would slow down considerably after Nik left, at least the social part of my life. I should have known that Nik would have addressed that issue prior to his departure. Life has not slowed down at all and may in fact be more busy than while he was home. The little spare time I have has been devoted to re-reading all of the Harry Potter books. I was surprised when I realized that the sixth movie was coming out and I could not remember ANYTHING from the book! Usually I have a pretty good memory when it comes to the books I have read, but somehow The Half-Blood Prince completely bypassed my brain. I then also realized that I could not remember much about the stories in general with the exception of key events and characters. So, I decided to read them all again =)

This may not have been the best idea, however. With the sixth book fresh in my mind, I went to an early showing of the movie on Saturday morning with some of Nik's family. Nik's eldest cousin, Anna, is a die-hard fan, much like myself. She and I have been itching to see the movie for a while now and were beyond thrilled that our two years of waiting for the next film had finally come to an end. We had certain expectations from this movie due to the feedback we have heard from people we know.

I, myself, was slightly disappointed in the outcome. I know, I know, I know that movies are NEVER as good as the books themselves. There is so much that is lost in translation that it makes the possibility actually impossible. But still, when a screen writer takes scenes out of the movie that was in the book, I feel they should absolutely not be putting scenes in the movie that never took place in ANY of the books. This slightly irks me. It also irks me when certain scenes and characters have been left out of prior movies, which thus completely changes what will happen in future movies. For those of you who both read the books and watch the movies, I think you know of what I speak. The lack of certain Weasley characters, the extra scene at the Burrow and the complete negligence of acknowledging the funeral; all made it very hard for me to thoroughly enjoy this movie.

Because I was already on a role and desperately wanted to finish the series, I read the seventh book as well. I will be sure that it is the last time I read the Deathly Hallows until after the second movie for the seventh book has been released. That way, I can hopefully avoid disappointment if the last two movies do not meet my high expectations on my favorite book regarding the tale of Hogwarts.