Day 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Welcome to the third day of my eight-day long Harry Potter marathon. This is purely because I have not seen any of the Harry Potter's and I promised a whole lot of people that I'd watch 'em all when the last DVD came out. That was just about a month ago, so I have to do it now. I will be blogging about my journey through Hogwarts...and such.

I'd been told that Prisoner of Azkaban was a huge improvement on Chamber of Secrets. They weren't wrong. From an outsider's perspective:

-That bus ride was pretty cool. It was really fast and magical. I found myself like Alfonso Cuaron's direction already.
-I couldn't help but laugh about the ballooning aunt. I wish I was a wizard so I could do that to some people (wow, that sounds horrible).
-If I could live with any family, it would be the Weasley family. They're so cute! They get a bad wrap for being a family who uses hand-me-downs and stuff, but seriously? A family full of gingers? Count me in. They look like a good family who's fun to be around.
-Well, thank goodness. Tom Felton's hair is no longer melting into his head. In fact, everyone's hair looks better in this one. Apart from Snape's. He is good with his hairstyle for all intensive purposes.
-This one was a little shorter (135 mins). It was a good run-time, and definitely stayed entertaining for the whole thing.

-This Professor Lupin seemed like a good guy. Until the moon made him all crazy. But he was the kind of teacher that I would like to have. Plus, I've always like David Thewlis as an actor.
-Snape is awesome. The 'page 394' scene is so awesome. Well, he's kinda harsh, but you can tell he means well. And Alan Rickman does such a bloody good job of playing him it's no wonder that people are crying foul at his many snubs.
-The actors are slowly becoming more watchable. Like now, it's easier to believe in what they're doing. But boy, they did heaps of growing in a year. What is with that?
-I think I liked this movie because there was a lot going on, and also it was a lot more serious. The other films tried to be serious but they got too caught up in being like family films.
-Thank goodness Alfonso Cuaron came along. He really breathed life into the series. When I say that, I mean that his work in this film brought about the dark themes that the series is so famous for, leaving the first two in it's dust.
-But I highly doubt that this is the best of the series. It was good, but not that good. As the series gets darker I'll enjoy it a lot more.
-Gary Oldman is in it! Gotta love him. If only he could get that Oscar nomination this season.
-The werewolves in this movie are really creepy. If only Taylor Lautner could look like that and then Twilight wouldn't be so popular and the world could have nice things again.
-I wish Kenneth Branagh was still in the series.

-This movie really got me into the Christmas spirit. I wish I could have snow on Christmas.
-Hagrid is still my main man. He rocks.
-It was just awesome. I can't wait for the next one.

Three down, five to go. Sure, Prisoner of Azkaban was good, but it wasn't great. Still, it remains a high point in the series.

What I got:

Day 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Welcome to the second day of my eight-day long Harry Potter marathon. This is purely because I have not seen any of the Harry Potter's and I promised a whole lot of people that I'd watch 'em all when the last DVD came out. That was just about a month ago, so I have to do it now. I will be blogging about my journey through Hogwarts...and such.

After being impressed by Philosopher's Stone, I was wondering how Chamber of Secrets would compare. It seems silly to compare the movies though, since this is shaping up to be a series of films that are better together than they are apart. Again, from an outsiders perspective:

-I have a feeling that this might be the worst of the series. It wasn't really that great.
-The film just lacked conviction. It was fun, but it wasn't fun enough. It was dark, but it wasn't dark enough. It was just a huge 'meh'. And if I'm being honest, I can remember Philosopher's Stone better than this one.
-And, again, 155 minutes is a little too long.
-Anyway, the movie was good enough entertainment. I think it was more of a bridge between the first and the third (which I've heard is where things get good)...not entirely unnecessary.
-I would like a flying car. Preferably without a mind of it's own. But when Ron said something about the 'flying gear' I was like, I MUST HAVE ONE OF THESE! Mainly because I can't drive a normal manual car at all.
-Dobby is SO CUTE! Just the way that he talks and stuff. Plus, one of the later scenes between he and Harry when Harry gives him a sock is the best.

-Kenneth Branagh was in this movie. It's a shame he couldn't stay longer, because I really enjoyed his performance/character. Sure, he was a bit of a wimp who disguised that with a lot of cockiness, but I like characters like that. Plus, Mr. Branagh is awesome!
-I've decided that Hagrid is my main man. He is so cool.
-Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that Shirley Henderson plays a school-kid (Moaning Myrtle) in this movie? I love Henderson, but she was 37 at the time. And she still looked like a kid. That is slightly scary.
-You know when Platform 9 & 3/4 won't let Harry and Ron in? Well, I've secretly been waiting for that moment. Okay, that sounds really horrible. But when I first saw them run into the platform, I remember thinking "what would happen if they ran straight into it?" I expected the wait to be quite long, but Chamber of Secrets granted me with my wish. Goodness, I sound like a terrible person.
-I'm sorry, but Tom Felton's hair scares me. It like, melts into his head.
-The kids sure did grow up a lot in the space of a year or so. Their acting improved, but they're still having teething problems.
-The letter that Molly Weasley sends Ron is hilarious. I would love to send letters like that to people.

-Those little plant things scared the crap out of me. They were like little Gollum's with forestation on their heads. And they sounded horrible. Remind me to invest in earmuffs next time.
-Snape still has the same hairstyle. SEXY. Nah, I quite like Snape. In that evil sort of way.
-Rupert Grint has some pretty interesting facials. For me, he is taking the longest to gel in the series. Or maybe it's just my intense dislike for his character at the moment.
-The CGI is quite bad. Well, it is quite good for 2002, but then again, it reminded me of a straight-to-DVD Z-grade horror.
-At least there were no flashback scenes.

Okay, so this movie wasn't exactly great in my books, but I liked it enough. I'm sure it is just a build up for good things with Prisoner of Azkaban. Speaking of which, I'm off to watch that now. I hope it is an improvement...

What I got:

"Caesar is home."

Film: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Year: 2011
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Written by: Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver
Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, Frieda Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, David Oyelowo, Tyler Labine, Jamie Harris, David Hewlett.
Running time: 105 min.

This year has been the year of the comic book movies, reboots and sequels. That, of course, leaves little room for an original blockbuster, à la Inception, to be released. Of all of the blockbusters, we all pondered over Rise of the Planet of the Apes, dismissing it as an un-necessary reboot/prequel/whatever with an extremely stupid title. Then this movie came out. After Captain America, Thor, X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern etc etc etc, along comes a movie about apes that we never expected much from. Turns out that this movie, even with it's stupid title and absence of a newly buff actor with enough muscles to cover three other people, is truly the best blockbuster to grace the screens in 2011. I admit, I've been missing the good old Christopher Nolan flick to make my summer this year, but Rise of the Planet of the Apes more than capably fills in the gap. It's a true blockbuster, in it's pure and simplest form, that fulfils every dream that one could have of how their form of huge entertainment should be. And it does this without the essential blockbuster staple: epic gunfights.