Harry Potter and Underrated Characters

Theater release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (sadly, not 3D) gives me the perfect excuse to write about, well, Harry Potter. I guess I am a bit of an huge original book series fan, so I felt disappointed by some of the film adaptations. The reason? The fact that a majority of rather minor characters that I love did not make it to the film, or got the screen time they deserve. The real-world issues, such as budget and overall running time of the movie, are pretty understandable. After all, we don't have goblins running our bank. So to shed some light on those lovable side characters, I'm doing a super-biased list of my favorites. In no particular order, because hey, I love them all. By the way, there may be spoilers, so if you're not caught up with your issue of the Daily Prophet, read at your own risk. I'll try to not spoil what happens at the very very end, though.

1.  Neville Longbottom
I seriously have no idea why his role got super downsized in most of the film adaptations. He's the "mirror" of Harry. If Voldemort didn't pick Harry, Neville would have been the chosen one, and I'm certain he would have been just as great. He does start off as "that rather dorky kid" but he definitely has his super shining kick ass moments, especially in the end of the Deathly Hallows. So really, why is he always holding some cactus plant and being sort of useless in most movies? Sure, the dude knows his Herbology, but he doesn't have to be walking around with some random plant all the time...

2.  Dobby
First off, Dobby is adorable, not annoying. He may not look like My Little Pony and have rainbows coming out of his nostrils, but that's rather shallow standards for the definition of adorable. He should totally get the screen time he deserves. Besides, the mental image I got going for my Dobby is about hundred times cuter than what the special effects people came up with. :)

3.  Tonks
Let's see. Auror. Member of the Order of the Phoenix. Got pink hair but can change hair color (and looks, in general) at will. Sort of clumsy. What's not to love about her? Not to mention, she married my favorite Defense Against the Dark Arts professor of all times. She rocks! I wish her role was more true to the book (aka more screen time!) in the Half-Blood Prince.  

4.  Fleur Delacour
I started off with a neutral "eh *shrug*" feeling about her, because in the Goblet of Fire, she was like your typical super gorgeous girl who gets all the guys, your super secret crush included. But I have to say she did a 180 in the Half-Blood Prince. I love that scene that takes place after Bill Weasley, her fiance, is seriously injured by a baddie-werewolf. Pretty much everyone thinks that Fleur is pretty shallow, only loves Bill for his good looks and now that's all messed up, thanks to the werewolf, and will call off the engagement. Our girl proved everyone wrong by sticking by her fiance. Not every good looking girls are shallow bubble-heads, people. That scene was so touching, it's a shame it didn't make it to the movie.

That's a wrap! Now, I'm going to go get me some magical sweets at Honeydukes. ;)

xx-N

You may be a Figure Skater IF...

To celebrate the (very delayed) beginning of figure skating season, the "you may be a figure skater if..." list is on! For those who don't follow figure skating as religiously as I do, the season begun about a month ago and goes on until March of next year (roughly). I hope the non-followers of the sport get the joke as well as the followers. :)

By the way, figure skating is that ice skating sports where you wear this shoes. Just so there's no confusion with that hockey shoes of terror.

1.  You hear a favorite song and starts to mentally map out the choreography...
2.  and design the costume inspired by the song.
3.  You love the smell of the ice.
4.  You love the chilly temperature setting at the rink, only if you're the one skating (otherwise it's just freakin' freezing in there).
5.  You dread skating on the same rink with 100+ other hockey shoes, because hockey blades create numerous ditches on ice, consequently trapping figure skating blades. argh.
6.  You don't think it counts when someone says "I can ice skate!" and promptly pulls out a hockey shoes, and can only skate forward. Here's the analogy...Hockey Blade: Figure Skate Blade = Cardboard: Notebook Paper.
7.  You get too worked up when figure skating don't get the TV coverage it deserves, and none of your friends get it.
8.  You have developed a secret crush on figure skaters more than once.
9.  You heard "Carmen," "Masquerade," "Concierto de Aranjuez" and Phantom of the Opera mashup one too many times.
10.  You would love to see someone bold enough pull off a "Single Ladies" program, complete with that Beyonce choreography. Any takers? It would be legendary!
11.  You come back with 10 or more bruises on your legs/other body parts and you just shrug it off.
12.  In the earlier days of skating, you have smacked your head on ice more than you should and wondered why people around you are so freaked out.
13.  You hear The Man In the Iron Mask soundtrack and immediate think of that fantastic program by Alexei Yagudin at Salt Lake City Olympics.
14.  For someone who plays sports, you have zero accumulated sun damage. Word.
15.  You love clothes that sparkles. Come on, it's the only kind that stands out on ice!
16.  Sometimes, you feel like Cinderella (minus Prince Charming) trying to find that perfect shoes that fits. Also...
17.  It irritates you when non-figure skaters don't understand that your skating skill drops exponentially when skating with the shoes that doesn't fit...
18.  or blades that aren't sharpened.
19.  You can't purely enjoy watching those figure skating flicks because chances are, there are about 20 things that are just blatantly incorrect.
20.  You read through this list and actually understood what I wrote. ;)

By the way, the Grand Prix Series is at its fourth competition, Skate America! Gotta go get my skates on!

xx-N

PS: I have nothing against hockey; in fact, I do enjoy watching the sports. Although, I may be slightly biased towards figure skating because I do figure skate. :)

All Hallows Eve Movie

You know, Halloween is pretty awesome. It's the only time of the year where you can get skull motifs at almost any store. Not to mention, candies go on sale and you get to be someone else. Also, it's the time of the year where horror movie characters gets the spotlight. So to honor that, I've put together a must watch psycho-thriller movie (with a horror-ish touch) list. For example, Usual Suspects is a great thriller movie, but it's not that scary. FYI, I don't care much for movies that makes you sit through 2 hours of random dude with chainsaw/sickle/other bladed weapons that would draw immediate attention if caught running around with, chasing after some not-so-bright people whose weapon of choice is nonstop annoying screaming. Yeah...I'll leave that for some other horror flick lists. One last thing, I think it goes without saying that movies on this list are probably all rated-R's. Kids, go watch Casper or Harry Potter.

1.  Silence of the Lambs

Sorry to be totally predictable and all, but this movie is that good. Won the Oscar, too. Speaking of which, since when did psycho-thrillers stop being on the Academy Awards fave list? I don't think I've seen one take home an Oscar recently.

2.  Hannibal

Being a Thomas Harris fan, it's inevitable for all four Hannibal Lecter movies to make this (somewhat biased) list. Did you know that the ending of the Hannibal-the-movie is completely different from Hannibal-the-book? Usually I get pretty disappointed when a plot is drastically changed, but the change in the movie was so well written that I actually liked both endings.  

3.  Seven

2 words: Total. Classic. Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman are pretty awesome, but *bleep* does some fantastic job as a *bleep*.

4.  Shutter Island

Is the ending really what it seems? or is there more to that? For the ending to be that straightforward, there're serious plot holes, which means that there's more... High five to you if you can crack it.

5.  Hannibal Rising

Who wants to know how Hannibal became, well, the Hannibal we know? If your answer is yes, this is the movie to watch. Every villain you develop a love-hate feeling has a good character development. Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter just have that.

6.  Red Dragon

This movie probably has the least Hannibal Lecter appearance, but still a great thriller movie. I would say it's worth watching.

7.  Identity

A mixture of And Then There Were None and The Minds of Billy Milligan. I bet you won't guess who the mastermind is...

Sidenote -- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Tim Burton: check. Johnny Depp + Helena Bonham Carter: check. Sacha Baron Cohen as Italian barber singing with superthick Italian accent: check. Great art direction: check. Highly recommended for those who can stomach (mostly) Johnny Depp singing while splattering gallons of fake blood and can handle some serious black humor. If you're going to watch it, I hope meatpie isn't your favorite dish. ;)

Happy Halloween!

xx-N