Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

It might seem like a late review, but since I am currently in Grenada, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is still in theaters here and I just got back from watching it tonight. It’s OK though, I was a very late comer to the series in general, I only started the audio books this summer. This is the 6th movie in a franchise of Harry Potter films since 2001 and the first thing that is easy to notice is the amount of maturity it the visual effects over time. This is most advanced looking Harry Potter film. It helps that most of the film is cloaked in shadows and darkness, but the digital water and fire effects, things that used to be hallmarks in difficult to recreate visual effects were spectacular.

The 6th Harry Potter book along with the final book were my top two favorites from the series. I though they were the most mature and compelling of the bunch. I have not liked the films as much as the audiobooks, but a movie not living up to the original source book isn’t grounds for a bad movie. The movie itself has to be good or bad on its own (not considering the book) or better/worse than the previous movies, in my mind.

Let me just say, if you have not seen any of the preceding Harry Potter movies or books, just skip this film, as a stand alone film, my guess is that it would be extremely confusing since it does not do a great job of introducing a lot of the tertiary characters. Now, for most people, this is not a problem, because they wouldn’t go out to see the 6th film in a series without seeing any of the previous films. In relation to the other films though, I do think that this is the best of the 6 movies. There may still be a plot problem or two, like why does Dumbledore HAVE to drink that liquid, why not just dump it out?… it’s tough though since this was a problem with the source book, but there were certainly enough changes in the story from the book that solving this problem could have been done as well. The film does set up the final two films very well though.

I liked the way this film handled evolving relationship between Ron and Hermione and also that of Harry and Ginny. Oddly enough though, my favorite character throughout the films is Snape, Alan Rickman is great, even if he isn’t nearly as slimy or short tempered as his character from the books. I didn’t like his shushing Harry scene below the tower towards the end of the film (it didn’t feel like it worked) though.

Previous Harry Potter Movie quick reference dvd reviews:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – 2/5 stars
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – 2/5 stars
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – 4/5 stars
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – 4/5 stars
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – 2/5 stars

Thanks to Boopis on Garena for the above pic.

Enjoy

Dany

Apple’s New Announcements – Kevin Rose was Right

Well, it looks like Kevin Rose’s leaked rumors were true. Steve Jobs announced today that Apple was releasing a new iPod Nano (8 and 16gb versions for $149 and 199 respectively) that looks exactly like the leaked photos, that they were reducing the prices on the iPod Touch (8, 16 and 32gb versions for $229, 299 and 399) and letting loose iTunes 8.0.

I was very surprised that the leaked Nano photos were legit though, the idea that Apple is moving from flat screen displays to a curved glass display is very strange. I could understand if they only curved the metal/plastic body, but curving the glass introduces a lot more reflections into your viewing experience and if they’re heavily promoting the video experience with these new players and their newer, larger screens, this is a very odd turn indeed. Remember the glare you used to get on your old tube televisions and monitors before they all went to the more expensive flat screen models?

Now, I haven’t gotten my hands on the new Nano yet, I’ll be heading over to an Apple store to get a hands on before my final judgement, but from what I’ve heard, they’ve vastly shrunk down the thickness of the Nano to an almost wafer thin state, which sounds quite nice.

The only other major change to their lineup is that they consolidated their iPod Classic lineup by cutting out both their 160 and 80gb versions and splitting the difference with a new thin 120gb version for $249. This was surprising since the new Zune was leaked to be only 120gb, but this brings down the high end version of the iPod Classic down to that same capacity for less than a dollar more than the rumored Zune.

Thanks to Engadget for the above pic and the best live blog of the entire event today.

Enjoy

Dany

JC Hutchins Interviews Scott Sigler for The UltraCreatives

Two of the biggest podcast novelists come together in the latest episode of JC Hutchins‘ show, The UltraCreatives, where he interviews extremely interesting and… creative people in the tech community. Some of his previous amazing interviews were with Mur Lafferty, Guy Kawasaki, Jason Calacanis, but this week, he interviewed Scott Sigler! Sigler is probably THE best known podcast novelist. He has released at least five books for free as free audiobook podcasts (Earthcore, Ancestor, Infection [now called Infected], The Rookie, The BloodCast short stories and is currently releasing chapters of Nocturnal) on a week by week basis.

Sigler is releasing Infected in bookstores on April 1st, preorder a copy or 9 now at Amazon, it is totally worth supporting a great author who understands his fans and who keeps releasing great stories.

Thanks to Tee Morris for the above pic. Also, get JC Hutchins‘ novel 7th Son here.

Dany

Escape Pod – Homecoming at the Borderlands Café

The story published in the most recent Escape Pod (a science fiction story publisher) called Homecoming at the Borderlands Café is about a half hour long and extremely interesting to listen to.

It’s based on an alternate reality where the conservative American Confederacy had been successful in seceding from the American Union, but enough time has passed after the sececesion that there is no more slavery… but there are other problems (on both sides of the border).

The story as well as a subscription (or just get it through iTunes here) to the weekly publishings are free to listen to. These are great short stories. Take a few minutes and check it out.

If you enjoy this story, you’ll also want to find the little known movie C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, a movie with a similar theme, just with slavery still intact and where the Confederacy won the Civil War.

Thanks to Maximum Fun for the above pic.

Dany

December Brings Tin Man

iwatchstuff continually unearths interesting tidbits and this is no exception. It seems that as a midseason replacement, scifi channel will be premiering a new show based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

With this new iteration of a classic story, it looks like they have tried to make the story fit the generation with the shortest attention span, with quick cuts, striking visuals and turning the classic and well known themes from the original story on their heads, calling OZ the Outer Zone and having characters abbreviate it as The O-Z (like the show, The OC).

The show looks interesting (maybe even creepy, with Richard Dreyfuss as the Wizard… er the Mystic Man), Alan Cumming is always fun to watch and I loved Zooey Deschanel in Elf. Watch and see for yourself though.

Dany

Also, if you wanted to listen to the audiobook of the original story, you can get it through iTunes over here or you can just get it here.