Harry Potter and the Ranting Blog

Having just come back from the cinema, I am writing this post sandwiched between two things of which I still can't understand the amount of significance placed upon them.

The film I have just seen is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and tomorrow night, I shall be working at midnight for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows release. For some reason, people seem to go mad over Harry Potter, but still haven't worked out why.

I've got nothing against Harry Potter, I've enjoyed the films and the one book I have read, but don't see anything special in them. It's not as if JK Rowling is the only fantasy author out there, indeed one of my main reasons for liking the films is the recognition of recurring ideas seen through various fantasy literature, but I'd still much rather watch and/or read something by Stephen King or Clive Barker.

So with the imminent approach of the seventh and final book there are a few things that I would like to see happen. Mainly, Harry should die. This is nothing personal, I just think that the whole franchise would be better off were this to happen.

Firstly, it dramatically reduces the likelihood of someone else drawing upon and adding to Rowling's stories. And by 'someone else' read 'Warner Brother exuctives', likewise 'adding to' with 'completely ruining'. By killing off Harry, Rowling can hopefully avoid her work being spoilt for herself and her fans everywhere. If you think more Harry Potter adventures can only be a good thing, then you need to read my previous rantings about disasterous sequels.

Secondly, Harry should die because the other stories are just too soppy. Anyone who knows me will most likely know that I'm not exactly the biggest fan of anything that can be considered 'cute', and this includes cliched happy endings, especially those that only happen for the simple reason of just because. It's not that I have the emotional range of a teaspoon, it's just that there are so many stories that have happy endings just for the sake of it, and often ruin an up til then fairly decent film.

Without giving too much away, a good example of this is The Butterfly Effect. When I first saw the theatrical version, I thought it had a good ending that fit in with the rest of the story, but still seemed a little lacking. And what it was lacking, was for the studio executives to let the directors do what they do best, and not force a happy ending on the film in order to play it safe. Having seen the directors cut, I now consider The Butterfly Effect to be one of my favourite films, simply because the filmmakers made the right choice about how the film should end, unlike the studio executives who only care about getting bums on seats, and for some reason seem to think that people should be smiling when the credits roll.

Order of the Phoenix had a great climax at the end of the film, but the whole lovey dovey resolution just spoilt it for me. And yes I know it's a childrens story, but that's not an exuse. In fact that's even more reason why Harry Potter should die.

Teenagers dont get upset and moody because of hormones, they get upset and moody because they've grown up with all these promises of fairy tale happy endings, and then real life taps them on the shoulder and says 'you know how the hero always triumphs over evil, saves the day and gets the girl? Well actually . . . '

I'm not saying life is all doom and gloom, it's just not all happy endings either. If it was, studio executives wouldn't shove their 'creative' sides where they don't belong. Like The Butterfly Effect 2.