The Beginning…
…of the semester in UTP kicked off with a cinema trip on a Sunday night,
11 days ago. The movie: Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix, the company: Ed, Chris & Alan. While I entered the hall with a non-existing sense of anticipation (every other summer movie seem to matter less after the 2 satisfying Transformers experiences), it was cute to see many children among the audience, as annoyingly noisy as they might be. Coming out of the hall after that, if I were to choose careful words to sum up the movie, they would be: "It could have been better", which pretty much sums up every other Potter movie as well, doesn’t it (perhaps, with the exception of Prisoner of Azkaban)? I applaud David Yates’ awesome effort in condensing a huge & tiresome book 5 into a good movie (yes, it wasn’t a bad movie, it was pretty good actually), but like any other disgruntled Potter fan out there (including me), 
"I wish they could have done this, done that.." keeps running at the back of my head.
Taking out all the unnecessary scenes from the book made this decent entertainment. But I guess that final battle (which was of course the highlight of both the book & the movie) mirrors what my overall feeling of the movie is. Started off well enough, especially when the Order of Phoenix members apparated (or smoked in, rather, in this movie) in super-cool mode into the Ministry of Magic. But then they started squaring off with the Death Eater blokes with smoke blocking everything, & before knowing it everything was over. Which was saddening, I wish the battle was more climatic, especially to justify the wordy first 1.5 hours of the movie.
At least the battle between Voldemort & Dumbledore was quite exciting. Michael Gambon remains laughable as Dumbledore, though much better in this movie (at least he doesn’t bark unnecessarily or start his weird gamboling like he did previously). 
Cho Chang was also another sour point; Katie Leung remains a colossal disappointment. Radcliffe is still trying hard to act, Emma Watson remains excellent (though overacting at times) as Hermione, & Jason Isaacs looked impressive in a bigger role this time, as impressive as Gary Oldman’s Sirius Black appearing everytime like a rock god (though his death scene was too abrupt). I am, of course, in love with the Hermione from both the books & the movie, & though I reaffirm that Emma still is way too beautiful to be the book’s Hermione, my heart softened when I saw her in a scene laughing at a joke she just made, with her hair all tied to the back. Okay, I think I’m going off topic here. Another good thing I noticed was the number of exact lines they took from the book; the Hermione line "Just because you have an emotional span of a teaspoon" was always 1 of my favourites. However, the best thing that came from this movie were definitely the new fantastic additions to the cast.
Imelda Staunton was spot-on as Umbridge (though Umbridge’s irritating "hem hem" was less noticeable in the movie), Evanna Lynch was amazingly the Luna I imagined, Helena Bonham Carter was great as the mad Bellatrix Lestrange & the biggest surprise was Natalie Tena as Nymphadora Tonks, with an edgy cool punk look in her expression that suited her colourful hair, making me wish she was given more screen time. Speaking of that, I felt that they could have fleshed out a little more of Ginny to show the fun, naughty & rebellious nature she was adapting in the book (well, at least they showed her powerful "Reducto!" curse). To say this was a perfect movie would be stretching, but it’s definitely up there alongside Azkaban.
The next few days of last week were filled with Orchestra practice, where we were training morning, day & night for the UTP Symphony Fest Concert this coming Saturday. Aside from that, with my iTunes playlist reaching 16507 songs, Engineering Team Project was constantly on my mind, & after my group had our 5 initial topic proposals rejected by the coordinators, we finally came up & settled with the idea of a Smart Electrochromic Car Window System as our project & asked Mark Ovinis to be my group’s supervisor, although this was only the start of hell. & on Monday, 4 days back, 3 hours of Vibration from 8am to 11am marked another beginning, the beginning of my 3rd year in UTP. Monday ended with 2 Fluid Mechanics II report assignments (2 pages minimum each) being assigned to us.
The End…
I am referring to, of course, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, which marks the final book on the Potter phenomenon. 
Was in the middle of orchestra practice last Saturday morning when mom’s sms informed me of how major bookstores like MPH & Popular were withdrawing the sales of the books in protest to Tesco & Carefour selling them for only RM69.90, as apposed to the actual selling price of RM109.90. Well, what else? I quickly messaged Fu Shen, who was on his way to Tesco, to help me get a copy as well. *Spoilers ahead* I surprisingly took a much longer time to finish the book this time, especially got stuck in the middle during the part where Harry, Ron & Hermione were seemingly just moving from 1 place to another while complaining about what to do. & though I wasn’t thoroughly impressed by the middle section of the book, the action-packed beginning (with Mad-eye dying) & the satisfying revelation at the end made up for it. The biggest surprise was Harry surviving, & exactly as I predicted, Snape was revealed as a pivotal central character, & his entire journey till he met his end was just so sad. I’m also glad Rowling made Dumbledore flawed & more human in his background story. The death of Dobby hit me the most this time, while Tonks’ & Lupin’s were too sudden. Fred’s & Colin Creevey’s were perhaps a tad unnecessary. The last few chapters, though confusing & unclear at times, did enough justice to end Harry’s journey. However, the epilogue was a little disappointing; a touch on Luna, Hagrid, George & the rest of the Weasley family, & even the Dursleys, would have made it much better. Best line of the book? Molly Weasley’s shocking but delightful "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!".
& so this was the end, the end of the bewitching & extraordinary Potter experience for me. No Potter movie would match what any Potter reader would experience from the books. & for this simple reason, I send my deepest "thank you" to J.K. Rowling for introducing to us the magic of her 7 books, for Hogwarts, for flying broomsticks like the Firebolt & Nimbus, for moving paintings on walls, for Diagon Alley, for the Room of Requirement, for Patronuses, for Quidditch, & yes, for Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, whatever you imagine them to be.
Conversation vocab of the day: "Inquisitive" (got it from Angie).
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