Harry Potter #3

Three movies in, and I'm convinced that either J. K. Rowlings was just trying to see how much absurd craziness she could get away with in a magical world.  I'm just saying.  People can knit, clean, and stir their tea with magic, and their textbooks are literally vicious monsters that attack anything that moves and spits paper everywhere.  What kind of world is this magical realm, anyway?  I once complained that the parameters of magic in the Eragon books was too loose because everything and anything could be fixed with a spell or enough mind probing.  I, however, would argue that the Harry Potter universe takes the cake in its absurd overuse of magic.

Or maybe it's just that these movies are still geared for children?  And the juvenile nature of it is beginning to get on my nerves.

And yet...I'm still here.  Watching yet another of these darn movies.

Three movies in, I was actually looking forward to watching them.  This could be a good, meaning that the overall quality of the stories and the acting and the filmmaking are improving with each new film.  This could also be a really bad thing, meaning that I've actually started to...like them (goodness forbid!).  While this is not necessarily "bad", I'm more concerned that I will be sucked in by this deceptively innocent series.

It could also be that I'm eager to get the series over with as quickly as possible.

Or, I just want to see what kind of horrible things the Dursleys will inflict upon their charge.  This is, admittedly, a large part of why I willingly suffer through these movies, their overuse of magic, and those ridiculous Quidditch games (I don't like sports on a good day in the real world -- having to watch one or two per movie is getting a bit tiresome).  And a large factor in my final decision to watch them...

...but anyway...


CAVEATS:
Just because I decided to watch these movies does not mean that I endorse them in any way.  I do still believe there is danger here.  I still believe there are references to real world paganism woven into the stories.  I decided to watch them purely as reference material, so that I can carry on intelligent conversations about the movies with actual Potter-fans.  My decision to watch them was mine, and mine alone.  I strongly caution the rest of you to think and pray really long and really hard before deciding to watch the movies yourselves.  In fact, I would strongly advise against watching them at all.  Yeah, I know, I'm not taking my own advice.


March 6, 2016: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The Dursleys are back and just as nasty as ever.  But joining them is another relative, who is just about as nasty as they are.  Except that she takes things a bit further by openly insulting Harry's biological [and long dead] parents...

...in front of Harry...

We really can't blame him for his...outburst.  After all, who wouldn't ardently defend the honor of our parents?...unless they were manipulative, abusive dirtbags...and even then.  Thing is that Harry's outburst comes in the form of inflating the aforementioned nasty relative like a balloon and causing her to float off into the sky.  Then, as he probably should have done two movies ago, Harry packs up and runs away.

Please note that I do not condone hormonal teenagers running away from home, but neither do I condone child abuse in any shape or form.  In an ideal world, Harry should have been transferred into the protective custody of the Weasleys.  They've always been rather welcoming toward him, even going so far as to break him out of the house in the previous movie.  I may not be familiar with custody laws in England, but I see no reason why the Weasleys can't just take over protective custody of Harry.  Then he would be among his own people, people who actually care about him and all that...

But I digress.

I guess Hogwarts makes exceptions to their strict "no magic outside of school" laws for instances of self-defense or disposing of verbally abusive distant relations who were in the process of bashing one's long dead parents, because Harry isn't expelled from school as he should have been.  Instead, he heads off to school where he encounters the dementors of Azkaban, the maximum security prison of the magical realm...I guess.  Anyway, Sirius Black, a very dangerous follower of Voldemort's, has escaped from prison and may be trying to kill Harry...but, then again, who isn't?  So, the dementors have stationed themselves around Hogwarts to recapture him, whereby preventing him from getting in to kill Harry.  Problem is that whenever Harry gets within a couple feet of the dementors, they try to suck out his soul and Harry passes out.


Thoughts

This school has absolutely terrible luck with its Defenses Against the Dark Arts instructors.  It's getting rather predictable.  Whoever is coming on staff to fill the position is probably, in some way or another, related to the bad guy.  This time, it's just a werewolf who's friends with the guy who is trying to kill Harry, who are both friends of the were...rat who betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort.

These people seriously need to run better background checks on their faculty.  Just saying.

Special effects and acting have greatly improved as our three main characters enter their teens.  And I liked the story up until the whole time travel thing came into play.  Maybe I got lost because I've been writing this review while I watch the movie in real time, and therefore probably missed something important along the way.  But--

Oh, don't do this!  What's the deal with the end credits shifting from side to side?  Don't do this to me, please!  It hurts the human brain.

Anyway, time travel.  I liked the story up until Harry and Hermione go back in time and do all that stuff.  I understand it shows how Harry and Sirius were saved from the dementors, and gives us a whole thing where Harry thinks his dad which gets our hopes up too, but then it turns out to be future-Harry himself, but honestly I lost interest in the story around the time Lupin turned into a were--

Oh crap...they're doing the moving credits thing again.  I know they thought it was a cool effect to go along with the meandering footprints on the map, but it's making my head hurt.

I'll be right back, folks.

Ah, NCIS!  Much better!  No meandering end credits!

Now, where was I?

Maybe I just lost interest half-way through because I was trying to watch and review simultaneously, but the fact that I felt unengaged enough to multitask says something.  But although I was distracted, I have no desire to go back and watch it again...whatsoever.


Concerns

Reading tea leaves.  While we shouldn't be surprised that students at Hogwarts would study the fine art of reading their tea leaves, it is a reference to a real-world psychic practice.  Similar to palm reading and tarot cards, tea leaf reading is the practice of fortune telling by way of the shapes made by tea leaves in the bottom of a teacup.  Theoretically, the tea leaves will take on certain symbols that have different meanings, such as good fortune, bad luck, or imminent peril.  While the movie makes this practice look like a fun little fortune telling trick, palm reading, tea leaf reading, and tarot cards are all practices of divination, which is the occultic practice of seeking insight into the future.  And the occult is the practice of seeking knowledge of the paranormal.  In many ways, not much different than Paganism or Wicca.   


Divination also happens to be one of those things God said His people shouldn't mess with, saying, "There shall not be found among you...anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens.” (Deuteronomy 18:10), and referred to as a sin in 1 Samuel 15:10.  It has been my experience that if God says not to mess with something, it's probably a good idea to avoid it.  Because, think about it, if the power isn't coming from God (the all-powerful Creator of the universe), there's really only one other place it could be coming from (the Devil)...and since the Devil is trying so very hard to turn us away from God, he uses what power to mascarade as all-knowing, thus misleading and deceiving any who will stop to listen to him.  That is what makes divination and the occult inherently dangerous.  

It breaks my heart that such insidious darkness has been woven into what could have been a fun series.  It really does.