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Harry Potter

The 5th film was very inconsistent which caused me to hate it immidiately. And agree with Butterfree about the Logic Puzzle (Snape's my favourite character and his puzzle gets removed?!) The Prisoner of Azkaban movie also cut the plot in half and so nearly did Chamber of Secrets (good I watched the movie first because the movie IS good but the differences between the book and the movie were massive). Don't have too high hopes for the 7th and 8th movies. The book isn't so good but I expect that the movie is only slightly better.
 
McGonagall needs more screen time. She reminds me of that teacher you hate when you go to school for the first time because she doesn't allow anything but she turns out to be the teacher you end up valuing the most
 
i enjoyed the books. i got bored with them after the fifth, because i realized by the end of the fifth book that rowling's writing style is not something i find enjoyable. my interest in the movies waned by the fifth one, too. i still think of the story as genuinely good; i just never felt inclined to finish them, is all.
 
Just so you know, my weekend abscence is because I'm either watching or reading Harry Potter.

As I write, I've decided that Order of the Phoenix is more interesting than I thought but the last 3 books qualities have drastically gone down. By the 5th movie I gave up. Somehow, most think that Deathly Hallows will be awesome, I think not really.

(did you know that the 5th movie made losses?)
 
Personally my favorite movie was the fifth (DUMBLEDORE VS. VOLDEMORT!) and my favorite book was the seventh.
 
derp

SO VERNE JUST RETURNED FROM FLORIDA AND HE HAS COME PREPARED WITH PICTURES. In just a few short minutes, you too will enjoy a photographic tour of the magic of Harry Potter as seen in Universal Studios, Florida, within the Islands of Adventure! Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Flash photography and video recording is prohibited. Stow all loose articles (glasses, cameras, hats, etc) and enjoy the ride.

The Adventure Begins ... now!

As we approach the entrance to Hogsmeade, a first glimpse of Hogwarts castle can be seen to your left. The castle is a beautiful, sized-down replica of Harry Potter's wizarding school and and rests on a mountain above the rest of the park.

However, we'll see more of that later. If you look ahead you can see the entrance to Hogsmeade! In we go!

You'll notice that Hogsmeade is rendered in its wintertime state. This means that most surfaces are coated in a shimmering blanket of snow! And if you would all turn to the left ...

You will get a full view of Hogwarts castle itself.

Now, the village of Hogsmeade is set, for the most part, in the middle of Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts, and around the village are various props dedicated to the Triwizard tournament. In fact, one of the village's main attractions, the Dragon Challenge roller coaster, focuses entirely on the first task! Shall we visit?

Notice the sign posted by the Ministry of Magic's Department for Magical Games and Sports (as well as a sheepish employee).

Now that we've entered you can see the many different banners supporting the three champions -- though, er, there is a noticeable lack of any mention of Cedric Diggory ... At least Krum has artistic fans. Anyway. As one continues through the queue, one can see many props from the Harry Potter series: the flying car, magical bits ofmiscellany, the Goblet of Fire -- and then, actual objects from the tasks, like the eggs and the Triwizard Cup itself.

Now we enter the Great Hall in preparation for the ride itself ...

The Dragon Challenge is actually two rides: one can choose to ride the Hungarian Horntail or the Chinese Fireball. Both are fantastic rides, but for some reason the Chinese Fireball is both more intense and longer. Who knows!

Now that we've exited the Dragon Challenge, let's explore the remainder of Hogsmeade. Hogsmeade is, of course, host to a variety of shops, many of which are closed in this winter weather: this sporting goods store, for instance, as well as Gladrags (currently hosting fashions like a certain dress and tuxedo), a Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, Wiseacres Wizarding Equipment, Dogweed and Deathcap, Dominic Maestro's Music Shop, as well as a number not here pictured.

However, there are also five shops that are open to the public! Most of these are connected from within, so let's start with, say, Honeydukes.

The inside of Honeydukes is beautiful and brightly colored, overflowing with candy. The place advertises anything and everything -- and almost all of it is for sale. There are Pepper Imps, Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's, Chocolate Cauldrons, Ton-Tongue Toffees, Cauldron Cakes, varieties of fudge, Chocolate Wands, Acid Pops, Blood Pops, Canary Creams, Edible Dark Marks, Coconut Ice, rock cakes, Sugar Quills, Honeyduke's Chocolate, taffy, and believe it or not, more. There are so many that I actually didn't know half of these existed. Also there is Clippy's Clip Joint, as seen in the Prisoner of Azkaban film. (It takes only, ah, 'sickels.') It is massive while also being cramped, and very very cozy. Now, before you make yourself sick on Pumpkin Juice and Cauldron Cakes, let's continue past to the next shop over: Zonko's.

If you'll look up as we pass between the shops ...

Welcome to Zonko's! Please follow the rules, as you can get quite hurt!

Zonko's too is cramped and massive all at once, and it sells a huge variety of joke items, including some borrowed from the Weasley boys, like pygmy puffs. The place glitters and pops, selling all sorts of silly things. Even the windows are busy. But it looks like the place is getting crowded, so let's move along, eh?

We're back outside, and let's take another quick look at the village. Everything is magical: even the lockers and ATM are disguised. The buildings have wonderful details -- and if any girls among us need to leave the tour now for a bathroom break, beware that Moaning Myrtle haunts the toilets.

If you would turn now for a moment you can see the Hogwarts Express and its conductor parked in Hogsmeade for the time being. There's no time to talk now, though -- if we want to see Dervish and Banges we must move quickly!

Now, unfortunately I'm quite lacking in pictures of the inside of Dervish and Banges, but that's mostly due to how crowded it is on a daily basis. Dervish and Banges serves as a general store that serves to the wizarding community: you can buy robes, brooms, remembralls, quidditch balls and bats, a copy of the Quibbler and spectrespecs, and of course the Marauder's Map. One can also see the Monster Book of Monsters, though it's not the friendliest beast. There are also, of course, general Hogwarts merchandise: House shirts and ties and scarves, etcetera.

I have a feeling you people would be more interested in the Owl Post room anyways. It doubles as a shop for Ollivander's, and thus contains hundreds of wands. You can choose your wand by the Celtic calendar or borrow a character's wand, including the famous trio's. However, you'll have to visit later, as the tour is continuing!

Let's next visit the Flight of the Hippogriff. Yes, I know, you all want to see Hogwarts -- but don't worry, that will come soon! But as we go through the queue for this coaster, you can see Hagrid's hut, including evidence of certain illegal dragon trade. Hagrid also keeps Buckbeak nearby, and as you climb the coaster's first hill he bows to you. The Flight of the Hippogriff is a very low-key ride, intended for younger children, and Hagrid explains it as training for riding hippogriffs.

And now, NOW we can visit Hogwarts itself. If you'd follow me, we must leave Hogsmeade and go for a bit of a walk. I hope you don't mind a bit of a wait.

If you look to the right as we approach the Hogwarts queue, you can see a large stone with runes written on it. In front of this, there are certain performances by the three schools of the triwizard tournament.

Carry on now, we're just entering the grounds! Now, the way through the castle is a bit long, so just hold on and enjoy the sights. For instance, you can see the Mirror of Erised, or the Humpbacked Witch statue. One can also view Potions rooms and storerooms before we head into the greenhouses, which host most of the queue.

[About two hours of wait later, no kidding man]

And now we're heading back into the castle! You can see a selection of statues of ... people and the house point counters. It looks like Gryffindor, as usual, is in the lead. Continuing on, you can see the entrance to the Headmaster's office, as well as a variety of moving portraits which sadly did not come out well in photographs. Have some normal ones instead. The moving paintings talked to you about the ride to come and/or acted disgruntled about the number of muggles in their presence. Now we pass into Professor Dumbledore's office, seeing his pensieve and even enjoying his company. Next we enter the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, complete with dragon skeleton and a surprise appearance by the three main characters. (Mind that they're hard to see in these pictures -- they were much clearer in real life.) We now pass the Fat Lady, who, being a portrait, is camera shy, and mostly just gets irritated at the idea of all of us wanted entrance to the tower, and see house billboards and such.

And now we are boarding the ride! A Hogwarts Prefect helps us on our enchanted benches and, with help from one Hermione Granger, we are whisked into the air and invited on a journey with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley as they fly throughout Hogwarts. We fly under a bridge, meeting Hagrid (who asks moniously if anyone has seen a dragon) only to be attacked by aforementioned dragon, who threatens us with his fiery breath. We escape into the Forbidden Forest, coming face to face with huge acromantulas and the Whomping Willow, but find safety in a Quidditch game with Harry and Ron. We help chase the snitch, rivalled by Draco Malfoy (who calls us Harry's muggle supporters), but the game is interrupted by dementors and so Harry flies us away! We encounter a number of horrible dementors and are chased through the Chamber of Secrets, even seeing the skeleton of the basilisk, but Harry saves us with a well-timed Patronus charm. This ride is a fantastically engaging motion simulator with scenes specially filmed by the cast. It is amazing. Of course, no flash photography ...

Now that we've left the ride, we enter Filch's Emporium, which is a large shop of magical-themed merchandise that features a great number of exclusive items like Ministry of Magic clothing or this ridiculous Dark Lord doll. I don't get it either, but. There you go. You can also see a number of boxes dedicated to Gryffindor students, like Neville and Parvati and George Weasley. In fact, the only Weasley that doesn't have a box seems to be Percy, because even Charlie has one and I have a feeling Bill's is hidden ...

And that is the Wizarding World of Harry Potter! I hope you enjoyed your tour. Grab a butterbeer on the way out, buy some merchandise, and have fun!





ok yeah it was freaking amazing and I took 250+ pictures. I nearly peed.
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Lucky Verne... the theme park seems to focus on movies 1, 3 and 4. After reading Order of the Phoenix and Chamber of Secrets once more, I feel that I kinda like them now.
 
Yeah, there was no real mention of the last few. However there were a bunch of Lockhart's books on display! Most of them had moving pictures of him. It was great.
 
Harry Potter was awesome!! My favorite books were 4 and 5 - goblet of fire because it just had the coolest plot in my opinion and order of the phoenix because it was the first one that didn't really have its own plot and just focused on the bigger issues of the series as a whole, but it was before 6 and 7 jumped the shark just a tiny bit. PLUS rowling made you hate dolores umbridge just SO MUCH which I always thought was impressive.

In my opinion the movies are all terrible, yet I somehow have watched every single one. The books were seriously just not meant to be crammed into such a small space and the overall narrative structure which worked in the book makes more or less no sense in the film. The only point is basically just to give the text some concrete images for fans to jack off all over which I think is a really lame reason to make a movie.
 
IMO, the movies are not terrible, but have changed the plot a lot, especially movies 2, 3, 5 and 6.

favourite books:
1. Goblet of Fire
2. Chamber of Secrets
3. Prisoner of Azkaban
4. Philosopher's Stone
5. Half-Blood Prince
6. Deathly Hallows
7. Order of the Phoenix

the movies however:
1. Goblet of Fire
2. Philosopher's Stone
3. Chamber of Secrets
4. Prisoner of Azkaban
5. Half-Blood Prince
6. Order of the Phoenix
 
Personally, I agree with the idea that the movies have been getting better! But that doesn't mean I dislike the earlier movies. I like all of them, really. Even if they cut out some elements, but they do it well for the most part in my opinion. Can't expect them to include everything anyways, they've got limited time. My favourite was the sixth, because... well, I like little things they put in it. Like this one scene with Slughorn and Harry, and Slughorn has this... conversation hourglass that runs according to the quality of the conversation. Even though that wasn't in the book, I thought it was a brilliant addition. They increased the romance a bit too, which, like Butterfree said, I think was better than in the books. I think a lot of the things that the movies add personally fit quite well. Things like that. Even if I would prefer that they follow things a bit more. But ah well. I must be one of the few who actually liked Order of the Phoenix. When I watched that, I was like WHOA THIS IS AMAZING. I still am, really. The scene at the end with Voldemort and Harry was very chilling, and to be honest, that whole battle at the end gave me much more chills than reading it.

Favourite books now:

1.) Goblet of Fire. Just, I think that nearly everything in this book is interesting. There's a lot of stuff going on, and it all works. It doesn't bore me for a second.

2.) Prisoner of Azkaban. It's the first one I read by myself. (In the past, I was young, and my sister used to read me them, and then a teacher at school read one.) And I just generally find a lot of the Marauders stuff interesting, and Lupin is just too awesome for words.

3.) Half-Blood Prince. I like the added touch of romance, and there's a lot of scenes that I just find highly interesting to read. This book is fun to read and Harry's a bit more mellow rather than all ANGSTY from the last book, which is always good.

4.) Deathly Hallows. SO much going all over this book. SO much. It's just... awesome that it lasts so long. I think it's a good ending to the series and I, unlike a lot of people, actually LIKE the Epilogue. I think it wraps things up well. That's probably because though I like to know what happens to characters afterwards and dislike things being left in mystery.

5.) Order of the Phoenix. Used to be one of my top favourites, until the last two came out. But it's still a really good book. When I was younger, I loved it. Although now I like it a little less for some reason. Maybe it's that Umbridge is frustrating (I don't typically "love to hate" people), I don't know. It just has a gloomy vibe.

6.) Sorcerer's Stone. (or Philosopher's. I call it that because it's what I'm used to) The first one's sort of boring in my opinion, like most introductory things. But I still find it interesting none the less. It's nice to see how much Harry's changed from reading that one.

7.) Chamber of Secrets. So. Boring. Getting through that book was... boring. I'm not sure why, but I found it highly uninteresting. Even more than the first.
 
Oh seriously. It's probably my favourite piece of media ever, and will almost definitely stay that way. They sued to be the only thing I'd read, to the point where I've read them all (With the exception of Deathly Hallows) between five and thirty times (thirty being CHamber of Secrets, which I literally used to read like every month for at least two years. I was a cool kid). Uh, in order of favourite-ness, for the books:

1: Order of the Phoenix. I don't really know why, but this one has always been my favourite. That might be because my grandmother bought it for me and then died. Perhaps. I don't know why, I just love it.

2: Deathly Hallows. Well, it's the last one. I liked the different feel to it, and the fact that instead of being the trademark school-set thing, it was a sort of almost epic fantasy, but set in a modern-day environment. "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" is perhaps my favourite moment from any book, film etc. ever. Also, Snape's revealed story is lovely and tragic.

3: Chamber of Secrets. As aforementioned, I read this one constantly when I was younger, as it was the first one I properly read. I had read Prisoner of Azkaban before, but very very slowly, and I was about five at the time so paid, like, no attention to anything that happened - For example, I thought that the Fat Lady was a real woman who sat outside the common room, of whom there was also a painting.

4: Half-Blood Prince. I liked this one for the way it sort of revealed a lot - the Horcruxes and all that. Also, as others have said, the romantic aspect was a nice reminder that they're, uh, older! Also acts as a nice transition between the constant Hogwarts setting to Deathly Hallows' exploration.

5: Prisoner of Azkaban. I think perhaps the first book I owned (other than nursery books or whatever), so it's still one of my favourites. I liked it for introducing the Lupin, who was probably my favourite character from the series. I once lost this book for a couple of years! I'm not sure how, but I still remembered the entire plot in that time. How amazing.

6: Philosopher's Stone. Looking back at it now, it seems like more of a children's book than the others. It's my no means bad though! The first chapter is still one of my favourites from the series.

7: Goblet of Fire. Although it's my least favourite, it isn't necessarily bad. I always found this one a bit long and boring. Or rather, that impression's probably just stuck with me from my childhood, considering it's actually the middle length. My cpy is literally in ruins - three pieces of varying size, several loose pages, and the cover split into covers and spine.

As for the films, the fifth is probably my favourite really. I like the fight scene at the end, and the occasional newspaper montage-y bits. I also love the part where Umbridge demands that Harry tells the Centaurs that she means no harm, and he replies "I'm sorry, professor, but I must not tell lies." Genius. As for the other films, the earlier ones, although quite lovely to watch, don't have the greatest acting in the world - although that can be excused because of their age. They're still enjoyable though. The third is a good interpretation of the book, but I wasn't a huge fan of its weird spooky style. There was something about it that reminded me of old horror movies that I didn't think fitted so well. The fourth, on the other hand, had quite brilliant music and David Tennant, so it's also really good in my opinion; the sixth is pretty good as well, but I don't have anything to say in particular.

And the games? I used to adore the PSone interpretations of the first two films. They really were quite brilliant. I used to play Prisoner of Azkaban on GBA all the time; I like how it tries to be a typical RPG but still keeps the, uh, Harry Potter. I also love how you can just... explore, in the PS2 versions of Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban and Order of the Phoenix (And Half-Blood Prince apparently but I don't have that).
 
Goblet of Fire has one problem. If you read it too many times, it can get boring, compared to books like Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, Chamber of Secrets and Philosopher's Stone where it is always fun to read. Prisoner of Azkaban, on the other hand, is difficult to grasp the plot no matter how many times I read it. The story kind of slips through my mind.
 
Hay, guys, I went to Universal Studios too. I won't even try to summarize it, since my story would pale to Verne's, but yeah, it was pretty awesome. I even spent an ungodly amount of money ($49.95) on a Marauder's Map. And wouldn't you know it, I can't make heads or tails of it. I can post some pics of it soon; it is pretty cool.

I wanted to go eat at Hog's Head, but the line was like, 45 minutes long and the GIANT TURKEY LEGS they sold were really expensive anyway. Zonko's was nice, as was Honeydukes.

But, good god, the lines. Verne was not freaking kidding. We got in line for the inside-the-castle ride at about 10:30, and got on the ride at about 11:45. It was insane.

It was kind of funny to see the snowy Hogsmeade buildings when it was 107 friggin degrees out in the steamy Florida sun.

But yeah, I can answer questions about it, if anyone would like.
 
Arylett Dawnsborough said:
Personally, I agree with the idea that the movies have been getting better! But that doesn't mean I dislike the earlier movies. I like all of them, really. Even if they cut out some elements, but they do it well for the most part in my opinion. Can't expect them to include everything anyways, they've got limited time. My favourite was the sixth, because... well, I like little things they put in it. Like this one scene with Slughorn and Harry, and Slughorn has this... conversation hourglass that runs according to the quality of the conversation. Even though that wasn't in the book, I thought it was a brilliant addition. They increased the romance a bit too, which, like Butterfree said, I think was better than in the books. What? The romance in the book was betterI think a lot of the things that the movies add personally fit quite well. Things like that. Even if I would prefer that they follow things a bit more. But ah well. I must be one of the few who actually liked Order of the Phoenix. When I watched that, I was like WHOA THIS IS AMAZING. I still am, really. The scene at the end with Voldemort and Harry was very chilling, and to be honest, that whole battle at the end gave me much more chills than reading it.

Favourite books now:

1.) Goblet of Fire. Just, I think that nearly everything in this book is interesting. There's a lot of stuff going on, and it all works. It doesn't bore me for a second. Awesome, agree

2.) Prisoner of Azkaban. It's the first one I read by myself. (In the past, I was young, and my sister used to read me them, and then a teacher at school read one.) And I just generally find a lot of the Marauders stuff interesting, and Lupin is just too awesome for words. True

3.) Half-Blood Prince. I like the added touch of romance, and there's a lot of scenes that I just find highly interesting to read. This book is fun to read and Harry's a bit more mellow rather than all ANGSTY from the last book, which is always good. Also agree

4.) Deathly Hallows. SO much going all over this book. SO much. It's just... awesome that it lasts so long. I think it's a good ending to the series and I, unlike a lot of people, actually LIKE the Epilogue. I think it wraps things up well. That's probably because though I like to know what happens to characters afterwards and dislike things being left in mystery. Love the epilogue too

5.) Order of the Phoenix. Used to be one of my top favourites, until the last two came out. But it's still a really good book. When I was younger, I loved it. Although now I like it a little less for some reason. Maybe it's that Umbridge is frustrating (I don't typically "love to hate" people), I don't know. It just has a gloomy vibe.

6.) Sorcerer's Stone. (or Philosopher's. I call it that because it's what I'm used to) The first one's sort of boring in my opinion, like most introductory things. But I still find it interesting none the less. It's nice to see how much Harry's changed from reading that one.

7.) Chamber of Secrets. So. Boring. Getting through that book was... boring. I'm not sure why, but I found it highly uninteresting. Even more than the first.
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I have bold, italic and underlined the parts I agree. My notes are in bold.
 
Does anyone else think the movies are boring? I mean, really; they try to cram the entire plot into a 90-minute movie, so they skip all the fun parts. Sort of like Eragon (although saying that the Inheritance Cycle can even hold a candle to Potter is blasphemy).
 
Kammington said:
Does anyone else think the movies are boring? I mean, really; they try to cram the entire plot into a 90-minute movie, so they skip all the fun parts. Sort of like Eragon (although saying that the Inheritance Cycle can even hold a candle to Potter is blasphemy).
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I'm not sure boring is the word but I do get what you mean. Harry Potter is the only series of films that my family has gone to see each film in the series in the cinema (couldn't find a more grammatically correct way to write that sentence, sorry), and at first it was fun I guess. The first couple had a magical family film feel to them. Now though it's more like a generic action movie with magic. Action without plot is boring, and though Harry Potter does have a good plot, the fact that they cut so much out in the later ones, and/or the fact I've read the books many times before just makes it that kind of boring action to me.
 
I've never seen any of the movies because I've heard that they cut a lot of shit out and are bad as remakes of the books, but I plan on seeing them eventually.

I'd never read any of the books except the first like 2 so I decided to read them all this summer and they really are amazing. I can't pick a favorite because I love 3-6 way too much.
 
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