Expelliarmus

If you haven’t seen it, you’ve heard about it.  If you haven’t heard about it, you’ve probably been living in a cave for over a decade.  The Harry Potter phenomenon has swept the world by storm, with seven outstanding films.  Every book written by J.K. Rowling has been put to the silver screen in fantastic fashion, with the seventh book, being the last installment, split into two separate movies to fully capture the finale.  This summer, on July 15, the phenomenon will finally come to again as the last piece of the Harry Potter installment is released.

Now, if you haven’t read the novels and are a fan, you must be dying to find out how in the world the story will end.  You have watched the young Harry Potter, played by Daniel Radcliffe, grow before your very eyes into a grown wizard.  You’ve watched him battle the ever-evasive and never-present villain Lord Voldemort, played by Ralph Fiennes, for the over a decade.  This magical world depicted in the films consists of flashy shows of special effects, flying, wizardry, werewolves, and almost any other form of fantasy you can imagine.  All that remains now is the ending.

The last installment in the Harry Potter series found Harry, accompanied by Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermoine Granger (Emma Watson), dropping out of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in search of the Horcruxes that can be destroyed and make them able to finally defeat Lord Voldemort and his apprentice  Severus Snape (Alan Rickman).  Feeling like the setup movie that it truly is, the movie capitalized on the long and tiring search through the woods by these characters described by Rowling in her novel.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 put us all in the mindset of how tedious and, almost, hopeless this task is for our three adventurers.  The film then ends with the three learning that Voldemort has been searching for a wand more powerful than any wand ever created, which he retrieves at the end of the film, making their task even more miserable.

How do you make a good plot?  You introduce the characters, achieve victories and defeats, put them in the worst possible situation ever, and them show how they overcome it.  Although the first part took six books to create (not necessarily an issue because each film achieved success), we are now finally left in that hopeless situation.  Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are left to find the remaining four Horcruxes while Voldemort, who has finally shown his presence to the wizarding world, has a wand that is better than the rest.  The final installment of this series looks to show us exactly how the underdog can overcome such unbelievable odds.  With intense battle scenes, a ride on a dragon, and the final confrontation between these two rivals, Part 2 looks to be the amazing conclusion we all hope it is.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Trailer (YouTube would not let me embed this one, so here's the link).

The Fall of the Superhero Movie

Everyone has noticed it.  Recently, or at least for the past decade or so, Hollywood fell in love with the superhero movie.  Spawned by the long-awaited portrayal of Spider-Man on the big screen, movies about superheroes began to flood out of the can and into multiplexes.  Spider-Man, X-Men, Superman, Batman, Catwoman, Iron Man, etc.  In fact, this string of releases might as well have saved Marvel Comics from bankruptcy.  However, this long and very successful trend may be coming to an end.

Spider-Man was an unbelievable success, ranking in as the most successful movie opening of the time.  Spider-Man 2 didn’t do as well but still raked in the comic book fans.  However, Spider-Man 3 brought an uproar from the fans of the web-crawler, and it seemed to lose the plot line completely.  In fact, the movie franchise was shut down and is now in attempts to bring it back with a new actor playing Spider-Man.  The success of the franchise brought out awful renditions of the characters from other famous comic books, including Halle Berry as Catwoman and Ben Affleck as Daredevil.  Another rendition of Superman was released, shocking many people who thought the series would end with Christopher Reeve, and bombed, despite the casting of Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor.  As would be expected, the superhero movies began to dwindle and were found less often within the openings in the movie section of the paper.

However, that trend may find some sparks to re-ignite the fire.  This summer will see the release of more, very different superhero movies that may be able to bring the genre back from the depths.  Ryan Reynolds will star as the Green Lantern, one superhero that always seemed to hide beneath the limelight, and on the other hand, a well-known hero in Captain America will be portrayed  in a World War II setting.  And of course, Christopher Nolan will continue his epic renewal of the Batman trilogy.  Although, there is one movie, in particular, that I would like to focus on.  This movie brings back a franchise that actually never seemed to die.

The X-Men franchise may be the most successful Marvel movie franchise.  Each film seemed to have more success than its predecessor, and the trilogy ended with resolution and popular approval.  Even the X-Men Origins: Wolverine did well thanks to Hugh Jackman.  Now, X-Men First Class brings us to the beginning with both Charles Xavier and Eric Lencher, both of whom have just begun their friendship.  Depicted during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the movie brings us back to show us how the rift between Professor X and Magneto began. The trailer, itself, brings us back to images of the beloved X-Men trilogy, giving us a prologue-ish feel to the new movie.  Even though comic book fanatics may not be happy, due to the fact that some mutants are shown that did not appear in the “First Class” comic, I think this movie will do extremely well and bring the superhero movie back on top.

One Hour Ago

So…. This is like trying to save an awkward, silent conversation from sinking into the abyss.  I guess that’s what blogging is though, an endless conversation between me and you.  The question is: Are you there?  The problem with blogging is finding an audience that actually cares about what you are saying and will continually return to read, and possibly comment on, your writing.  I have to think of something so gripping, so entertaining, so riveting that this blog becomes a weekly (or daily, depending on how ambitious I get) stop on your web browsing travels.

So…This is awkward, because I’m not sure if I have that idea yet.  Therefore, I’ve decided to discuss something that I believe a lot of people can relate to: entertainment through television and movies.  However, I refuse to restrict my writing to a certain topic within those two realms.  I plan to include television shows, movies, commercials, sporting events, movie trailers, etc.  I’ll dive into all the things that are gripping today’s pop culture, as well as breaking news about upcoming films, television shows, etc.  (And unfortunately yes, there probably will be a blog or two about “The Jersey Shore”).

So…That’s my plan.  I hope to see you all again soon.  But before I go, I’ll leave you with probably the funniest, most remembered commercial of this year’s Super Bowl.  May the force be with you!