Today; Friday, July 15th, marks (or should I say "Dark Marks"?) the release of the latest and final Harry Potter film. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a cinematic event that's been 14 years in the making (the first book was published June 1997). Now, perhaps you might be thinking "what's the big deal? The movies weren't really that great, and they got kind of lame over the past few films". To which I might have a hard time arguing. But I'm not here to talk about the quality of the films, I'm here to talk about why this movie (you could even say it's only the second half of one movie) is such a huge deal.
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| Love, Harry Potter. |
If you're reading this, I assume you're between the age of 12 and 30. If you're 12, you weren't there in the beginning- get out you stupid poser! In all seriousness though, Harry Potter is a franchise that has grown up with us (yeah, I say "us". Deal with it) for pretty much our entire lives. Whether you went to see these movies in theatres, or just rented the DVDs, or have read the series more than 5 times like some friends of mine have, you more than likely know of Harry Potter.
For some reason, people (including myself) eat this up! With the exception of probably the last 2 or 3, I loved the books! They were wonderfully written and tons of fun. The movies were never of Citizen Kane quality, but they were still a lot of fun too. What's more is that these were relatable characters. I think we all know a Ron Weasley, or a Hermione Granger (okay, until I saw the movies, I always thought her name was pronounced "Her-moyn"). With each new adventure, we escaped to Hogwarts and loved every second of it. My point is this, though, Harry Potter was in some way part of your life. Maybe your best friend read them, but Rowling had created a franchise that was almost universally popular.
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| Sometimes I pronounced it "SOHOTSOHOTSOHOTSOHOTSOHOT" |
I've heard from a lot of people that they don't like how the movies became darker and more serious. I totally agree with that. After the 4th movie, gone was the escapism that I craved, and it was replaced by "dark and gritty" themes and boring teenage drama. In the books, you don't notice it as much because, while the themes are darker, the almost playful writing is there to soften it. Also, being that films shorten the story as presented in their respective novels (the Harry Potter books became a lot thicker after the first 3) so they have to pick and choose what to include, and they chose what would sell to their target audience. I totally understand that from a business perspective.
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| All I care about is MONEY! And also watching you while you sleep! |
I'm kind of sad about these characters leaving us too. It's bitter sweet, really. The way I try and explain it is this: these characters grew up with us, and as we got older, the series began to cover themes that we were old enough to handle. The series is ending, and the characters are moving on. Now we can too.
All that being said, this is the end of an era. Whether we like it or not, Harry Potter will go down in history and will most likely define our generation. It's time to say good-bye. This will be a day that I personally believe will go down in cinema history, and will not be forgotten by pop-culture nerds as long as they exist.
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| I mean, we've all tried to forget this, but it can't be done. Sorry. |
