It's Gonna Get Dark...

It's another Saturday night alone at Calencoriel's and so I'm quite pleased to see that ABC Family has decided to broadcast the Harry Potter moves along with special, secret clips from the forthcoming Half Blood Prince. I know, I'm good.

Right now - as I type, Mrs. Norris has just been petrified and Gilderoy Lockhart is discussing how unfortunate it was he wasn't there to speak the countercurse that could have saved Filch's cat - I'm watching Chamber of Secrets. Sorceror's Stone and Chamber of Secrets were both done by Chris Columbus and they have a very different feel to them. I know some people who absolutely hated the first two movies, but felt things were saved by Alfonso Cuaron in Prisoner of Azkaban.

I've always enjoyed all the movies - I'm a fan. Now that all seven books have been written and released (and scoured, for my part), I think the feel of each movie is right. There is a certain innocence and childlike quality to the first two movies that turned some people off, but now that we know the entire scope of the story, I think that innocence was integral to the direction the next movies needed to take.

We also need to remember that Harry was a boy of only 11 when we first met him - an innocent in his own right, and we don't hear the term "mudblood" until the second movie. The whole mudblood/pureblood battle is at the heart of the struggle between good and bad. That had to develop over time. We couldn't just hop right into the story and have things be as dark as they need to be right away. We needed to see the world of Harry Potter first.

We needed to learn about the wizarding world the same way he did. We needed to enjoy Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade and all the wonderful things that make Hogwarts and Harry Potter's world what it is. Once Harry was older and more mature, it was time to make things a little more dark...and Cuaron and now Yates have done that. The story becomes incredibly dark and I'm guessing the movies are going that route as well...especially after the last few snippets I've seen from Half Blood Prince.

If you're a hater of the first two, but thought that the movies had somehow been redeemed as once directors changed, I'd suggest you rent the lot and watch them in order and enjoy the decent into darkness...you may change your mind about them.

btw...release date for HBP is July 17th...just three days after my birthday. Lovely.