Am I the only person who thinks that Harry Potter is a pile of crap?!

harry potter=

you're not alone. i gaze at the harry potter movie billboards with scorn and distrust.

I see the value of the Harry Potter books, but the movies are the worst kind of Hollywood Crap. Designed with but one purpose: to make you part company with your $$. The movie, the toys, the t-shirt, the fucking lunchbox. Eat me, Harry Potter. I'll stick to the books.

I really like the books. Though simple, they are entertaining. In have read a lot more intricate Sci-fi/fantasy, with all the made-up, hard to pronounce words, which can be hard to follow at times. Thes books are just fun, Kind of like Dr.Suess meets Tolkien.
I cant wait for the fifth installment.

I actually think the movies take away from the books, as do a lot of movies. I think the Movies are just big commercials so they can sell more toys, etc...

the stories may be a little silly and weak, and im not a huge fan, but its a very very good thing that its actually getting kids to READ.

I liked both the books and the movies.

The books I like because they're a departure from the run-of-the-mill LOTR inspired crap that 99.9% of Fantasy Literature winds up being. They're written in the Plain Style, which is both direct and poetic (psuedo-middle English drives me nuts; the language sounds formal, but it's an inauthentic formality, since most of the middle English forms we dropped--the thees and thous--are actually the informal/personal forms; and then there's Tolkien's own linguistics-textbook style which is so distancing it's almost worse). There's huge amounts of subtext in even the shortest book, and it's obvious that Rowling is putting effort into creating a world that is consistent and has an internal logic, without relying too much on deus ex machina, another device favoured by most SF/Fantasy writers (Tolkien especially; sometimes I wonder how in the hell he tricked so many smart people into reading the damned thing) to their eternal discredit. Basically I like the Harry Potter books because they draw on established tradition without being enslaved by it.

The movies are fun, no-brainers. They look good and they aren't really heavy handed compared to most "kids" films. Most of the actors do a good job, and as far as the craft of movie-making goes I think they hold they're own much better than a lot of more "adult" films. Anything Bruckheimer ever filmed springs immediately to mind.

...what fishsauce said

Yep.

-c

cherry i guess i'm wtih you since i haven't been motivated to read the books or see the movies...I have no desire to become Harry Potterized ever....

unless of course it comes on the WB (the only channel I get)...and i am that bored to sit down and watch it...just like all those damned reality shows i watch out of pure boredom...

I ranted a bit about it on another thread and people got hostile. A pleasure to see that you stand on my side for that.

The harry potter books are up there for my favourite bedtime stories. You can only read pooh and the lord of the rings so many times. They're really quite entertaining books, it's not just all hype.

I know how you feel though, I refuse to see the lotr movies and people seem to think I'm the devil.

Just popping in here to say two things-

1. I think the Harry Potter books/movies are a stinking pile of DOODIE, and I don't care who knows it.

2. I love you, Cherry.

i think it is already played out..it is just a fad, but then again thats what everyone thought about the simpsons 15 years ago..we might have to deal with mr.potter for a while.

i wouldnt say potter is sci fi...willow is!!!!!!!

Never watched either of the films or read any of the books.
Theres many finer fantasy books around for me to read instead.

No Cherry I think so

Robots are a no no in kids books cause: "She's so hot she could be a robot."

[Edited on Jan 25, 2003 by darkshade]