Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.



I've actually been putting off writing this blog post for two reasons: one, I could never write a review that would do this movie justice and two, writing it would be admitting that the last, ever, Harry Potter film has actually been released and that this marks the end of an era in my life and in the lives of fans all over the world.

Obviously, I knew that this movie was going to be pretty spectacular, but nothing could have prepared me for the astounding special effects, absolutely brilliant acting and the emotional intensity conveyed by the actors. Surprisingly, I would say that this is the funniest out of the 8 Harry Potter movies, possibly to balance out the darkness of the final battle. I did find that almost after every sad or intense moment ended with some humour. I'm not sure if I like this or not as most of the time I was crying my eyes out, and yet laughing at the same time. I guess this makes the movie better as it reminds that Harry Potter isn't all about doom and gloom.


The most notable performance during the entire movie was Alan Rickman's portrayal of Snape. It truly was one of the most touching things I have ever watched and it was really interesting to see a completely different side of Snape. This part of the movie was so much better than I thought it would be. Obviously I knew that Alan Rickman is an incredibly talented man, but to see him take on an entirely different persona of Snape was truly magical (no pun intended).

The much anticipated line: 'Not my daughter you bitch!' was excellent, though in my opinion it could've been said with a little more conviction. Ginny doesn't play a very big role in this movie, not that I expected her to, but the brief moments that she was on screen were rather disappointing and I think so much more could've been added to Ginny and Harry's relationship. Ron and Hermione finally get together, of course, though perhaps their first kiss was a little inappropriately timed, though it was rather comic. I'm thinking that that moment is all set to win 'Best kiss of the year award'.


Tom Felton keeps Draco's character much the same with both his commanding and cowardly personality. He doesn't play a particularly large role in the movie either but when he is on screen he brings across Draco's rapidly changing emotions quite well. (I have to say he looks hilarious after he's been put through the ageing machine. Perhaps he and Rupert Grint can battle it out for who looks the funniest).

Rupert Grint is the man who brings most of the comic moments to this movie and he does it in true Ron-like fashion. Grint shows many different sides to Ron's personality in this film. He shows his loyalty to his best friend, Harry, his love for Hermione, his grief over his brother's, Fred's, death, his hilarity when wimpering and running away from Goyle's fire charm gone wrong, his brave side when trying to kill Nagini and protect Hermione, and last but not least, his clever side (for once) when he remembers that Basilisk fangs can destroy Horcruxes. Now that's a whole lot of emotion to be cramming into one movie.

I was slightly disappointed with Helen Bonham Carter's perfomance when she was pretending to be Hermione under the influence of Poly-juice potion, at times I thought she captured Hermione's character perfectly, at others, I didn't. Or perhaps it wasn't Bonham Carter's performance, but the way that Hermione was scripted to act in those scenes.

We can really see that Emma Watson is the thread that keeps the three friends together and drives them forward in this movie. She really makes a stand for Hermione and girls everywhere by showing that we can be powerful and influential and a 'warrior' (quote Emma Watson). It's good to see Hermione with a bit of blood on her face. To be honest, I don't think there's any actor in this movie who doesn't have blood on his or her face at some point in this movie.

And let's not forget Daniel Radcliffe, the man of the hour. There were a couple of moments when I thought that he hadn't quite captured Harry's ways but on the whole there was some excellent acting from Radcliffe through out this movie. Harry goes through a lot of intense emotions during this half of the book as he finds out many things about his mother, father, Snape, Dumbledore etc. and also the realisation that in the end he has to die. When Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother, questions Harry as to why he's bothering to hunt horcruxes, he stands his ground, saying that he trusted Dumbledore and Harry shows his determination to see this through to the end, not only to free himself but also the rest of the wizarding world, from Lord Voldemort's clutches. We see just how brave and loyal Harry Potter is and Daniel Radcliffe definitely manages to show just how good a person Potter is.


Music has the power to affect me really strongly and emotionally and so many a time I cried during this movie purely because of the feelings that the soundtrack conveyed. It is definitely the best soundtrack yet and every single sound perfectly compliments the events going on on-screen. What also particularly struck me and tugged at my heartstrings was the sense of loyalty, friendship and love, that was conveyed the audience perfectly by all the actors. One actor in particular who has come into the spotlight this movie is Matthew Lewis (plays Neville Longbottom). He is the unspoken hero of this movie with one particularly brave moment when he stands alone facing hundreds and hundreds of Death Eaters. He has done a great job of bringing Neville from the frightened, but brave boy we saw in the Philosopher's Stone to the man willing to stand up to Lord Voldemort in the Deathly Hallows.

Speaking of Voldemort, something that I didn't really expect to see was the vulenerability of Lord Voldemort. I think that the movie makes Lord Voldemort appear a lot more weak and vulnerable than the books describe, but I prefer it this way. Ralph Fienes is such a brilliant actor and he show Voldemort's desperation and determination amazingly. Apart from the issue of Voldemort crying 'nyaaa' which has been a source of ridicule since the trailers were released he does an excellent job of playing the role of the 'darkest wizard of all time'.


The only thing that truly disappointed me, was the ending. After hearing a lot of hype about the '19 years later' scene, I thought that it was going to be really good and that the age-ing machine would've made the characters look very different. Alas, it did not. Personally, I thought that the characters looked much the same as they do now, especially Emma Watson. The entire audience laughed when we saw all their characters as adults but the only difference was that the men had developed beer bellies with grey-er hair and the women had changed their hair styles and there were of course a few wrinkles thrown in. I thought that this scene could've been a lot more detailed and more like the book; however, I understand the need for the producers to want to cut down the book as much as possible to be able to fit this in to a decent length movie. There was little interaction with any of the kids apart from Albus Severus Potter and the acting could've been a bit better, but then, they are just kids and they did a great job none-the-less.

And so, Harry Potter ends. This is it. There'll be no more trailers, no more midnight screenings, no more premieres. It really is heartbreaking. However, I firmly believe that this final, eight movie really does bring Harry's story to a close in a magnificent and magical way and it definitely does JK Rowling's books justice. There's not really much else that I can say except that if you haven't already seen HP 7 Part 2, get down to your cinemas NOW! You cannot miss this spectacular film, which, by the way, is even more excellent in 3D. I thoroughly believe that oscars should be given out for some of the performances in the final instalment of the Harry Potter series, don't miss out

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

This is it. Harry Potter is coming to an end and it's going to be a teary day for Potter fans everywhere. After seven books and eight films the Potter phenomenon will be over. Well actually, Potter will never be over, the fans will keep it alive, but it'll be an end to all the anticipation, all the waiting, the end to all the premieres and signings. Fans can look forward to the opening of Pottermore later this year but for many, tomorrow will mark the end of an era. This film is supposed to be the most spectacular yet as Potter's story reaches it's climax. The film has a whopping rating of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes website and I, myself, haven't seen a critical review yet. If you haven't already booked your tickets, you're probably too late to catch the film tomorrow, but make sure you get down to your cinema ASAP to watch the end to this fantastic series, that has gripped the world.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 HITS CINEMAS IN JUST 3 HOURS. DON'T MISS OUT.

Film review coming soon.

Me and my friends at the last Harry Potter Premiere 07.07.11 Yep, after queueing for 48 hours through the burnings suns, the torrential rain, I was fortunate enough to gain a place right at the front of the barriers, in front of the press, at the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 premiere. I saw all the stars and managed to get a total of nine autographs, I was interviewed many times, which was awesomely cool and I witnessed the heartfelt speeches given by the directors, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and of course, J.K. Rowling herself.

The Wanted: Glad You Came. 

Bad Teacher. 

After several weeks of continuous bugging from my friend I finally agreed to accompany her to see 'Bad Teacher'. She thought that the advertisements looked 'hilarious' and that Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz together would make it an excellent movie. I; however, approached this movie with trepidation, for reasons I'm not entirely sure of and I really should have gone with my gut and saved myself an entire weeks pocket money and an hour and half of my time because this movie is rubbish.

Whilst the concept and the advertisement make this movie seem very attractive and comic the film does not live up to expectations. I'm guessing the point of this movie was to see Elizabeth (Diaz) develop as a character and transform from a superficial gold digger to an honest, down-to-earth role model for her students, but I did not see this. There is no development of Elizabeth's character, she seems to just change from one person to another, but even at the end of the movie Elizabeth does not seem like a very good teacher or someone with particularly good morals.

There are some sexual scenes in this movie and they are probably the funniest things about this movie because they're just so god-damn ridiculous. (Yes, Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake dry-humping is hilarious.) They scenes don't add anything to the plot at all. In fact, I'm not even sure why they were included seeing as movies about 'bad' teachers should be aimed at children and teenagers who actually attend school and have bad teachers therefore making this movie extremely inappropriate. Watching Diaz throw her wet body at a car just reminded me of a fish out of water, flopping around. Of course, she did look sexy whilst doing it in as little clothing as possible, but still, she looked ridiculous.

I found the plot line very boring throughout the movie, not a lot seemed to happen. The main focus seemed to be on Elizabeth trying to earn money for a boob-job, which she doesn't even get in the end. Supposedly this shows her epic change in character proving that you don't need to change yourself and blahblahblah but it doesn't. Curiously, Scott (Timberlake) agrees that Elizabeth should get a boob job because he believes that it's okay to want to improve yourself; however, I got the impression that he was supposed to be the character with the greatest morals in this movie, so whoever developed his character didn't think that one very well through.

At the end of the movie Elizabeth starts to date Russel (Jason Segel), the gym teacher, this also is presumably to show that she is no-longer a gold digger, but it doesn't. She even asks him if agreeing to go out with him means that she's consciously making the decision to be with a low-paid gym teacher. Their relationship also appears to be mainly sexual as the pair don't really interact that much throughout the film.

All in all this is a movie about a gold-digger who's extremely lazy and bad at teaching, in the end she is not so much of a gold-digger, she's slightly less lazy, and slightly better at teaching, but to be honest, there isn't much of an improvement. Don't bother wasting your money on this movie.

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick.


Crescendo is the sequel to the very successful novel 'Hush Hush'. Patch and Nora's story continues but there are many unexpected twists and turns right from the onset. The plot line of Crescendo is completely different to that of Hush Hush which is good as many authors run dry after one really good novel and fair to come up with more interesting material.

Crescendo draws out some threads from Hush Hush and expands and develops them, the most  prominent of which being the death of Nora's father. Was it really under 'normal' and 'human' circumstances? Was it possible that Patch was involved? Nora's quest to find out what happened to her dad and who killed him drives the plot of this novel. Unsurprisingly the fallen angels and the nephilim are heavily involved and we see the introduction of a new character: Scott. He's the loser childhood friend that Nora had forgotten about, but now he's transformed into a muscular, mysterious hunk. Ordinarily Nora would probably ignore Scott and his type, but the fact that Patch is telling her to stay away from him and that he seems to have so many secrets draws her to him. As Patch seems to draw closer to Nora's arch enemy Marcie Miller, things begin to hot up. People's relationships come under scrutiny and there are quite a lot of shocking moments when the truth is revealed. This book is easy to read and with the very exciting plot you'll just want to keep reading on and on.

There is only one thing about this book that I dislike and that is that Patch and Nora don't spend a lot of this novel together as a couple. In fact Patch isn't present in a lot of the novel, not physically at least, of course he's still on Nora's mind for nearly every second of the day. However, we are rewarded with many scenes of sexual tension between the pair some of which are better than those of the previous book.

This book is excellent in driving the plot of the series forwards and it progresses much. This book was indeed worth the wait and I sincerely hope that 'Silence' does the same. I highly recommend this book for all paranormal lovers, don't think that this is a book about 'silly little angels'. These are hardcore, bad-boy angels that have fallen from Heaven.