When I read the first three Twilight books I thought they were decent enough and I enjoyed the time I spent reading them.  I was excited about the fourth one and went to the midnight release party.  However, I was sorely dissipointed in it.  There were many aspects of Breaking Dawn that I disliked, but I am not going to discuss them right now.  I saw the Twilight movie when it came out and was unimpressed with both Kristen Stewart’s acting and Catherine Hardwicke’s directing.  I enjoyed the movie overall because I had enjoyed the book.  I realize that the movie can never even come close to the book.

There has been this on-going argument between Harry Potter fans and Twilight fans that occasionally makes me mad but most of the time I just find it hilarious.  If I had to pick I would without a doubt pick Harry Potter, but I prefer to say that people can easily be fans of both.

I saw New Moon a few days ago with a few of my friends.  Being the die-hard Harry Potter fan I am, I decided to wear my Team Lupin shirt, which was clearly designed after the Team Jacob shirts.  I felt somewhat rebelious as I sat in a theater full of teenage girls wearing Team Edward and Team Jacob shirts.  However, no one besides my friends noticed it.

The movie itself was far better than Twilight.  The scenes were less choppy, everything flowed together, and the fact that Taylor Lautner was shirtless throughout most of the movie just made it all the better.  There were also quite a few funny and witty lines, something that Twilight was severely lacking.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was the funniest Harry Potter movie yet.  I have never laughed so hard at a Harry Potter movie, yet I have also never cried so much during one.  If you have not seen the movie, don’t read on.  There will be spoilers a-plenty in this post. Even if you’ve read the book, don’t continue reading this post until you’ve seen the movie.  They are that different.

All in all, I loved it.  It isn’t my favorite, that title belongs to Prisoner of Azkaban. However, it is possibly my second favorite.  It’s definitely better than Order of the Phoenix.

My reasons?  Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes was spectacular, except for that weird clown like object that was above the door.  Other than that, it looked just like I would have expected Fred & George’s shop to look like.  Next reason would be the witty lines.  I was laughing every ten minutes or so.  Slughorn’s line in the Three Broomsticks, ‘I remember when it was one broomstick!’ had me laughing hysterically for a while.  It helped that he was partially drunk and had just sloshed his drink all over Hermione.   Speaking of Slughorn, I think they made an excellent choice in an actor.

The scene at the Burrow, while I still do not understand why they added it in, was done really well.  I loved how it was sort of focused on Remus and Tonks.  It was just the right combination of darkness and sadness.  I do not really see why WB felt the need to burn the Burrow to the ground, but I think it was a good scene.  What really made me happy is that they finally got Remus looking like I imagined him.  After three tries, they finally got it right.

Young Tom Riddle was absolutely brilliant.  They couldn’t have picked a better actor for that role.  As was the girl they cast for Lavender Brown.  I absolutely loved all the issues with Ron’s love life, including the part where he accidentally takes the love potion.  That was hilarious.  As was the part when Harry took Felix Felicis.

Dumbledore’s death scene was also really well done.  I cried.  It was so sad.  Then when all the students and teachers were holding their wands up in the air around Dumbledore’s body was another tearjerking moment.  Although I wish they had put his funeral in, that part was really good.

However, there were parts in it I didn’t like.  The first scene, where Harry’s flirting with the waitress, that did not fit at all.  Quidditch was kind of just thrown in there and there was only one match.  There needed to be more Quidditch.  The students only had one lesson throughout the entire film.  Nobody seemed shocked or worried that Snape was given the Defense Against the Dark Arts positon, a plot point that was quite important in the books.  Nor did they actually have any classes with Snape in the movie.  Snape did not give Harry detention after he used Sectumsempra on Malfoy.  They cut most of the memories that Harry was supposed to see.  They also cut out Ron’s line about Essence Of Insanity.  That was a bit disappointing, but oh well.

Then there was Remus and Tonks’s relationship.  They cut one of the ending scenes where Tonks was supposed to pronounce her love for Remus.  I get the feeling WB wanted to cut that entire plot point from the movies, but then they read Deathly Hallows and realized that it actually was a big plot point and had to stick it back in somehow.  I suppose that’s where the Burrow scene came in.  There were a few lines between Remus and Tonks that let the audience know that they were together, but none of them gave the sense that their relationship was hard, like it was in the books.

Overall, WB completely mutilated the storyline from the book.  Sure, they used it as an outline, but they changed a lot.  However, I think they did a better job of it than they did in Order of the Phoenix. Both movies were completely different than the books, but Half-Blood Prince was so much better.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is premiering tomorrow.  In honor of this movie, and Professor Albus Dumbledore, the Harry Potter Alliance has decided to take over Twitter.  How will we do this?  Starting at 9:45am (9 3/4) EST tomorrow, we want everyone to Tweet with #Dumbledore in all of your Tweets.

Before the movie, Tweet this- “About to see Harry Potter – in honor of #dumbledore we’re taking over Twitter http://whatwoulddumbledoredo.org”

After the movie, Tweet this- “Just saw Harry Potter – in honor of #dumbledore we’re taking over Twitter http:// whatwoulddumbledoredo.org”

In between, Tweet whatever you want, but put #Dumbledore in all of your Tweets.  I realize that not everyone who reads this is into Harry Potter, but this goes beyond the Harry Potter books.  The lessons taught in the Harry Potter books go beyond the magical world and into the Muggle one.

The Harry Potter Alliance is a non-profit organization that works to bring the lessons of Harry Potter to the real world.  The lessons of love in Harry Potter are ones we can all relate to.  So whether you’re a fan or not, Tweet #Dumbledore tomorrow.

After two years of waiting and eight months after it was supposed to be released, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is finally being released.  It will come out at midnight in between July 14th and July 15th and I am going to be right there when it premiers.  I am going to the midnight showing at one of my local theaters.  I bought my tickets last week and they only cost $6.50, which is not bad for a midnight release.  Gottta love the student discount!

I am planning on dressing up, but I am not sure if I’m going to go as a character or just wear my Half-Blood Prince t-shirt that I painted for LeakyCon.  I’ll probably make a last minute decision as usual.

This particular Harry Potter book is where the title for this blog came from.  Towards the end of the book, Ron Weasley asks Harry if he has taken a potion called ‘Essence of insanity’.  I am sure that the general scene will be in the movie as it is quite essential to the plot (of course, when has this stopped Warner Brothers before?), but I have no idea if that particular line will be used.  I really hope it is.

I saw My Sister’s Keeper last night.  I was quite excited about this movie for a variety of reasons.  First, I absolutely love Jodi Picoult’s novels and My Sister’s Keeper is my favorite of hers.  It’s actually one of my favorite books in general, right up there with Harry Potter and that’s saying something.  Second, it inspired me to write In Moonlight’s Shadow.  If you read both My Sister’s Keeper and In Moonlight’s Shadow, you’ll probably be able to see the similarities.

However, I was incredibly disappointed in the movie.  They absolutely killed it.  I wasn’t expecting it to live up to the book, but I also was not expecting them to completley change the plot and message.  *CAUTION SPOILERS BELOW*

The first thing I noticed was that they pretty much cut the Jesse plot line.  In the book, Jesse (the older brother) starts setting fires as he’s dealing with Kate’s cancer.  That was cut.  Honestly, I can understand why they cut that part.  Movies do have to cut stuff.  But then they haphazardly threw in this made-up plot about Jesse having dyslexia.  Then at the end of the movie, they mentioned how he went back to school.  Kind of confusing since it was never mentioned that he dropped out.  I think they shouldn’t have bothered with the dyslexia plot line.

Second, the movie focused mostly on Kate’s cancer.  Now, at first glance that would make sense because the book is about a girl with cancer.  But it’s really so much more.  The book focused so much on the family dynamics and Anna’s relationship with her mother and how she was suing her parents.  It really showed how Kate’s cancer was tearing her family apart.  Most of that was cut.

I could have dealt with all that.  I really could have.  But then they had to go and change the entire ending!!!!  In the book, Anna dies and Kate gets her kidney and lives.  In the movie, Kate dies.  Completely different.  They took a book that has one of the best twist endings I have ever read in my life and turned it into a tear-jerker Hallmark movie.  I cried more at the book, actually, because of that twist ending.  I did cry at the movie, but I didn’t cry much at the end because I was too preoccupied with the change of ending.

I don’t recommend it.  I highly recommend reading the book.  Don’t see the movie and then read the book.  Read the book and then see the movie if you really want to.  It’s not one I’d see again and certainly not one I would buy.

Warner Brothers has changed the release date for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet again.  It is now being released two days earlier, on July 15th instead of July 17th.  Random, yes, but I’m not complaining.

The entire article can be read at The Leaky Cauldron.

Yes!  It’s true.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be done in 2 films.  Released in November 2010 and May 2011.  I’m so happy!  There’s no way they could have done the book justice in one movie.  They would have cut out way too much.  As is, I think they cut out too much of Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix.  And David Yates will be directing it.  He directed OotP and is directing Half Blood Prince, too.  Although I do wish Alfonso Cauron was going to direct DH.  He directed Prisoner of Azkaban and I think he did the best job of all the directors.