Harry Potter

[Emmie]

So has anyone else read the series? Any favorite books, characters or scenes? Any comments on the books in general?

I think I mentioned this in my introduction thread, but I used to be quite into Harry Potter myself - it's the entire reason that I learned to create websites and forums, and to some extent it's also one of the reasons I started writing fiction for fun (fanfic).

I actually don't think it's written all that well from a technical standpoint - way too many adverbs, for one thing - although, there are certainly bestsellers that are written much worse. I also hated the way the last book ended.

Still, I think the characters and setting are both well done, and it's a pretty epic story. And for some reason the style made people obsess over it in between book releases in a way that hasn't been replicated since. :p There used to be a seriously ridiculous number of large fansites devoted to it. I have a theory that part of this popularity is due to the predictable, appealingly-one-dimensional characters, but who knows. I suppose it didn't hurt that there were seven books in the series instead of the more typical three.

Anyways: my favorite book is probably Prisoner of Azkaban, followed by Goblet of Fire. (I haven't picked up a HP book since Deathly Hallows came out, but I ought to go re-read PoA and GoF now that a few years have passed...) Favorite characters would be Snape and Hermione.

[Elven]

I really do love these books but I'm afraid I don't rate the films at all. I also feel JK Rowling copped out with the final epilogue. It would have ended better on the last chapter and I'd have been satisfied. :)

[Emmie]

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the movies myself. The first two just didn't feel like they were that well made to me (and why the heck did they change the Forbidden Forest to the Dark Forest, anyway?). The third one was an improvement, though by that time I wasn't as fangirlish about HP in general.

[Elven]

Part of the problem for me was that when I first started to read the books, they were pretty unknown. By the time the movies came around, there was this huge fervour over the Harry Potter universe in general and I couldn't quite acclimatise.

I'm also anal enough about details to be annoyed that Harry's eyes were blue when the books made such a huge deal of them being green. Little things like that really irked me - not to mention the MASSIVE PLOTHOLES that occurred, particularly in film 3.

I also don't rate most of the main child actors. Ron Weasley and Luna being the best by a very great margin.

[Crichton]

At first I hated the books, you know, in the times of Potter Boom. Everyone read it then and I just hated the way they promoted it everywhere. Three years ago I took the books and started rewading and I really liked it. I just don't like the last book, too boring.
I think I prefer darker side of Potter, I found good guys very flat and dissapoiting while Death Eaters ar far more interesting. Maybe dark Lord is predictible and so evil it hurts but his history in Half Blood Prince was very deep and intriguing.

[Emmie]

I also don't rate most of the main child actors. Ron Weasley and Luna being the best by a very great margin.
Yeah, I think part of the reason I liked the third movie more is that the actors were getting a little better. And I also didn't notice the plot holes, although I never really looked for them.

[PiRaTeGiRl]

I liked the first and the second Harry Potter movies! The fifth movie was great too! About the books: I love the third one the best, as well as the second and the first! ;)

[Sowen]

Harry Potter?

Well, as a Tolkien fan I was not as much prejudice to it as many of Tolkien fans who I knew..Like Twilight I've read it to have my own view...I must say that I have mixed feeling about it.
I found Rowling as not innovative person. She based on many old stories and copied many of previous ideas.
In Edinburgh there is even a shool which I was told was inspiration for Hogward (well it's not bad thing mayby to have an insiration). I was also disappointed of the last part of HP. After so many interesting events the last part was definitely insufficient...

Anyway, time for a good side - she created world and places where many of us want to live/study, it definitely improves imagination of milion kids and adults(even my dad had read and enjoed it!)...friendship and adventures are appealing..I like also the way she write and construct the plot - it's clear and quite absorbing.

I would say that the my favourite ones are "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" as you enter there into the magic world of Hogwart...and also "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix".
I enjoed also all the movies (scenography is really good!) - except the Half-Blood Prince - I felt watching some harlequines for teenagers. Hopefully lat part will be better!

[Shahdai]

Yes, I like the series very much. I think Harry Potter was to me as a child, what Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit is to me as an adult. And althought I find my taste for them considerably waning as the years go by, I still think they're still enjoyable enough. As far as the films, I cant honestly say that I care much for them, I will most likely go see the last two, but after that, I think HP will be something that's tucked safely back into my childhood. As for my favorites books; you and I seem share the same taste in them Emmie. Its an even split between "Harry Potter and the Prisioner of Azkaban" & "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" for me as well. My favorite charactes are Albus Dumbledore and Remus Lupin.

[Éored]

I remember how I used to love Harry Potter with my heart and soul and used to furiously defend it with everything I had when anyone had a go at it :-) Those were young days. I somehow got over Harry Potter a couple of years later, and I remember feeling lost when that happened. It was later that very year that I stumbled upon the works of Tolkien, and became a huge fan of both the movies and the books. However, I lost virtually all the respect I had for J.K. Rowling as an author when I realised that she had no originality of her own, and had merely ripped off Tolkien's much finer, more amazing, artistic, original, beautiful works. I have not forgiven her to this day, and will never do so. She had her own virtues, of course, but they pale to almost infinite degrees when compared to Tolkien. I suppose all Harry Potter is to me now is a reminder to never write a fantasy story unless I am going to compete with and defeat the king of all fantasies. And by this, of course, I mean Tolkien.