(PoA review #2!)

I saw noblerot's great review and dear Maya's priceless take on things and well-- virtually everyone's review is... more of a review than I feel capable of. I'm too close to this movie, and my eye for detail and whatever analytical zeal I possess is overwhelmed by the sheer overwhelming emotion of seeing (especially huge, in IMAX).

The funny thing about movies is that soon enough, people come up with virtually every viable interpretation. I think it's 2 days later, and people have already pretty much said everything there is to say. Which I suppose says something, I'm not sure what, because the book itself could provide -months- of discussion material, I think.

In the end, I believe a review of a Harry Potter movie is pointless, because most viewers are fans, and thus won't be watching it in the same way they'd watch a "normal" movie. Everyone was -looking- for something in this movie, I think, and its success depends heavily on whether or not they found it. I was looking for Harry.

Well, he's there :D

( Actual attempt at review, this time. Still less than coherent and rather painfully rambly. )

~~

( This is mostly my pre-second-viewing thoughts, after talking to Sister Magpie who hadn't seen it yet. heh. Toooo much meta, man, hehehe. )

~~ (an appalling lack of) defense

I want to defend movie!Harry here & here & elsewhere the same way I'd want to defend any Harry (except some of Maya's incarnations, heh-- 'cause duuuude) but I don't think it would ever really come out right. I don't think "defending" any character really works in the end. People like (or don't like) other people, whether or not they're fictional, for a variety of idiosyncratic reasons that often have to do with who -they- are rather than who the character is, though I think there's three major types of perceiving a character.

You can identify (empathize) with them, you can sympathize with them, or you can reject them as being severely deficient as human beings, whatever's important about human beings by your judgement.

I think I dislike the idea of judgement, even though naturally, I practice it just like everyone else does. I dislike the idea of holding a character up to some standard or other, even if it's some bright and shining, egalitarian standard of righteousness. Once you start organizing people according to a social ideal of whatever sort-- that is, seeing them as representations of a greater (either oppressed or oppressive) group, I feel you immediately lose sight of them as human beings-- both right and wrong, ugly and beautiful, likable and eminently hatable. Everyone's someone's antithesis-to-all-they-hold-dear, most probably.

Oh yes, subjectivism rules :> But! Even that is a socially-judgmental statement which could lead me to condemn someone if I'm not careful-- like, someone who pushes their pov as uber-objective for instance, and I hesitate to do that. Maybe I'm just ultimately waffly.

Harry often seems to be supported by "the System". If the system is bad, does it therefore follow that whatever opposes "the System" is good? That would seem to be a logical fallacy. And anyway, who's to really decide what's bad and good? Except for the realistic fact that if one group leaves power, another group with usually either more or different "issues" will rise to said power.

Hello, my name is Reena and I'm an optimistic fatalist :>

I do have my own opinions on what's bad and good, whatever I say about the subjectivity of all stances, of course. Ultimately, I think one's inner heart (and the presence or absence of "goodness" therein) is a matter of faith, nothing that can be proven or disproven by action or visible emotion alone. A good writer can show this inner heart through use of subtlety and some direct insight into a character's conscious & unconscious mind, and an even better movie can imply this inner heart through an actor's (easily misunderstood or unnoticed) expression, tone or body-language, coupled with others' reactions and possibly lighting & scenery.

Even so, one's understanding of another person, whether in movies or in books, depends on our own sensitivity & wisdom in judging people, and this, I feel, one can never be really confident about. So I just fall back on repeating my mantra: Harry = <3, Harry = <3 :D

( That said, helpless, hopeless spoilery bit of Harry-defense. )