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Wednesday, July 25, 2007
* Deathly Hallows */ 10:55 PM I've finally finished reading Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows. It's been a rather great emotional ride to read the book, and as a Potter fan I feel immensely satisfied. Not just that i had finally found out the ending, but also satisfied with how every little part of the story actually falls in place towards the end to form the big big picture of the last ending. Every little detail, from the first book to the last were involved... So here I am, posting a tribute to Harry Potter, as the story finally comes to an eagerly-awaited end with the sale of the (supposedly) final book. For me, my journey of reading Harry Potter books certainly was quite different from the rest. When the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher/Sorcerer's Stone came out, i was certainly not very interested in the book except that i found its book cover interesting. Then came the second book, The Chamber of Secrets. Yet again i wasn't attracted to the story. Till one day, the first Harry Potter movie came. The company that my aunt was working in, Seagate, was involved in some way for the movie's production, so the company booked the entire Eng Wah cinema in Suntec for a special premiere at that time. My aunt managed to get free tickets for our entire family, so we went to watch the movie. And I was immediately attracted to the entire Harry Potter franchise coz of the movie. So, weird to say, my Harry Potter adventure actually started coz of the movie. Then on my 14th birthday, i received an unexpected present from my 表姑 Stephanie: the 3rd HP book - The Prisoner of Azkaban. I LOVED IT! =D I had finished the book, but with lingering doubts as the 2nd movie has yet to be shown in cinemas. It wasn't before long that i went to watch it, and finally understood the story from the first book to the last. Still, as you would have found out now, i have never read the original first and second books. It's a bit of a regret, given that i had read all but the first 2 books. maybe one day i'll go find them from a library and borrow it, but get the entire 7-books set when i'm rich enough to buy it. just for collection's sake. =) As soon as i had finished understanding the story thus far, i was eager to get my hands on the 4th book. So i borrowed it from a classmate Lester, and i finished the 500+ pages book in less than 48 hours. WOW. The Goblet of Fire was the best book i've ever read! and till now i still think that the 4th book is the most interesting book among the 7. I will talk more about my personal rankings of the books later. Then as years went by, the 5th, 6th and eventually the last book were all published. So were the movies, which is now showing the 5th book. There are 2 more movies to be made. But sad to say, the movies can never surpass the book, and i can't hide my disappointment that Harry Potter movies couldn't achieve what LOTR managed; a full-length 3 hours+ movie might be the answer to making Potter movies more relevant to the book. Still, i've came up with another good explanations as to why Potter fans always feel that the book is far better than the movie. This is because when reading the book, we are allowed the freedom to imagine and intepret every scene with our own creativity. We can imagine the story taking place in our own minds, as if it's our own movie. At least the story unfold in our mind the way how we want it to.. But for movies, the story goes the way as how the director and producer sees it, and it's often altered so as to fit in the story in 2 hours of footage. We can never really be satisfied with the movies, coz it's too short and there are too many information left out. I never really liked the 3rd movie coz it was too shabbily done, though it was deliberate to fit the mood of the movie. I liked the 4th movie only because of the appearance of Voldemort, which was really nice coz i always wanted to see the Dark Lord in his full glory (pardon me, i supports Harry Potter but i can't help feeling that Voldemort's a cool character.) And now, let's talk about the last book. The Deathly Hallows. (ATTENTION: SPOILERS INVOLVED. don't read if you hasn't read the last book) I'm honestly not surprised at the ending, it's expected. But i was half-expecting Dumbledore not to be dead. All along i felt that Snape was definitely on Dumbledore's side, which was proved correct, but i had imagined that Dumbledore faked his own death. Still, he's dead after all, but at least he lived on in the book as a living portrait in the Hogwarts Headmaster's Office. At least he's there to talk to people, so we can consider him as "alive". Not too bad. haha! As for the way the story unfolded... At first I thought it was a bit too lengthy about Harry, Ron and Hermione's quest to search for the Horcruxes & Hallows. But in the end when the truth came to light, I realised that it was lengthy for a good reason. It was necessary, so as to make sure that no details were left out. Every chapter counts in the story, every little thing mattered. You can say that JK Rowling was trying to make sure there wasn't any loopholes, but to me it was necessary for her to make the quest lengthy coz it's SUPPOSED to be lengthy. Then for the way how Voldemort was finished, it came as a bit of surprise. I had expected Harry to be one of the Horcruxes indeed, but i never expected that he can die and yet come back to life. Coz the first time he "died", it was Voldemort's soul in him that died and not his. So he could be "resurrected" and eventually defeating Voldemort. That's a masterstroke from the author, i thought. What better way for Voldemort to be defeated by his own evil, for splitting his own souls by killing and eventually splitting one of his souls into Harry unknowingly. I was a bit confused about the very very last part of the story though. the "19 years later" part, coz there were too many kids and new names involved that i was a bit blur about whose kids they were. I admit that i was quite disappointed about the eventual status of Harry Potter, he didn't go on to be a teacher at Hogwarts and neither did his children knew anything about him being The Boy Who Lived, the one who vanquished the Dark Lord. I'm certainly hoping for some other books to be written, just to be devoted to the future of Harry Potter. Heard that a Harry Potter encyclopedia could be published for charity. I hope it will be for sale too, coz it's said that the book will contain information that even the story books didn't contain. I want that encyclopedia! =P So, to conclude, it has been a long journey for us readers. 7 Books, 1 Story. I've enjoyed the journey, really. Thanks JK Rowling, Thank you Harry Potter & friends. It may be just a fictional story, but it felt so real and so closely attached to the world we're living in right now. Even in my dreams, i dream of Harry Potter. Serious! It happened 3 times, as far as i can remember. I even dreamt that i was Harry himself during one of those dreams. Thankfully i didn't had visions of being Voldemort, just as what Harry himself had experienced. My personal ranking for the book (in terms of story), from best to worst: 1.Goblet of Fire 2.Deathly Hallows 3.Order of the Phoenix 4. Chamber of Secrets 5. The Sorcerer's Stone 6. Prisoner of Azkaban 7. Half Blood Prince My personal ranking for the movies, from best to worst: 1. The Sorcerer's Stone 2. Goblet of Fire 3. Chamber of Secrets 4. Order of the Phoenix 5. Prisoner of Azkaban Well, seems like all Potter fans are now left with the last 2 movies to wait for. When the 7th movie comes eventually, it may be yet another new gloom over us. But till then, let's rejoice over the triumph of good over evil in the story, and cheer for The Boy Who Lived! Long Live Harry Potter! =D |
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Profile Born in Singapore on 11th April 1989 as Soh Chun Kiat, aka CeeKay. Currently a digital media design student in NYP. Loves photography and dance, specialises in locking. |
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