Some Random Thoughts

• Harry’s grumpiness in Order of the Phoenix is very true-to-life for the average 15ish male – stamping foot and saying “treat me like an adult”. The book seems to be going out of its way to express that he has good reason to be angry (and he does), but it feels rather like it’s repeatedly telling us this rather than showing it, so we – the readers – don’t feel that it’s justified.
• Even if his anger is legitimate, that’s still no excuse to take it out on his friends. There are later indications that Harry is extra angry/confrontational due to Voldemort’s nefarious influences, but by the time that idea emerges we’re already fed up with Harry’s behaviour.
• In some ways, I think this book is where I found I liked the idea of Harry Potter more than the character of Harry Potter (if that makes sense). I still enjoyed the books, but found the main character less compelling/relatable.
• It’s kind of frustrating that – of all the multitude of articles, reviews, blog-posts, etc. being written about The Dark Knight Rises, an awfully large amount of time is spent either A) explaining that it’s not as good as The Dark Knight, and Tom Hardy’s Bane isn’t as interesting as Heath Ledger’s Joker (well duh, lightening doesn’t strike twice and all that), and/or B) speculating on which version of batman is going to be the basis for the next reboot (and who’s going to be under the mask). Can’t we focus on the current film for a bit?
• Of course, it did occur to me why origin stories are so popular for superhero movies; most superhero comics are relating the adventures of pre-existing characters, and while there are plenty of plot-arcs, there’s comparatively little in the way of character-arcs. If the writer and/or the actor wants to really sink their teeth into a character, the origin story comes ready-made for character and plot development: we get to see how this ordinary person becomes the hero we all know and love. Hence the new SpiderMan movie; if we’re presenting a different SpiderMan, they feel they should present his origins differently.
• Of course, as any writer or actor will tell you, you need to know more about the character than what you give to the audience, otherwise they’ll feel flat and uninteresting (if you know everything about a character, why keep watching them).

Hmmm… turned out to be a bit more than I expected. I hope something amongst it was interesting.