Well it's time to review and share thoughts on yet another great series. Perhaps not as good a series than made out to be but still a VERY good one.
Story:( don't read if you already know)
Well who couldn't know the story of harry potter and the wizardry world. Harry Potter an 11 year old boy who lives in Privet Drive with his Aunt and Uncle. His parents died when he was a baby apparently in a car crash. Little does he know that he's actually a wizard and soon he gets a letter from Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry. Many adventures await him and the books do wonderful jobs of giving detail and information and there's so much to say about the story you'll really just have to read it. It's definitely worth a look into.
characters:
All the characters are done very well, you can get a clear image and personality of all of them. I have almost no negative comments about the characters, in the books anyway, the movies on the other hand, well, that's another story.
Hooking the reader:
Well, this is a little bias because although I love the books I actually saw the first three movies before I read the books, and so the imagination part that I love so much about other books I've read. Despite that fact I still was able to enjoy the books and the sixth I think was the best but only by a little. The books do hook you but I know for me and a lot of other teenagers it could sometimes be a struggle getting through the less interesting part. For adults I'm sure it's great but for kids like me I suggest the hunger games or Percy Jackson or maybe even Earagon. At times Harry Potter felt like Narnia and that was a good series too but more meant for older people. Now I'm not saying I thought Narnia was even close to as good as Harry Potter but at times it had the same feel. The Harry Potter series was meant almost for every age group which is VERY hard to do and I give props to J.K. Rowling for accomplishing that. I could name better books in each age group but Harry Potter is probably the best well-rounded book. So this book did hook me but I could easily take breaks where as with the hunger games I found it harder. Now that's just my opinion and it would probably be different if I were older but the other books just relate to me more. Again it's been two years past since I read the books so the impact right now isn't all THAT high but they were really good books.
Length:
Well if you know me you know I always think books are too short however it's almost the opposite here. I say almost because I don't think they were too long but they were getting close. First off the printing is TINY compared to a lot of books now not for most adult books but really small. Second the first three books were a good length and if all seven were that length
I say it would be the perfect length series, but then came the fourth book. It was like 600 pages long the fifth was 700 and the 6th and 7th were both over 600 and that's HUGE compared to most books. Think about how small the print is and you're getting 3 or 4 times more than any Percy Jackson or hunger games book. Now I know it was great that they were long and it really was but normally at the end of a book I'm sad it's over and can't stop thinking about it whereas here
I was satisfied enough to put it in the past. However I wouldn't complain if the next hunger game book was 800 pages long.
Flaws:
Besides the one's I already mentioned there were little flaws, the books were great and I have mostly positive things to say which you probably already know. The only sort of big issue I had was the ending to book seven. Six was great, we found out loads and it foreshadowed the seventh, but the sixth felt happy and cool whereas the seventh always felt like they were getting the worst luck in the world and it was really dark. It takes like 300 pages before anything positive happens. But anyway I disliked three main things at the end. First there was the whole harry dies and comes back thing, now I know it was more complicated than that but really it was too religious almost for me anyway since I do not practice religion. That was a problem I also had with the Narnia. Another thing was the way they got rid of all the horcruxes. I mean it seemed almost too perfect the way they were destroyed where as before it seemed the opposite in them having no luck at all. I don't know, it just seems off for me although still it was really awesome despite the problems
I had with it and trust me I have negative things to say about everything even if I don't always show it. The last final MAIN flaw I had was that Fred died I mean I would've preferred Ron or even Harry. Fred and George were awesome and you can't kill one of them, it wasn't sad it was... I can't even think of the words. That brings me to the fact that SOOO many people died. I mean that's great but most of the deaths didn't make me feel. Lupin and Tonks dieing really didn't hit me the way I thought it would.
Romance:
Well there is romance in these books but not until quite late, at least the author didn't go for the cliche thing but I felt there could have been a little more. I felt I didn't get to know Ginny as well as I could have. Other than that it was fine. I mean I read the hunger games recently so I'm a bias right now in this department, so I won't go on as I usually do.
Movies:
Now when I first heard about the first movie I was in grade 1 and as for following the book it did a great job and so did the second. If it continued like that I would have loved the movies. Then came three, it was good but differed from the book, I don't know if was the change of directeurs or that the old dumbledore died but it just wasn't the same. By the fourth it was no where but downhill. The main hall looked WAAAY smaller and I know the book was longer so they couldn't include everything and so they did do a fairly ok job at getting the main points but at that point it became a average movie. Five and six were tragic and the sixth was my favorite book. It lacked so much that it always tried to cram details in with quick flashes and even with tat it barely had enough information. The romance was gone and you got almost none of the social stuff and I mean NONE. Ginny's romance with Harry in the sixth seemed so unreal that it almost looked forced. I hope in the Hunger games movie they really get the emotions captured right. Rue's death could be epically tragic and really moving if they go into detail and find a good version for that song. Anyway yeah the movies are meh... The first part of the seventh is released november and part two in 2011, by that time interest will be fading. They are doing two parts so who knows it may be good but seeing as how emotionless the last few were it would be really hard.
Video games:
There have been so many games and video games based off harry potter that it would take forever to go through them all. But the main video games based off the movie are actually very well done. One was ok but two and three were GREAT but they seem to differ as the second was 1 player and the third was three player which I liked. The fourth and fifth were ok and the sixth I didn't bother getting so I couldn't say. As far as movie tie-in games go these are actually fairly good. For casual gamers I recommend getting either the second or the third.
Overall:
Well there are some opinions and thoughts but I'm tired and it's been a while since I've read these do forgive this article for being not as good. I think the series was awesome but personally I think the hunger games could overthrow it with it's overpowering emotion. Please leave comments and opinions as I know I haven't covered much and check out my other articles.
Story:( don't read if you already know)
Well who couldn't know the story of harry potter and the wizardry world. Harry Potter an 11 year old boy who lives in Privet Drive with his Aunt and Uncle. His parents died when he was a baby apparently in a car crash. Little does he know that he's actually a wizard and soon he gets a letter from Hogwarts, school of witchcraft and wizardry. Many adventures await him and the books do wonderful jobs of giving detail and information and there's so much to say about the story you'll really just have to read it. It's definitely worth a look into.
characters:
All the characters are done very well, you can get a clear image and personality of all of them. I have almost no negative comments about the characters, in the books anyway, the movies on the other hand, well, that's another story.
Hooking the reader:
Well, this is a little bias because although I love the books I actually saw the first three movies before I read the books, and so the imagination part that I love so much about other books I've read. Despite that fact I still was able to enjoy the books and the sixth I think was the best but only by a little. The books do hook you but I know for me and a lot of other teenagers it could sometimes be a struggle getting through the less interesting part. For adults I'm sure it's great but for kids like me I suggest the hunger games or Percy Jackson or maybe even Earagon. At times Harry Potter felt like Narnia and that was a good series too but more meant for older people. Now I'm not saying I thought Narnia was even close to as good as Harry Potter but at times it had the same feel. The Harry Potter series was meant almost for every age group which is VERY hard to do and I give props to J.K. Rowling for accomplishing that. I could name better books in each age group but Harry Potter is probably the best well-rounded book. So this book did hook me but I could easily take breaks where as with the hunger games I found it harder. Now that's just my opinion and it would probably be different if I were older but the other books just relate to me more. Again it's been two years past since I read the books so the impact right now isn't all THAT high but they were really good books.
Length:
Well if you know me you know I always think books are too short however it's almost the opposite here. I say almost because I don't think they were too long but they were getting close. First off the printing is TINY compared to a lot of books now not for most adult books but really small. Second the first three books were a good length and if all seven were that length
I say it would be the perfect length series, but then came the fourth book. It was like 600 pages long the fifth was 700 and the 6th and 7th were both over 600 and that's HUGE compared to most books. Think about how small the print is and you're getting 3 or 4 times more than any Percy Jackson or hunger games book. Now I know it was great that they were long and it really was but normally at the end of a book I'm sad it's over and can't stop thinking about it whereas here
I was satisfied enough to put it in the past. However I wouldn't complain if the next hunger game book was 800 pages long.
Flaws:
Besides the one's I already mentioned there were little flaws, the books were great and I have mostly positive things to say which you probably already know. The only sort of big issue I had was the ending to book seven. Six was great, we found out loads and it foreshadowed the seventh, but the sixth felt happy and cool whereas the seventh always felt like they were getting the worst luck in the world and it was really dark. It takes like 300 pages before anything positive happens. But anyway I disliked three main things at the end. First there was the whole harry dies and comes back thing, now I know it was more complicated than that but really it was too religious almost for me anyway since I do not practice religion. That was a problem I also had with the Narnia. Another thing was the way they got rid of all the horcruxes. I mean it seemed almost too perfect the way they were destroyed where as before it seemed the opposite in them having no luck at all. I don't know, it just seems off for me although still it was really awesome despite the problems
I had with it and trust me I have negative things to say about everything even if I don't always show it. The last final MAIN flaw I had was that Fred died I mean I would've preferred Ron or even Harry. Fred and George were awesome and you can't kill one of them, it wasn't sad it was... I can't even think of the words. That brings me to the fact that SOOO many people died. I mean that's great but most of the deaths didn't make me feel. Lupin and Tonks dieing really didn't hit me the way I thought it would.
Romance:
Well there is romance in these books but not until quite late, at least the author didn't go for the cliche thing but I felt there could have been a little more. I felt I didn't get to know Ginny as well as I could have. Other than that it was fine. I mean I read the hunger games recently so I'm a bias right now in this department, so I won't go on as I usually do.
Movies:
Now when I first heard about the first movie I was in grade 1 and as for following the book it did a great job and so did the second. If it continued like that I would have loved the movies. Then came three, it was good but differed from the book, I don't know if was the change of directeurs or that the old dumbledore died but it just wasn't the same. By the fourth it was no where but downhill. The main hall looked WAAAY smaller and I know the book was longer so they couldn't include everything and so they did do a fairly ok job at getting the main points but at that point it became a average movie. Five and six were tragic and the sixth was my favorite book. It lacked so much that it always tried to cram details in with quick flashes and even with tat it barely had enough information. The romance was gone and you got almost none of the social stuff and I mean NONE. Ginny's romance with Harry in the sixth seemed so unreal that it almost looked forced. I hope in the Hunger games movie they really get the emotions captured right. Rue's death could be epically tragic and really moving if they go into detail and find a good version for that song. Anyway yeah the movies are meh... The first part of the seventh is released november and part two in 2011, by that time interest will be fading. They are doing two parts so who knows it may be good but seeing as how emotionless the last few were it would be really hard.
Video games:
There have been so many games and video games based off harry potter that it would take forever to go through them all. But the main video games based off the movie are actually very well done. One was ok but two and three were GREAT but they seem to differ as the second was 1 player and the third was three player which I liked. The fourth and fifth were ok and the sixth I didn't bother getting so I couldn't say. As far as movie tie-in games go these are actually fairly good. For casual gamers I recommend getting either the second or the third.
Overall:
Well there are some opinions and thoughts but I'm tired and it's been a while since I've read these do forgive this article for being not as good. I think the series was awesome but personally I think the hunger games could overthrow it with it's overpowering emotion. Please leave comments and opinions as I know I haven't covered much and check out my other articles.
