Harry Potter Reviewed

It's been a long time since I read the first Harry Potter book or watched the first Harry Potter movie, but I've read/watched both multiple times and remember the storyline quite clearly.

In the prologue, we see Dumbledore leaving a baby on the front steps of a house; in chapter one, we meet the Dursleys, Harry's gruesome and cruel and, in the case of Vernon and Dudly, overweight muggle family. They never much liked Potter and treat him cruelly, which is demonstrated repeatedly in this book. We see that he lives in, well, a cupboard under the stairs.

We first discover his magical talent, although we do not immediately know what it is, with him talking to a snake in a zoo. The snake gets loose and pandemonium reigns. Then we see Harry running from bullies-a scrawny, skinny kid with glasses-and suddenly, he's on a roof, far out of harm's way.

Harry's entire life changes when letters start arriving for him. Finally, the Dursleys, sick of being overwhelmed with letters, go somewhere to escape. It is Harry's birthday when Hagrid, a half-giant in the employ of Dumbledore, breaks the door of the cottage they are in down, bends Vernon Dursley's shot gun in an interesting shape, and takes Harry out of there.

Harry discovers that he is a wizard, and that there is an entire magical world the Dursleys have been very carefully ignoring. Not only is he a wizard, but he is already famously known as The Boy Who Lived, having survived a death curse from the Dark Lord, a very powerful dark wizard named Voldemort who was seemingly defeated when Harry, a mere babe at the time, deflected the curse. It ended Voldemort's reign of terror eleven years prior.

Now Harry is invited to Hogwarts. He is given wizard money to spend in Diagon Alley, where he can buy all of his school supplies. In fact, he discovers that his parents left him quite a fortune in the wizarding world. He also discovers that they were powerful wizards and highly respected fighters against Voldemort in their time. Harry, who was told his parents were killed in a car accident, is knew to all of this, and discovers, with the readers, a magical world that had essentially been hidden right underneath his nose.

He becomes good friends with a boy named Ron and a girl named Hermione; Ron's family is pureblood but fought against Voldemort, and aren't rich at all, and Hermione's parents are muggle dentists. Ron is a little bit slow, but Hermione is a genius and better than everyone else at school. He also becomes enemies with a boy named Draco Malfoy, a pureblood whose father was a Death Eater.

The three of them regularly get into trouble. They find themselves walking down abandoned corridors-the staircases in Hogwarts move-encountering a three headed dog named Fluffy, and unraveling a plot to restore Voldemort using the Philosopher's stone, which they all think Snape is plotting. In the end the three go through a series of trials, Ron and Hermione fall behind and Harry is left alone to face Voldemort.

Harry escapes with his life and the stone is destroyed.

From a reader's perspective:

When I first discovered this book at the age of six or seven I fell in love with it almost at once. The book is well written for young people, from seven to twelve or thirteen, but I find it dull and hard to read now. It's not her best work, but it is better than the movie, and I quite enjoy Hagrid and his 'I shouldn'ta told ya that'. The book is a good read for any age, though it is harder to get into the more advanced you are in your reeading, and I found I have outgrown it.

If you are going to watch the movies and read the other books, though, you definitely have to read this one. It gives you some key story details, and it's quite interesting. You meet a good portion of the most important characters, but not all of them, and the trials Harry must face to get to the Philosopher's stone are ingenius, even if the writing about him overcoming them isn't.

This book is a good light read, the shortest Harry Potter book, and the lightest one. You will notice as we go along that each book becomes darker-and the movies match the tone.

From a writer's perspective:

Looking at this as a writer I can see that JK Rowling had a lot to learn when she got this book published. Throughout the books I've seen definite improvement. Some people say that Goblet of Fire was the best, others that Order Of The Phoenix was best. All I can say is that it definitely wasn't this one.

It's not a terrible book by any means, but there's definite room for improvement here. The characters aren't really examined closely enough for my liking, the plot isn't as full of twists and turns as later plots, but it's not a bad book. It's not as detailed or as well-written as her later works (a lot of that was because she became famous enough to overrule the editors in terms of lengths later on). From the very beginning though, we can see that this series isn't going to be all light and happy and joy, although Harry is very much grateful to be at Hogwarts, to have become a part of the Wizarding world.

In this book she deals very well with certain issues like bullying and unwanted fame. Harry's character is believable, real. He's kind of the tormented hero type, really, but he's made himself and not a stereotype. My biggest complaint in terms of character stereotyping is Ron, because he really is the dumb sidekick stereotype, and JK Rowling shows with several of her other characters that she can write better than that.

This is clearly not a first novel, but it's also not her best work. As a writer I look at this book and I think that it needs work, but there's nothing I can do because it's already been published. It's an amateur novel in several ways, with dull description in a lot of places and action that's not quite fast-paced enough for the most part. But it gets better, and the rest of the books slowly improve as JK Rowling learns from them. She's become a much better writer by book seven, and it's worth getting through the first couple of books so that you fully understand and enjoy the sixth and seventh, which are absolutely spectacular.

The first Harry Potter movie is incredibly true to the book. It is one of the best book-to-movie adaptations I've ever seen, and is pretty much on par with quality and excitement as the movie.

I have to say, the Harry Potter cast is great. Dame Maggie Smith is a great McGonagall-the transfiguration teacher-and Alan Rickman is absolutely perfect for Snape. Tom Felton, in the picture, does a great job playing Draco. Emma Watson makes an excellent Hermione, and in general is a good actress.

I'm not too fond of Daniel Radcliffe; I find that he looks the part, except that they never let his hair get messy enough (it's Hollywood, but still, in the books it's long and unyielding and there's nothing he can do about it, no matter how often he cuts it or styles it), but he's not a very good actor. This stands in every movie. He is easily outshone, in acting ability, by Emma Watson (Hermione), but he does a mediocre job and I'm not going to complain too much.

I was a big, big fan of these books. I grew up with Harry Potter. For a long time, it was my life. I spent one entire summer writing Harry Potter fanfiction. I've never fully been able to let go of this, so when I watch these movies, I'm still a purist.

The first one, wow. I was really impressed with it when I first saw it, for how it brings the book to life. And it really does. The castle is beautiful, the lake is beautiful, the moving staircases are done perfectly. Hagrid's little hut on the border of the Forbidden Forest looks quite cozy and homely, and the forest itself looks very dark and foreboding, much like it is described in the book.

I was very anxious to see how this movie would turn out and I was impressed. Fluffy is great, the big three-headed hound that Hagrid raised and donated to the defend-the-rock crew. The actor they got for Hagrid-forgive me for not knowing his name-is excellent. Most of the casting is quite good in these movies.

My favourite thing? Quidditch. In the book Harry discovers that he can fly a broomstick, as can other wizards-but they have to be enchanted broomsticks, obviously-and learns about a sport called Quidditch. It's like some sort of slightly mutated soccer in the sky. Every team has two beaters, three chasers, one keeper and one seeker. Harry has a natural talent as seeker-the seeker has to find the snitch, a very small ball that's more of a bird than anything else.

I absolutely love the way they've done Quidditch. They brought it to life in a way that was absolutely spectacular. As one of those people that owns every Harry Potter book Ever, including the bestiary and the little book about Quidditch, I was quite impressed. It amazed me. It still amazes me. I wish I could fly like that!

I like the uniforms they use, the way they've designed the balls, especially the snitch, and the field itself. Quidditch, I think, was Rowling's most impressive leap of imagination and one of the best things about Harry Potter. It just wouldn't be the same without Quidditch. In every book Quidditch plays an important role, except book seven, and varies to degrees of just how important it is. Harry is a star Quidditch player of his time, much like his father, James. Note that in every movie so far, they've included at least one Quidditch game.

This is a good movie, for those who have read the book and those who haven't. I quite like it. It's a good story in itself and it goes well with the book.

With this book/movie there isn't really a clear cut winner. The book goes into a lot more detail and shows more depth to the characters and the conflicts, but not enough to really make it too much better than the movie. The movie is extremely well done, bringing the book to life. The actors get into role very well and bring their characters to light; and the special effects are fantastic-which gets better with every movie.

Overall I think the book and the movie are equal. I personally prefer the book but that's because there are a few really good scenes missing from the movie. For example, we read the song of the Sorting Hat, which isn't really included in the movie, because, well, it's a hat that sings. It's only allowed to sing for so long because ten minutes of the hat singing isn't nearly as interesting in the movie.

The second Harry Potter book is about Harry's second year of school at Hogwarts. In this book people and animals-including Mrs. Norris, Filch, the caretaker's cat-turn up petrified. They can't move, can't hear, are basically stuck in one position until the healer of Hogwarts can figure out how to fix them.

Everyone gets scared, wondering what is doing these things. There is a curfew imposed on Hogwarts and students are urged not to go anywhere alone. Soon, with the petrified people and animals, they start to find writing on the wall.

Someone tells the story of an old legend in the Wizarding World. It's about the original founders of Hogwarts, Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin. When Salazar, furious with the others for allowing muggleborn witches and wizards, or anyone who wasn't entirely pureblood, left Hogwarts, it is said that he left behind a terrible monster in a chamber, which only a true son or daughter of Slytherin could control.

This is dismissed as an old legend-but turns out to be true. It also turns out that one student several years ago found this creature-Tom Riddle, Voldemort's real name-and that now, through a magical diary, he is controlling someone, making them open the chamber and release the horror that lies within.

As A Reader:

As a reader I really enjoyed this book when I originally read it. I ended up reading this book nearly thirty times between it and the release of the third one (which, in my mind was way too far from the second) and loving it every time. It's not the best book ever written, to be sure, but it is better than the first one and it's definitely worth the time to sit down and read it.

I find again that over the years I've matured quite a lot as a reader, and that it's really hard for me to go back and read the second book, because I've come a long way, and the book hasn't really matured with me. The story is great. Absolutely fantastic, fascinating. It's just not the most well-written.

It's darker than the first, and in some ways sets the tone for the rest of the series. There are also a lot of fun moments in this book, like in the first. One thing I love about Harry Potter is that even at its darkest, JK Rowling maintains the British humour in it. I've always loved British humour.

As A Writer:

As a writer, once again, I'm not too impressed. I look at the quality of writing and think that, really, I could do better. Although she submitted it to over thirty publishers before getting an acceptance letter, JK Rowling, I think, should have waited longet to seek out publication. I say this because I've grown as a reader and a writer over the years, and I've really seen her growing as a reader and a writer as well, and I think she should have given herself more time to learn before seeking out publication.

One of the most interesting things about Harry Potter is watching JK Rowling's growth as a writer. I find it quite interesting to see how she grows over time and how the books grow with her. Writers become better with time and practice. A writer becomes better with practice. It's like any other skill.

I think this is a good book, and one worth reading, but don't think it's the epitome of writing. Look at what she does wrong, where she doesn't describe enough, or describes too much, or where the action doesn't flow as well as it should. Critique it like you would a friend's work-it'll be an interesting exercise for a writer. Figure out what works and what doesn't. And try to dissect why it sells so well if the writing isn't that great.

The second Harry Potter movie is a lot better than the first one, in a similar way that the second book is better than the first. I really like this movie for a variety of reasons, and once again, one of my favourite things is the casting. The actor they have for Lucius Malfoy-forgive me for not knowing his name-is great.

This movie is very true to the book. In it we meet the same characters we meet in the book. We see the same things happening that happen in the book. It's just a lot cooler, because it's brought out into action.

The flying car that Ron and Harry end up taking to Hogwarts is very well done, as is the thing with Aragog and the spiders-gotta love Hagrid and his strange pets-and the Basilisk itself. The director of the first two Harry Potter movies is better than whoever they have now, I must say.

I really like the actor they got for young Tom Riddle. He looks the part and he's good at acting the part as well.

One of the saddest things about the Harry Potter movies, in my mind, is the death of the first Dumbledore. I find that the guy that played Dumbledore in the first two movies was a great actor, looked more the part than his replacement, did a better job and all that jazz. Sadly, he died, otherwise he would have gone on acting throughout all the movies, I think.

Overall, I really like this Harry Potter movie. I haven't watched it in a long time, but I remember it quite clearly. It's a good movie, and like the book, it's a lot darker than the first. It shows that things in the Wizarding World are getting darker, and it's all to do with Voldemort's attempts to come back to the Wizarding World and to rule it, which seem to center around Hogwarts.

All the right foreshadowing was done here. This movie shows everything it has to, both things at the beginning that explain things at the end, and things throughout the movie you need to know to understand the later ones. More on that topic later.

This is one of those rare cases there the movie is better than the book. Why is that? Well, there are a variety of reasons. One of which is that a lot of the things in the Harry Potter universe are very visual, and in the early books JK Rowling wasn't the greatest at making things leap off the page at you.

The movie is very close in storyline to the book, has a lot of great actors who really bring the characters and the stories to life, and there are a lot of great special effects which bring the magic of the Potterverse to life. It basically takes the book and makes it more real, more lifelike. It brings the book to life in the way that a lot of movies fail to do for a lot of books-including some of the later Harry Potter movies.

As a formerly hardcore fan of Harry Potter, I really like this movie.

One thing to note: the books got darker, and JK Rowlings grew into a better writer, as the main audience of her books grew up. The first book is suitable for anyone from 7 up whereas the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is really more suitable for someone at least 14 years old (average maturity rate; I grew up a lot faster than some of my peers.)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third book in the series. In this book we find that Sirius Black, a dangerous wizard 'criminal' has escaped from Azkaban. He is dangerous enough to be advertised on Muggle TV as having escaped from a maximum security prison and being 'armed and dangerous'.

Harry goes back to Hogwarts and a variety of interesting things happen. Their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is a man named Lupin, who they later discover is a werewolf, and an old friend of Harry's dad. This is the book in which Harry gets the Maurader's map, a map which shows every secret passage on Hogwarts grounds and where every person in the school/on school grounds is at the time you look at the map and where they are going.

This map was created by Padfoot, Wormtail, Moony and Prongs, four mysterious figures called the Mauraders, and it was found by Fred and George, the twins. They give it to Harry, figuring he could make use of it, and so he does throughout the years.

Harry discovers Lupin's dangerous secret, that he is a werewolf, and that Snape makes a potion for him each month to keep the werewolf under control. Throughout all the books, Lupin is actually the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher except perhaps Snape, giving the students practical lessons and good advice. It's in this year that Harry really discovers his talent for DADA.

The Dementors also first appear in this book, creatures used to protect Azkaban who suck the happiness out of anyone they get close to. They are used at Hogwarts to keep Sirius black away, the alleged murderer of Harry Potter's parents. They end up attacking Harry, however, and so Harry learns some incredibly advanced magic called a Patronus. To conjure up a Patronus somebody must think of their happiest memory and then say the words, and a silvery animal will come out of their wands and fight off the Dementors.

Meanwhile, Hagrid has a Hippogriff, Buckbeak, a flying creature that is, essentially, a mix between a giant eagle and a horse. Buckbeak, after being provoked, bites Draco Malfoy and is sentanced to assassination.

Many things are revealed to Harry about his father and his friends back in those days at Hogwarts, and we discover some startling facts about Ron's rat. Harry must then save an infamous criminal at great personal risk.

As a reader:

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban has an amazing storyline. When I first read this book, I went through it all in one night, absolutely amazed and unable to stop turning the pages. (Bear in mind I also waited for it for a LONG TIME) Sirius Black became one of my favourite characters in any book series ever, and remains that way. Sadly I couldn't find any good public domain pictures of him.

We see that Rowling has gotten better at writing by leaps and bounds with this book, as she continues to do throughout the series. I found this book absolutely amazing when it first came out, and I was much younger, but I do have a hard time re-reading it now because I've matured a lot as a reader. It's still a good book worth reading, but I don't know if I'd say it's one to really go back to and read over again.

As a Writer:

It's still very interesting to watch Rowling's development as a writer. Some of the characters do a lot of growing in this book, including Harry himself, and we see a lot of Hagrid, who's always been one of my favourite characters. (He reminds me a lot of my dad-the gentle giant with a temper if you hurt someone he cares about.)

One thing I really like about Harry Potter is JK Rowling's ingenius use of mythology; the various creatures that Lupin brings in for his lessons are all celtic mythological creatures, and she does them honour. JK must have done a lot of research on celtic mythology for these books, and that's one thing I've always loved-especially the accurate treatment of one of my favourite mythic beings, the Phoenix.

In this book Hermione gets a real chance to shine as well, showing her real abilities both in terms of bookish knowledge and practical use of that knowledge.

One thing I dislike about Rowlings' books is that she never really gives Ron as much of a chance to shine. He's always that silly sidekick that never really gets his chance to shine. Hermione is, in a lot of ways, equal to Harry; Ron is less than that, never equal, never really getting his chance to shine, always being saved by someone else.

This is a good book to take apart and see what works and what doesn't. It's a good book to learn from.

The third movie was excellent. It was really well done. Of the various castles that have been used for Hogwarts throughout the movies, I like the one in the third movie most of all.

The cinematography, as well as the storyline, gets a lot darker in this movie. (There are people who have joked that by the seventh movie, as this happens in each one, all we'll see is a black screen. Heh.) I find that this movie is really well done, incredibly close to the book's storyline, and the actors do an amazing job.

It's around now that Emma Watson, actress that plays Hermione, started to get really pretty. In the books Hermione is never quite pretty, always with bushy brown hair and mud-brown eyes and all of this. But even though Emma Watson developed into a beautiful young woman, she still, by all means, looks the part of Hermione Granger, and she does an incredible job.

The actor they found for Sirius Black, Gary Oldman, found in a number of other excellent movies playing in a variety of excellent roles, does a really good job and definitely looks the part of Sirius Black. I quite enjoyed him in the role, as I enjoy many of the actors and actresses, most of whom do a great job portraying the characters they have been selected for.

The movie really has the same heart and soul as the book, and in some ways, it's better, because it brings the book's characters and creatures to life. Seeing Buckbeak in the movie really impressed me. Special effects these days are amazing, making it possible to turn a series like Harry Potter into a series of really good movies.

Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite movie of all the Harry Potter movies for a number of reasons. One of which is that it is closest in heart and soul to the book out of any of the movies, or so I find. It's also the last movie with the better actor for Dumbledore (he died, so I can't blame them for replacing him). I really think this book has one of the better storylines, and that the movie brings it to life in a way that JK Rowling didn't quite manage. She's lucky in that she had a fair bit of control over the movies, unlike most authors, because she was so famous by the time the movie deal was made.

Great movie with or without reading the book. It's got a great storyline, stands well on its own or with the other movies/books, and great acting.

While book three is better than the last two, movie three blows it out of the water. This is incredibly unusual for a movie based on a book, which is one of the reasons I was so impressed with it-and still am. While it's a struggle to re-read book three, the third movie is a breeze to get through.

Both book and movie are good, but the movie is better, with better dialogue and the fact that it brings the setting to life. The Harry Potter books are highly visual in a lot of ways-describing the castle, the Forbidden Forest, the many different types of creature that live in the Wizarding world, all of these things make the books very visual. While you get a picture in your mind's eye from the description JK Rowling uses, in some cases it's not the best, and with modern day special effects they can make anything look real.

If Harry Potter had begun its legacy fifty years ago, and the movies were done thirty or forty years ago, the movies would fail in a lot of ways, because of the level of magic JK Rowling shows, and the different creatures. It just wouldn't have worked; the adaptations would be so full of false-looking special effects that die-hard fans of the books like myself would throw things at the theatre screens. JK Rowling kind of lucked out in the time when Harry Potter got published and then became famous, becase now we have so much more we can do with special effects, and each year we make leaps and bounds.

The fourth Harry Potter book is a very long, and very interesting one. It begins with Harry having a dream about the former caretaker of the Riddle Mansion overhearing a conversation between Voldemort, now deformed, and Peter Pettigrew, the escaped rat of the last book.

The Weasley family take Harry and Hermione with them late in the summer to watch the Quidditch world cup. Death Eaters attack the camp and Harry finds himself separated from his friends (who are in a lot of ways his second family) in the woods near the campsite. After some looking around, he is reunited with Ron and Hermione, and they make their way toward the camp.

The students get back to Hogwarts, and at the feast on the first night, Dumbledore announces that there will be no Quidditch. There is a bit of uproar about this-and then Dumbledore says that they will be hosting the Triwizard tournament, a competition in which a masterful student from each school is chosen to undergo three dangerous tasks. Only wizards over a certain age are allowed to take part in this tournament, because it is dangerous and participants have died in the past.

The other two magic schools that participate in this tournament, Beauxbatons Academy and Durmstrang Institute, arrive at the school two months later. Various students from each academy put their names in the Goblet of Fire, which will spit back out the names of the students it chooses for the tournament. Cedric Diggory for Hogwarts, Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons and Viktor Krum from Durmstrang are the three chosen students... and then the Goblet spits out a fourth name, something which has never happened before. The fourth name is Harry's.

The teachers argue for a time over whether or not Harry should be made to participate in the tournament-finally deciding that he should.

He is interviewed by the horrid Rita Skeeter, the Wizarding World's best (worst?) example of Paparazzi, with a quill that writes automatically and twists the words of the interviewee so that they are barely recognizable. This is a priceless reference to the state of today's media, which provides quite a lot of humour.

The first task is to retrieve a golden egg from one of four dragons, which contains a clue about the second task. Harry gets the most dangerous dragon of them all, the Hungarian Horntail. Pulling off some wicked tricks with a broom stick, he gets the egg, and spends quite a bit of time trying to figure out the clue. Cedric Diggory helps him find it with a hint, and so Harry is prepared to face the second challenge, finding something important to him in the Black Lake which has been taken by mermen.

Dobby the House-Elf, who we met in book two and who Harry freed, meets up with Harry and gives him Gillyweed, allowing Harry to breath underwater for a period of time.

Harry goes in and saves both his precious item, Ron, and Fleur Delacour's sister when she does not appear. He is the last one out of the water, but is praised for saving her as well, even though he had to fight the mermen of the lake to get her and bring her with him.

The third challenge is a great maze full of dangerous creatures, a race through the maze to get the tournament cup. Alastor Mad-Eye Moody, the Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher and a retired famous Auror, gives Harry some hints about the maze. Harry and Cedric both reach the cup at essentially the same time, and both of them touch it at the same time, being whisked away to a dark graveyard.

We discover many dark things about what is going on at Hogwarts during the fourth year of Harry's schooling, and Cedric is killed, while Voldemort is restored to life, a mutated version of the man he once was. Harry escapes with his skin and a Death Eater is discovered amongst their midst.

As a reader:

As a reader, I really loved this book. Its story is fantastic, and the depth which she uses to describe her world, and the dragons, is wonderful in this book-when she was finally famous enough that she had more control over her books and they were allowed to be longer. (Editors usually cut a lot of stuff from books partially to make them shorter so that it costs less to create them.)

The story shows quite a bit of interesting magic. In it we discover the three Unforgivable Curses, Avada Kedavra which kills, Cruciatus which tortures and Imperius which gives the caster control over the cursed for a period of time. We learn a lot about the magical world and many of the creatures in it.

As a writer:

As a writer this book is quite interesting to read. JK Rowling has continued to grow with this book, although not in the leaps and bounds she makes between books four and five. The description is more in-depth because she grew famous and was allowed to write more in it.

In this book you see more and more of Rowling's world, which she spent years developing, which she knows pretty much every little detail about, all the history of, the future of, everything. You see more of this depth than you have so far, and it's a feat of worldbuilding that is great to note and learn from as a writer.

If you are a writer, try making this book into an excersize. Critique the chapters, review the novel, and figure out what could have made it better, and what in it works well.

All in all, it's a good book, definitely worth the purchase and the read.

As you can see in the picture, Emma Watson is absolutely beautiful in this movie, having definitely hit puberty and grown up a fair bit since the last one.

The movie is well done, once again capturing the heart and soul of the book and showing the world in beautiful detail. The dragons are wonderfully done, the Quidditch tournament is pretty near perfect, the acting is great, the writing isn't all that bad and the directing isn't particularly bad either.

This was a long book, and obviously some things from the books have to be excluded from the movies. (Although why they don't have Peeves, Hogwarts' poltergeist, in the movies is beyond me) There are some things in the book which are important that got excluded from the movie, but the movie, like the others, stands as its own story, separate from the books, a movie which can be watched by itself or with the others, or before or after reading the books.

Rita Skeeter is done quite well in this movie, with a great actress and great writing, and adds some dark humor to the book. I find myself really impressed by a lot of the acting in these movies. JK Rowling, being famous and whatnot, has quite a bit of control over the casting, and between her and whoever else picks out actors for these things, the cast has been quite well selected, with only a few actors/actresses that did not really impress me.

I quite enjoyed this movie, and could watch it again, although I do not necessarily feel the need to. It's one of those movies that is great to watch once every five or ten years, but any more often than that and you tend to get sick of it.

The book is definitely better than the movie, a first in the great Harry Potter legacy; the movie doesn't show as much depth, as much of the world, because it simply can't, being an incredibly long movie as it is. It still does a good job and has the heart and soul of Harry Potter, tells the story well, but it is missing some things I would like to have seen.

One thing that I find the Harry Potter movies doesn't really have as much of is the various ghosts that haunt Hogwarts. Moaning Myrtle and Nearly Headless Nick, who both play important parts in the story, are included, but others such as Peeves, the poltergeist who provides endless humour in the books, are neglected or not included at all. This takes away, in part, from the depth of Hogwarts' past, which JK Rowling does a magnificent job of showing in her work.

The book is definitely better, if only marginally, because of the greater depth a book of its size allows for. The movie is still good and definitely worth watching.

This book starts in the Muggle world, when Harry and Dudley (his bully of a Muggle cousin) are attacked by Dementors. Harry uses the Patronus charm to fight them off and finds himself summoned to a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry Of Magic for performing magic in front of a Muggle. (What else was he supposed to do, tell me that?) The Ministry tries to arrest him but Harry is quickly cleared of all charges and Dumbledore takes him to a secret house, Sirius's house.

Dumbledore restores a society called the Order Of The Phoenix which fought agains Voldemort during his first reign of power. This order includes such familiar characters as Lupin, Sirius Black, Snape, Mad-Eye Moody and the Weasley adults. While they try to figure out Voldemort's plans and move against him, the Ministry absolutely refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned.

In an attempt to enforce this belief, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge (who is, might I say, a real piece of work) as Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher. She's a cruel woman who absolutely refuses to teach the students anything other than useless theory, and when Harry says something about Voldemort existing once more, she gives him detention and essentially makes him write in his own blood over and over again that Voldemort is dead and gone.

Harry uses the Room Of Requirement, a room which transforms into anything its user needs it to be, to start a secret study group entitled Dumbledore's Army in which he teaches other students the higher level DADA spells that he's learned. He also meets Luna Lovegood, a strange, somewhat air-headed girl who believes in many things other wizards don't and has a fondness for conspiracy theories. Her father runs a magazine usually ridiculed in the wizarding world entitled the Quibbler, and he interviews Harry, using the real interview to counter Rita Skeeter's lies from the previous book.

Dumbledore resigns his position as Headmaster of Hogwarts to head the Order Of The Phoenix and Umbridge takes over. This causes Peeves, the school poltergeist, and several students to take small rebellious actions against her cruel reign. My favourite part of this book is when the twins decide to leave school once and for all and create a swamp in the great hall just for Umbridge.

Another important part of this book is Occlumency. Dumbledore gets Snape to teach Harry Occlumency, the art of protecting the mind. After Harry accidentally forays into Snape's mind and sees his worst memory, that of James and Sirius picking on and humiliating Snape, and Snape throwing away Lily Potter's help because, as he yells, she is a 'Mudblood', the lessons end. That memory, however, is incredibly important to remember when reading the sixth and seventh books.

In the end Harry and some close school friends (Neville, Hermione, Ron, Luna) go to the Ministry and face off against a number of Death Eaters. They discover a prophecy which connects Harry and Voldemort, and Voldemort makes an appearance in the Ministry and faces off against Dumbledore. Several Death Eaters are captured, the Ministry acknowledges Voldemort's existance and Dumbledore returns to Hogwarts.

As a Reader:

I loved this book. I still love this book. While there are many things wrong with it, it's an enjoyable read without too many obvious errors and a great storyline. We see a lot of the world, a lot of the prejudices, and we learn a lot more about several of the characters. Harry grows up in this book but not as much as he does in books six and seven.

We see the challenges Harry and Dumbledore face trying to make the rest of the wizarding world believe them that Voldemort has returned. We see that Harry has grown and become someone capable of teaching and guiding others during this war. Harry gets his reputation back which was constantly slandered in the fourth book and a chunk of this one as well.

Of course there is one death at the end of the book which made me cry when I first read it. Bear in mind that I grew up with Harry Potter and was always very close to these characters, so when a favourite character died, it really hurt.

As A Writer:

As a writer I see a lot of flaws in thsi book that I don't think I would notice if I wasn't a writer myself. I see where there is room for improvement in characterization (Ron still lacks character, although some of the others have definitely grown over the course of this book), worldbuilding, and general plotting. Some of the sentence structure and things like that are off, but in general it's not too bad a book.

JK Rowling's growth continues and it is interesting to watch. One thing that is interesting to know is that at a certain point in this book, Mr. Weasley was supposed to die in the outline, but JK Rowling chickened out of killing him at the last minute, and because of that later kills another member of the Weasley family.

This book isn't the best but it's worth reading and it's worth analyzing as a writer to see what you could do better-and what you would have done differently if you wrote the series.

I'll admit it now: I didn't pay very much attention to this movie. I really didn't. Why? Because by this point I'd stopped caring, really, about Harry Potter. After the seventh book came out and I read it within 24 hours and discovered the death of my favourite character, I stopped liking Harry Potter that much. I sort of ignored the fact that there was a fifth movie at all and only watched it a few months ago, shortly before the sixth came out.

I wasn't impressed. Of course the acting isn't necessarily bad, it's mostly the writing that I take issue with. Daniel Radcliffe isn't a good actor, and I am repeatedly Not Impressed by his whining (or at least it sounds like whining to me), even less so than I am by the original Harry Potter's whining. Daniel Radcliffe just makes it sound so much whimpier. He's just a big wuss, if you ask me.

What was my least favourite thing about this movie? The epic fail that is their attempt at Snape's worst memory. The fact that in that scene Lily does not make her appearance. The fact that because they do not include the bit with Lily in this flashback they have essentially screwed over Snape's character horrendously in the movies so that they can never do him proper justice. I'm extremely disappointed with this, as, if you ask me, Snape is the most well-developed character in the ENTIRE SERIES. It's really a shame that they did this and basically ruined his character.

I was not impressed by that, and it was one of three parts of the movie I actually paid attention to.

Overall, I was not impressed by the movie. It was mediocre.

Bellatrix LeStrange was AMAZING. Helena Bonham Carter is absolutely perfect for the crazy Death Eater responsible for the deaths of many important people during both the wars of the wizarding world. I love Helena Bonham Carter to begin with, because she's an amazing actress found in such movies as Sweeney Todd, Fight Club and soon to be found in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland as well (can't wait for that last one). I never really liked Bella. Why? Because in this book she kills one of my favourite characters. That and because she constantly hates on and distrusts Snape (although she's the only Death Eater that does, and of course she's right, thus being the smartest Death Eater). As of this movie I am in love with Bellatrix LeStrange.

The movie was mediocre. Bellatrix was absolutely amazing.

If you're going to watch this movie, I would recommend doing it before you read the book-unless you've already read the book, in which case I wouldn't necessarily recommend watching the movie. If you do, you might want to block bits of it out.

Ahem.

Book five is good. It's well written, although there are still flaws, it's a great story and it draws readers of all ages over 12 in. (Most under twelve can't really read books that long just yet) It's not too dark or depressing but it's dark enough and JK Rowling is growing bolder with killing off characters in this book. There's a lot of growth in the characters and a lot of growth in the writing.

Personally this is not my favourite book but I definitely enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't know if I could read it again now because I haven't tried, but I know that it's definitely a lot better than, say, book two. JK Rowling grows with each book and her world grows with her.

We see a lot more depth in the world, and learn a lot more about the last time Voldemort was on the rise to power in this book. It's a good read and definitely worth however long it takes you to get through JK Rowling's longest written book.

As for the movie? Lame. I don't think it's really worth the time or effort of watching the entire thing. Borrow it from a friend or something and decide from there if you really think it's worth buying. It's a good movie but it's nothing like the book and if you're a hardcore fan of the books you'll just want to slap the writers. As its own movie without relation to the book it's great. It can be watched alone but it works better with the other movies, though not necessarily the books.

This time the book is the definite winner in terms of quality.

In the first chapter of this book, we meet Rufus Scrimgeour, the new Minister Of Magic, and discover that Cornelius Fudge was fired for a number of reasons. We find that over the course of the month or two between book five's end and book six's beginning the Death Eaters have made themselves apparent, committing crimes in both magical and Muggle worlds.

Cut to Narcissa Malfoy, Draco Malfoy's mother, and Bellatrix Lestrange walking in what seems to be a Muggle area towards what seems to be a Muggle house. We discover that this, Spinner's End I believe it was called, is where Snape has made his home. It seems that Snape has joined the Death Eaters once more as he speaks with Narcissa, though Bellatrix doubts-with every fibre in her being and quite vocally-his loyalty. Narcissa pleads with him to help Draco, to protect Draco, in some task that the Dark Lord has asked of him.

Snape makes the Unbreakable Vow, which will kill him if it is broken, to protect Draco in any way that he can, using any means necessary. This quiet's Bellatrix's distrust somewhat, and Narcissa leaves reassured that her son will be safe. The reader leaves thinking that Draco is a newly initiated Death Eater.

We then cut to Harry, who follows Dumbledore to the house of Horus Slughorn, in an attempt to convince him to return to Hogwarts as a teacher. Enticed by the chance to teach someone as famous as Harry Potter, Slughorn, a man obsessed with fame and fortune, agrees with some reluctance.

Harry is then taken to The Burrow, the Weasleys' home, where he spends the rest of the summer with Hermione and Ron. They get their O.W.L. results (wizarding world standardized testing, basically) while there. Harry and Ron, both seeking to become Aurors, didn't get the grades to get into Snape's Potions class-and to become an Auror, you need Potions at the N.E.W.T level (final examination type thing).

When they return to Hogwarts, they find that Slughorn is the potions professor-and, the unthinkable, Snape has been appointed new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher. Thanks to this change of position, Harry and Ron are able to get into the Potions class they need, but they're filled with apprehension about Defense Against The Dark Arts with Snape.

Harry and Ron do not have their own textbooks for the potions course, so Slughorn lends them copies. Their first lesson is to create a deadly potion, which Slughorn says only one student has ever made perfectly, in order to win a Felix Felicis potion, 'liquid luck'. Following notes and corrections that make better instructions than those in the textbook, Harry wins the Felix Felicis with his perfect potion.

Meanwhile, Lupin and Tonks, two characters present in the previous book, marry over the course of the summer.

Ron and Ginny now join Harry on the Quidditch team, which he is now captain of, replacing Oliver Wood. Ginny, who once had a crush on Harry, is now dating Dean Thomas. Harry feels strange tinges of jealousy at their closeness.

Dumbledore asks Harry to collect information about a certain memory from Slughorn, and Harry tries with little success until near the end of the book. He then discovers startling secrets about Voldemort which he must then use to defeat the Dark Lord.

Meanwhile, he's following Draco around, trying to figure out what he's up to, convinced that he is attempting to have Dumbledore killed. He's also taking DADA lessons with Snape, which prove to be quite interesting, but not particularly unpleasant.

He continues to ace potions with this mysterious textbook, signed 'Textbook of the Half Blood Prince' while Hermione freaks out and searches the library and the school for any hint as to who this half-blood prince may be. At one point she suspects this mystery person to be Eileen Prince, Snape's mother.

In the end, we discover that someone has been trying to assassinate Dumbledore this entire time-and he is killed, not by the person who was trying to kill him but by their mentor.

As a reader:

This book is a real page turner, and my personal favourite. It has a lot of focus on Snape, my favourite character, with him as the DADA teacher among other things. You see that there is a war going on in the world around them, with students worrying about their families outside of Hogwarts.

The book is written quite well, with amazing descriptions, an amazing storyline and some great characterization. There are some moments that make you smile-like discovering Tonks and Lupin's marriage-and moments that make you hold your breath, when Harry and Dumbledore leave Hogwarts in order to destroy a horcrux, a piece of Voldemort's soul.

One of my favourite scenes is on the train to Hogwarts. Harry is spying on Draco, who is talking about some greater purpose than school. When the train stops and the others get off, Draco finds Harry, throws him to the floor with magic, and steps on his nose, breaking it, before getting off the train. The scene just made me smile-but maybe that's just because I don't like Harry much anymore.

As a writer:

Wow. JK Rowlings has certainly grown a lot between books and it really shows. The prose is clean, detailed but not too detailed. The characters are given more depth and room to grow. Things are set up very nicely for the seventh book, in which the war will end and many secrets will come out.

The ending is for many a heartbreaker, but it needed to happen and I feel that it was done quite well. JK Rowling does not cower away from death in this book, and is not scared to show the realities-to an extent-of the war that is going on in the Wizarding World.

This book is great to read, with fewer mistakes, and where the mistakes are, they are often less noticeable. I still think Ron is a complete caricature, and though Harry does grow somewhat in this novel, he is too. Rowlings may know a lot about her characters, and while she brings them to life, their life, especially in the case of Ron, seems stagnant in many areas.

All in all a good book, definitely worth reading. One thing I noticed is that the quality of the writing is a lot better in the first two chapters, when we are in different points of view from the usual, which is Harry's. There are many possible reasons for this, and we'll never know, but it makes interesting pondering.

Wow. Can I say not impressed? Because I really wasn't impressed by this movie. I went to see it with my grandmother after a long debate about whether or not I really wanted to.

For someone who didn't read the books, this is a gret movie. It's got a concrete storyling with a defined beginning and end. But there was a lot missing from this movie... so here goes.

The movie had too much humour in it. Nothing wrong with humour, but the book was very dark, what with a WAR GOING ON. In the book, all the characters are concerned for their parents and other family members who are outside of Hogwarts and thus vulnerable to Voldemort's wrath. They're afraid. Yes, they have Quidditch, and yes, they do have good times, but there's always the underlying sense of worry and fear which just isn't there in the movie.

In the movies especially Ron's character is ignored, and even more so in this movie than some of the earlier ones. He's used purely as comedic relief with a stalker who did not exist in the book. It makes me angry.

The focus of the movie is almost entirely on Quidditch and Slughorn's parties. Although we do see the darker plot with Slughorn and to an extent with Dumbledore, the entire Snape plot is just NOT THERE anymore, and it's a pretty light hearted movie until the end. The end is amazing, except for a couple things missing-a funeral scene and a line that Snape needs to have but doesn't-and it's done quite well, and it's very dark. It feels like a dark, almost apocalyptic ending tacked onto a movie about sports and romantic comedy.

What DID I like about this movie? Well, Tom Felton did a great job, and the storyline involving Draco was written pretty well. Alan Rickman obviously did a great job-in what scenes he was given-and of course, Helena Bonham Carter is still amazing as Bellatrix Lestrange.

It's a great movie if you don't know much about the books. Or if you haven't read them in a long time. But if you're as much of a fan as I am/was-you won't be impressed, and it's not worth your money or your time.

The book is better.

Do I need to say more?

Not really. But I will anyway:

The book offers more depth in terms of characterization, worldbuilding and general storytelling. The movie is missing a lot of scenes, a lot of important subplots and lines, and it doesn't have the same tone as the book. The tone is entirely wrong, and I can only hope that this will change with the seventh movie. We will see...