Movie Review: Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Admittedly I had ulterior motives in going to this movie as I'm no fan of Harry Potter, having never read a significant portion from a book or seen a single minute from a movie. And the reason I fell asleep ten times during the movie wasn't entirely the fault of the movie (thanks to Ben for waking me up and wisecracking with me throughout). While I've seen a fair share of movies in my lifetime, and many of those stunk to epic proportions, this one takes the cake. My aversion to giving my complete opinion on this movie, all the movies, the books and JK Rowling is that it effectively portrays me as a superior snob, a portrayal I'm not going after at all. Let's start with the books. From the beginning I've maintained that the reason the books reached such popularity was not the fantastic writing, compelling characters or the winding, woven stories. It was the elementary school level of writing, which widened the reach of the books to the many victims of America's public school system. Now I know many people who thoroughly enjoyed the books, and stop there with their praise. And that's totally fine. It's those who want to hoist Rowling up on some literary pedestal that raise my ire. The book's: this happened, then this happened, then he though this, then he did this, then this was the effect, then they went there form is easy to write and easy to read, requiring scant mental outlays by either the author or the reader. We've all had the experience of reading a school textbook and then realizing we simply moved our eyes across the pages and have no clue what the content of the last ten pages was. You can do that with Harry Potter AND get the content. That Rowling could write books like this and gain such popularity speaks to some incredible brilliance on her part, and also borders on exploitative. My gripes with the book are basically the same gripe as with the movie, the plot told you everything you needed to know instead of letting you discover something, wait in suspense for something or figure anything out. It required no engagement with the subject matter. This is a result of a larger, general attitude in our society where we tell people what to think and what they should know rather than letting them discover it for themselves. It saps curiosity in kids and destroys creativity and purpose for adults. In sum, Harry Potter and its popularity is an indictment on our entire society. If only we had a piece of rare wood to change that....