oh , the weekend
Well, this weekend sure was an interesting time for us. We super cleaned the house for Greyduck’s get together on Sunday for the other poor souls who signed up for the writing challange he’s taking part in. It wasn’t a large crowd, but I liked those who showed up. It’s really interesting to hear the kind of stories ppl can come up with, and what story or idea can set off a person. To see the different approaches was interesting. I, who would love to be creative and write music, or books, or poetry, and who can’t, am always impressed by those who can. I can sing, and I can act, but it never to my own words it seems. We had personalities from the quiet to the talkative, and I liked them all. I hope they had a good time too.
Saturday saw us not only cleaning, but taking the kids plus two others to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I enjoyed it alot. Of course there is only so much you can pack into two and a half hours but, it was well done and the characters were a hoot.
The book describes Lockhart, the defense against the dark arts teacher, as someone who can show all of his teeth even when not smiling. And Kenneth Branagh pulled it off. He’s one of the best at doing smarmy, self-important charlatans. And Jason Issacs is great as Lucius Malfoy. He drips condescension and evil, and you have no problem believing this guy would be part of Voldemort’s group. There is one actor who didn’t get much press but is one of my favorites, even though I can never remember the man’s name, which I really feel bad about, and that is the actor who played Mr. Weasley. He is a old hand at children stories, he was in 101 dalmations as the chubby badun brother and also was in The Borrowers, I’ve also seen him else where but can’t think of the other titles of the top of my head. He plays a lovable and slightly absent-minded Mr. Weasley who I wish we could have seen more of, but that’s the next two movies.
The kids did great as the trio, and were more comfortable in their roles. Due to time constraints obviously not all the good parts of the book can be included and you have to pick and choose, and I think they did as good a job as one can. I guess I’m one of the few who doesn’t like it when a screenplay differs from the book to much. If a story has a magic of it’s own, don’t mess with it. I go to these movies hoping to see the magic in my head up on screen, not some “artists” version of the story. And I hope that our next director can do that. If you’ve seen the new version of the little princess I think you’ll agree that Alfonso Cuaron can do good job keeping the magic of the story. I just hope he doesn’t go to far. There has been a realism to Columbus’s story telling, it feels like everyday world there with a touch of magic and that’s what the books feel like to me as well. I always get edgy when someone gets “artsy” on me. It’s as if a person isnt’ “pushing the bounderies” they aren’t doing anything good. And unfortunately all the overly stuffed up critics think that’s exactly what Harry Potter needs, some “artsy” pushes.
Word to the wise, if you dont’ like spiders, this is not the movie for you. I have mild arachiphobia and I had problems, they did a wonderful job of melding the CG with the live action. When Dobby hits himself with something, it looks like he’s doing damage. When the spiders come racing for the car, you squirm in your seat. On a whole I recommend this movie for ppl to go see, and dont’ worry, if you don’t want mildly scary on your big screen for a child to see, it will do very well on video. My kids are 9 and 10 and they didn’t consider it all that scary. Don’t bother complaining that it is a bit dark in the story line, after all we are fighting evil. (Grin)
