(no subject)

I guess you could say tonight was a bit eventful. All I had in mind was to go see Prisoner of Azkaban, chat with my friend, come home and blog about the movie, go to bed, then go to work the next morning. However, before I was just about to go out the door, my Mom, who had been dogsitting for me, called me up. Apparently, Sano had some kind of laceration on his leg. (Does this sound familiar?) So I check it out, and sure enough, he's got this inch-long gash on his front left leg.

My Mom drove him to the emergency vets while Tricia and I went to the movies. A few stitches on my dog, you see, no longer scare me. These are little things.

Some of you might remember that last year, Trisky took a few stitches in her leg, but Trisky took her stitches wide awake (in fact, by Nancy--one of the vets I work for--who is married to the vet who stitched Sano up tonight. During her stitches, Nancy remarked that Trisky was The Best Dog Ever.) No e-collar for Trisky, Queen Of All Dogs. Sano, of course, needed sedation, an e-collar, and a big scene. Directly after the movie, I drove to the emervency vets to pick him up and take him home. He's all doped up now. He freaked out when the vet came in to see him. The e-collar is confusing him and he keeps walking into things.

Of course, I can't get in to work tomorrow now, either. That'd mean leaving both of them home alone, to rip stitches and whatever else they might get into.

The entire ride there and back, I just had this feeling that something wasn't right. I don't know if that had to do with being stressed out (though I guess it was Sano's turn to go into the hospital, I mean, everyone else already did,) or the neverending alarm that was going off in the building across the way from the vet's office, or if it had to do with having seen Prisoner of Azkaban and coming home feeling like I hadn't even seen a movie.

Mild spoilers, not cut

It was very disappointing. I wanted so badly to love it. PoA was maybe my favorite book in the series so far, and I was ready to love this film. I was totally ready to put down my disappointment in the casting of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, and just try to like it. I did try, even though one should never have to struggle to enjoy a film. I tried for a really long time to like the movie. After a while, I gave up. To me, it was wrong in so many ways.

The pacing was a huge problem for me. I understand that this was a huge book, but this movie really only skimmed the surface, and it was so rushed that I felt rushed watching it. I kept waiting for it to get to the good parts, and it never seemed to get there. The whole direction was a mish-mash, and it was oddly missing some of the magic and, at the risk of sounding like a total cornball, it was missing the love of the first two movies. I felt like the director was throwing this movie away. I felt weirdly like he didn't love the story or the characters the way I did, and that he was impatient with them.

Michael Gambon, I'm really sorry to say, didn't work as Dumbledore for me. I totally understand about repalcing him, and I am totally understanding of what he was up against. I'm sure he didn't want to just do a repeat performance of Richard Harris, that he wanted to keep to the spirit but to do something not exactly like the first Dumbledore, and I understand how intimidating that must have been, but something about him didn't reach me. He didn't have the presence, the command, and--as much as I hate to keep sounding cornball--he didn't have the love. I had always felt, with Richard Harris, that Dumbledore really loved Harry and all of the children. His Dumbledore was compassionate, eccentric and brilliant. Michael Gambon's Dumbledore seemed unconcerned and flighty. That could have been bad direction, after all, the entire movie felt unconcerned and flighty.

I normally like Gary Oldman, but I will be honest and say (again) that I thought, from the moment I heard it, that he was terribly miscast as Sirius Black. I still think he was miscast, but he was better than I expected. And I find it strange to admit that the scene in which he talks to Harry about his parents was the scene that touched me the most, because both he and Daniel Radcliff did such a lovely job there.

Oy vey, now let's get onto David Thewliss as Remus Lupin. Again, I was totally disappointed when I heard he would be playing him. I guess it's touchy with well-loved characters, because you know they're not going to live up to everyone's expectations. So I was understanding of that fact. He wouldn't be my Lupin, but hey, maybe he wouldn't be so bad. But as it happens, he wasn't anywhere near anything that I'd ever thought of Remus Lupin. To me, Lupin, no matter what else me might be, is a gentleman. That's part of his appeal. He's poor and unkempt and occasionally weak and sometimes needy, but he's also quiet and bright and calm and noble. David Thewliss's Remus Lupin was sort of flambouyant in a way I just couldn't see Lupin behaving. He was loud, uninteresting and unsympathetic and it just didn't work for me at all. What the hell was that stuff about playing music in the classroom? Please. Some of it was bad direction and, I think, that the director didn't understand the book, or at least didn't understand it the way I did. Some of it, though, was just David Thewliss.

Back to the direction, you know what it seemed like, and why I think I feel it was a rushed mishmash? Because I had the feeling that, instead of telling us a story, the writers/director were just showing Harry Potter fans some of their favorite scenes so that we could sit there and say, "I remember that part!" But it occurs to me that, if you haven't read the book, the movie alone might look as incoherent as it was. It was just like babblnig.

The kids, though? Those three kids are the cutest kids in the world, and they're talented, too. I want to have a million babies just like those three, because they are lovely. Seriously, they did such a great job, and Daniel Radcliff has come such a long way, but he's still the boy I recognize from the first film. My friend Tricia, who is a Mom of two, almost cried when she saw how different he looks. "Isn't he adorable? He's like a young man now! Harry's growing up!" They did make it worth watching, those three. And the other kids, too, like Neville and Seamus, they're pretty good.

I can't fidn much else to say about it. I came home feeling as if I hadn't yet seen the Harry Potter film I'd been waiting for for a year and a half. That's so disappointing to me.

Well, I guess that's enough babble for now. I'm so tired, and I have to get to bed and get up early tomorrow, even though I have to call in and not go to work. Ah, oh well. This weekend promises to be all kinds of crazy.

Oh, one more thing from a different fandom. I've been reading the 6th installment of Stephen King's Gunslinger series, The Song Of Susannah. Good writing, as always, and I'm only about a third of the way through it, but...from reading the jacket, I gather that King is now a character in his own stories. His characters get sucked into our world and go and meet...Stephen King.

Uhm. WTF? I love King and his work, and I am constantly amazed by the scope of his work, especially the Dark Tower series and all its side-stories and connections. I mean, this thing is huge. But, but characters are going to Maine 1977 and meeting up with him?

Say no, say not true, Sai King, hear me I beg! Because this is too frikkin weird for me.

(no subject)

I guess you could say tonight was a bit eventful. All I had in mind was to go see Prisoner of Azkaban, chat with my friend, come home and blog about the movie, go to bed, then go to work the next morning. However, before I was just about to go out the door, my Mom, who had been dogsitting for me, called me up. Apparently, Sano had some kind of laceration on his leg. (Does this sound familiar?) So I check it out, and sure enough, he's got this inch-long gash on his front left leg.

My Mom drove him to the emergency vets while Tricia and I went to the movies. A few stitches on my dog, you see, no longer scare me. These are little things.

Some of you might remember that last year, Trisky took a few stitches in her leg, but Trisky took her stitches wide awake (in fact, by Nancy--one of the vets I work for--who is married to the vet who stitched Sano up tonight. During her stitches, Nancy remarked that Trisky was The Best Dog Ever.) No e-collar for Trisky, Queen Of All Dogs. Sano, of course, needed sedation, an e-collar, and a big scene. Directly after the movie, I drove to the emervency vets to pick him up and take him home. He's all doped up now. He freaked out when the vet came in to see him. The e-collar is confusing him and he keeps walking into things.

Of course, I can't get in to work tomorrow now, either. That'd mean leaving both of them home alone, to rip stitches and whatever else they might get into.

The entire ride there and back, I just had this feeling that something wasn't right. I don't know if that had to do with being stressed out (though I guess it was Sano's turn to go into the hospital, I mean, everyone else already did,) or the neverending alarm that was going off in the building across the way from the vet's office, or if it had to do with having seen Prisoner of Azkaban and coming home feeling like I hadn't even seen a movie.

Mild spoilers, not cut

It was very disappointing. I wanted so badly to love it. PoA was maybe my favorite book in the series so far, and I was ready to love this film. I was totally ready to put down my disappointment in the casting of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, and just try to like it. I did try, even though one should never have to struggle to enjoy a film. I tried for a really long time to like the movie. After a while, I gave up. To me, it was wrong in so many ways.

The pacing was a huge problem for me. I understand that this was a huge book, but this movie really only skimmed the surface, and it was so rushed that I felt rushed watching it. I kept waiting for it to get to the good parts, and it never seemed to get there. The whole direction was a mish-mash, and it was oddly missing some of the magic and, at the risk of sounding like a total cornball, it was missing the love of the first two movies. I felt like the director was throwing this movie away. I felt weirdly like he didn't love the story or the characters the way I did, and that he was impatient with them.

Michael Gambon, I'm really sorry to say, didn't work as Dumbledore for me. I totally understand about repalcing him, and I am totally understanding of what he was up against. I'm sure he didn't want to just do a repeat performance of Richard Harris, that he wanted to keep to the spirit but to do something not exactly like the first Dumbledore, and I understand how intimidating that must have been, but something about him didn't reach me. He didn't have the presence, the command, and--as much as I hate to keep sounding cornball--he didn't have the love. I had always felt, with Richard Harris, that Dumbledore really loved Harry and all of the children. His Dumbledore was compassionate, eccentric and brilliant. Michael Gambon's Dumbledore seemed unconcerned and flighty. That could have been bad direction, after all, the entire movie felt unconcerned and flighty.

I normally like Gary Oldman, but I will be honest and say (again) that I thought, from the moment I heard it, that he was terribly miscast as Sirius Black. I still think he was miscast, but he was better than I expected. And I find it strange to admit that the scene in which he talks to Harry about his parents was the scene that touched me the most, because both he and Daniel Radcliff did such a lovely job there.

Oy vey, now let's get onto David Thewliss as Remus Lupin. Again, I was totally disappointed when I heard he would be playing him. I guess it's touchy with well-loved characters, because you know they're not going to live up to everyone's expectations. So I was understanding of that fact. He wouldn't be my Lupin, but hey, maybe he wouldn't be so bad. But as it happens, he wasn't anywhere near anything that I'd ever thought of Remus Lupin. To me, Lupin, no matter what else me might be, is a gentleman. That's part of his appeal. He's poor and unkempt and occasionally weak and sometimes needy, but he's also quiet and bright and calm and noble. David Thewliss's Remus Lupin was sort of flambouyant in a way I just couldn't see Lupin behaving. He was loud, uninteresting and unsympathetic and it just didn't work for me at all. What the hell was that stuff about playing music in the classroom? Please. Some of it was bad direction and, I think, that the director didn't understand the book, or at least didn't understand it the way I did. Some of it, though, was just David Thewliss.

Back to the direction, you know what it seemed like, and why I think I feel it was a rushed mishmash? Because I had the feeling that, instead of telling us a story, the writers/director were just showing Harry Potter fans some of their favorite scenes so that we could sit there and say, "I remember that part!" But it occurs to me that, if you haven't read the book, the movie alone might look as incoherent as it was. It was just like babblnig.

The kids, though? Those three kids are the cutest kids in the world, and they're talented, too. I want to have a million babies just like those three, because they are lovely. Seriously, they did such a great job, and Daniel Radcliff has come such a long way, but he's still the boy I recognize from the first film. My friend Tricia, who is a Mom of two, almost cried when she saw how different he looks. "Isn't he adorable? He's like a young man now! Harry's growing up!" They did make it worth watching, those three. And the other kids, too, like Neville and Seamus, they're pretty good.

I can't fidn much else to say about it. I came home feeling as if I hadn't yet seen the Harry Potter film I'd been waiting for for a year and a half. That's so disappointing to me.

Well, I guess that's enough babble for now. I'm so tired, and I have to get to bed and get up early tomorrow, even though I have to call in and not go to work. Ah, oh well. This weekend promises to be all kinds of crazy.

Oh, one more thing from a different fandom. I've been reading the 6th installment of Stephen King's Gunslinger series, The Song Of Susannah. Good writing, as always, and I'm only about a third of the way through it, but...from reading the jacket, I gather that King is now a character in his own stories. His characters get sucked into our world and go and meet...Stephen King.

Uhm. WTF? I love King and his work, and I am constantly amazed by the scope of his work, especially the Dark Tower series and all its side-stories and connections. I mean, this thing is huge. But, but characters are going to Maine 1977 and meeting up with him?

Say no, say not true, Sai King, hear me I beg! Because this is too frikkin weird for me.

(no subject)

Sano is doing much better this afternoon than he was this morning. Last night and this morning were simply atrocious. He's got to keep the e-collar on, because once it's off, he goes right to chewing his stitches, and I actually have to make sure he keeps the e-collar on, because he's gotten good at trying to paw it off. He already chewed his bandages off. Last night, or rather this morning at around 2 AM, he started making a huge fuss. He was literally crying on every breath. I felt awful for him, but on the other hand, delicate little Trisky went through the same thing last year, and didn't complain once! Be a man, Sano! So this crying went on for hours, and finally I took him for a walk at like 4:30 AM. That seemed to calm him some, and I was able to get a few hours of sleep. Oh, say, five all told.

So now, more thoughts on PoA, since I'm bored, actually wishing I was at work.

This one is a bit more spoiler heavy than the first review, but not for anyone who has read the book, and if you haven't read the book, then just go and do it, because it makes the movie look as bland and generic as it is.

The more I think of this movie, the less I like it. Last night I was a bit incoherent, and this afternoon I can remember quite a few things more that I wanted to address. I will leave out most of my complaints about the glaringly obvious plot holes, senseless omissions, and the character assassination of Draco Malfoy though, because they are being discussed on bulletin boards all across the country right now.

First of all, as I've mentioned, from the very opening, I wasn't feeling the Harry Potter vibe. The Dursleys--all but Aunt Marge--seemed pretty lackluster. They just didn't seem to have their black, evil hearts into tormenting Harry this time. Aunt Marge, though, was pretty good. I wanted to slap her, and I was totally down with Harry's reaction. Get your rage on, kid! However. The whole "blowing up" scene was boring. I'd expected that to be many different things: funny or alarming or magical or tense, but it wasn't. It was just boring. Did anyone else notice that the Dursleys's reaction to this seemed disproportionately dull? Especially Dudley's reaction. Isn't he terrified of Harry's magic? And here, he was just interested in watching the TV. And since the actors playing Dursley's have always been right on, once again I have to blame Cuaron. (The director, for those of you who don't know.)

Another thing that bothered me was the dead ferrets. I totally know that this is canon: there were dead ferrets in the books, yes, that's what Buckbeak eats. But this was too graphic for my taste. The friend I went with has a pet ferret who has been ill recently, and this just made me feel awful. I tried to think how I would have felt if they had been dead dogs or cats or iguanas beign chucked around like that. I might have walked out for those scenes.

I really can't say enough about how disappointed I was in Lupin. He didn't look the part and I've always thought so, but I had some hope that he would at least try to act the part, and he didn't, not at all! Again, a lot of the blame must go to the director (especially for the thing with Lupin playing music to "liven up" his class, umm, aren't they supposed to be concentrating?) But it was just the casting. David Thewlis didn't even try, I didn't feel that his heart was in this at all.

I hated the scene by the pond, which was my favorite scene in the book. That was supposed to be beautiful, eerie, scary, touching and victorious. Why did Cuaron downplay all of those things in favor of that stupid "soul-sucking" special effect? And where did Harry's sudden affection for Sirius come from? At least in the book we get a look into his mind, the real, deep reasons why he wants to help him and save him. While I did hate the way this scene played out as shallowly as it did, I must mention that I still do like the scenes between Daniel Radcliff and Gary Oldman. It felt like Black was the only one who connected with Harry throughout the whole movie.

Speaking of, did anyone else get the feeling that Harry was jut sort of floating around, kind of detached? Maybe that was on purpose, but the only other scene I remember anyone really making a connetion with him was when Hermione went to touch the invisibility cloak after Harry overhears (in another stupidly mutilated scene) that Black was his godfather and sold out his parents. Also, Hermione should have left the invisibility cloak on Harry, and Harry shouldn't have been screaming about everything. When she reached out her hand, I thought for a moment she was just going to leave it on his shoulder with him being invisible, and that would have been so lovely and sweet and subtle, but no, she rips the cloak off and we get beaten over the head with the Angst Stick. >_<

If I hadn't hated the way David Thewlis played Lupin, I might have loved Lupin's transformation scene. I don't seem to remember Black's trying to "talk him down", as it were, being canonical (hello, you cannot talk down a transforming werewolf, and Black of all people should know this,) but if he had maybe said some different things and there had been a Lupin I could have accepted, this scene could have worked out really well for me.

And for the slashers. *Sigh* (For those not in the know: "slash" is a sort of fanfic that pairs up characters of the same sex.) I have never in my life enjoyed the 'shipping of Black and Lupin, ('ship, short for relationship,) but that might be more because of the screaming fangirls and their ass-hat 'ship wars and OMGTHEIRLOVEISSOCANON! I'm sorry, but their love is in your imagination. Black an Lupin are never going to hook up in the Harry Potter series. If you want to write fics in which they are a couple or imagine that they are, hey, whatever blows your hair back, but it's this insistance that this is what JK Rowling means to do that frosts my shorts. I'm pertty sure she knows her characters better than you do, fangirl. :/ I can really get on board with some good, subtle UST (unresolved sexual tension,) but I like my fictional sexual tension unresolved and, well, subtle. Plus, I don't like the way people sexualize every little thing. Men can be friends! Men can love each other! Men can (*gasp!*) touch each other! Without screwing! Can you believe it?

That said, I would have loved that scene for the tension, the drama, the physical contact, the lonelines of the two characters, and best of all, the familiarity between them, because hey, Black knows what's coming. Would have loved that scene, if it hadn't been for Davin. Freaking. Thewlis.

So! When does the next movie come out? ;)

(no subject)

Sano is doing much better this afternoon than he was this morning. Last night and this morning were simply atrocious. He's got to keep the e-collar on, because once it's off, he goes right to chewing his stitches, and I actually have to make sure he keeps the e-collar on, because he's gotten good at trying to paw it off. He already chewed his bandages off. Last night, or rather this morning at around 2 AM, he started making a huge fuss. He was literally crying on every breath. I felt awful for him, but on the other hand, delicate little Trisky went through the same thing last year, and didn't complain once! Be a man, Sano! So this crying went on for hours, and finally I took him for a walk at like 4:30 AM. That seemed to calm him some, and I was able to get a few hours of sleep. Oh, say, five all told.

So now, more thoughts on PoA, since I'm bored, actually wishing I was at work.

This one is a bit more spoiler heavy than the first review, but not for anyone who has read the book, and if you haven't read the book, then just go and do it, because it makes the movie look as bland and generic as it is.

The more I think of this movie, the less I like it. Last night I was a bit incoherent, and this afternoon I can remember quite a few things more that I wanted to address. I will leave out most of my complaints about the glaringly obvious plot holes, senseless omissions, and the character assassination of Draco Malfoy though, because they are being discussed on bulletin boards all across the country right now.

First of all, as I've mentioned, from the very opening, I wasn't feeling the Harry Potter vibe. The Dursleys--all but Aunt Marge--seemed pretty lackluster. They just didn't seem to have their black, evil hearts into tormenting Harry this time. Aunt Marge, though, was pretty good. I wanted to slap her, and I was totally down with Harry's reaction. Get your rage on, kid! However. The whole "blowing up" scene was boring. I'd expected that to be many different things: funny or alarming or magical or tense, but it wasn't. It was just boring. Did anyone else notice that the Dursleys's reaction to this seemed disproportionately dull? Especially Dudley's reaction. Isn't he terrified of Harry's magic? And here, he was just interested in watching the TV. And since the actors playing Dursley's have always been right on, once again I have to blame Cuaron. (The director, for those of you who don't know.)

Another thing that bothered me was the dead ferrets. I totally know that this is canon: there were dead ferrets in the books, yes, that's what Buckbeak eats. But this was too graphic for my taste. The friend I went with has a pet ferret who has been ill recently, and this just made me feel awful. I tried to think how I would have felt if they had been dead dogs or cats or iguanas beign chucked around like that. I might have walked out for those scenes.

I really can't say enough about how disappointed I was in Lupin. He didn't look the part and I've always thought so, but I had some hope that he would at least try to act the part, and he didn't, not at all! Again, a lot of the blame must go to the director (especially for the thing with Lupin playing music to "liven up" his class, umm, aren't they supposed to be concentrating?) But it was just the casting. David Thewlis didn't even try, I didn't feel that his heart was in this at all.

I hated the scene by the pond, which was my favorite scene in the book. That was supposed to be beautiful, eerie, scary, touching and victorious. Why did Cuaron downplay all of those things in favor of that stupid "soul-sucking" special effect? And where did Harry's sudden affection for Sirius come from? At least in the book we get a look into his mind, the real, deep reasons why he wants to help him and save him. While I did hate the way this scene played out as shallowly as it did, I must mention that I still do like the scenes between Daniel Radcliff and Gary Oldman. It felt like Black was the only one who connected with Harry throughout the whole movie.

Speaking of, did anyone else get the feeling that Harry was jut sort of floating around, kind of detached? Maybe that was on purpose, but the only other scene I remember anyone really making a connetion with him was when Hermione went to touch the invisibility cloak after Harry overhears (in another stupidly mutilated scene) that Black was his godfather and sold out his parents. Also, Hermione should have left the invisibility cloak on Harry, and Harry shouldn't have been screaming about everything. When she reached out her hand, I thought for a moment she was just going to leave it on his shoulder with him being invisible, and that would have been so lovely and sweet and subtle, but no, she rips the cloak off and we get beaten over the head with the Angst Stick. >_<

If I hadn't hated the way David Thewlis played Lupin, I might have loved Lupin's transformation scene. I don't seem to remember Black's trying to "talk him down", as it were, being canonical (hello, you cannot talk down a transforming werewolf, and Black of all people should know this,) but if he had maybe said some different things and there had been a Lupin I could have accepted, this scene could have worked out really well for me.

And for the slashers. *Sigh* (For those not in the know: "slash" is a sort of fanfic that pairs up characters of the same sex.) I have never in my life enjoyed the 'shipping of Black and Lupin, ('ship, short for relationship,) but that might be more because of the screaming fangirls and their ass-hat 'ship wars and OMGTHEIRLOVEISSOCANON! I'm sorry, but their love is in your imagination. Black an Lupin are never going to hook up in the Harry Potter series. If you want to write fics in which they are a couple or imagine that they are, hey, whatever blows your hair back, but it's this insistance that this is what JK Rowling means to do that frosts my shorts. I'm pertty sure she knows her characters better than you do, fangirl. :/ I can really get on board with some good, subtle UST (unresolved sexual tension,) but I like my fictional sexual tension unresolved and, well, subtle. Plus, I don't like the way people sexualize every little thing. Men can be friends! Men can love each other! Men can (*gasp!*) touch each other! Without screwing! Can you believe it?

That said, I would have loved that scene for the tension, the drama, the physical contact, the lonelines of the two characters, and best of all, the familiarity between them, because hey, Black knows what's coming. Would have loved that scene, if it hadn't been for Davin. Freaking. Thewlis.

So! When does the next movie come out? ;)