First of, if you never heard of Harry Potter in your life, or just didn’t cared, please, do take 99 seconds to look at this video, quite spoiler-free and amazing, if you already know the series:
Now, what to say about this magic saga, that seemed to be just another book series but quickly turned her author into the first person to ever become a billionaire (as far as I know) by writing books? Many things, clearly, but the principal one, however, would be that, although I truly love this series, it’s not my favorite one. By just a tad, though.
Another important thing is that, albeit not my favorite one, it was the only one whose books I read day in and day out for a good period of time, two weeks (back when I was sick and in a hospital, I had nothing else to do and had the first 3 books at my disposal, brought from home). Probably read them about 10 times each, easily, without getting sick of them at all. In fact, each time I read one, the more I liked it, the first one still being my golden gem.
I actually remember that, back then, I wanted to read them so badly after I found out about such a mysterious and fantasizing story, that my dad got me the first one and said that he would only buy me the second one when I finished reading it, afraid I wouldn’t like the series. He was blatantly mistaken, though. After all, I practically grew up with Harry and his companions, since I was about 11 years old by the moment I started on it.
Got the book by afternoon. On the early morning of the next day, I woke him up, excited about already finishing the book, and hastily made my way to the book store with him.
Look at that simple, yet nice adult cover.
The whole scenery where the story happens, both in the magical world of Hogwarts and in the “muggle world” is beautifully described, not just with rich, bright and luxurious details, but the entire surroundings are cautiously detailed in each chapter, each paragraph, not just within the characters’ encircling, but themselves as well, their diverse emotions and reactions to situations that, quite obviously, aren’t your normal ones, even in such a special place like Hogwarts. It’s truly charming how the author managed to express the diversity of personalities and make sure none of her characters (who can barely be called hers, since they do seem to have a particular life of their own, even more than in other novels) reacted out of it, since some were more mature (or immature) than their age portrayed them to be.
The actual story itself is, however, not only incredible, but also enticing. It’s far from being a child’s book (at least when you look at it as a whole), and it has this one small feature many, many series tried but failed to achieve: it matures itself with each new book. Since we’re following the story of Harry Potter, which starts without a doubt when he’s 11 years old, it may seem quite light-hearted and obvious how everything will play along during the first few books. But when we reach the fourth book, things start to take on more sinister twists, increasing with time, and not only the whole atmosphere, but the narrative itself tends to become more focused on it, getting slightly more indirect, less subjective and more emotional.
About characters death, that’s not as unexpected, since many die, in more ways than one, and this is not the first magical-based book series to do so. But I simply love the fact that it’s not just the main characters that die. If you read, and not necessarily with that much of attention, you can see right away that many characters who barely appear are portrayed and, by the end, accomplish feats and tasks with the same importance as the main ones (I take everyone with a name and more than 15 mentions as “main characters”).
What about the movies? Well, I saw the last one a couple of days ago, and I have one thing to say:
Always trust Snape!
Starting with the first one, the entire cast seemed to be handpicked in such a way that you simply cannot imagine the series being played by other actors/actresses. Their performances, needless to say, was also breathtaking, and all of the movies (… With the slight exception of Prisoner of Azkaban, with all due respect) are loyal adaptations of the series. Ranging from special effects to the soundtrack and photography, this entire series is without a doubt, if you like it even if a bit, worthy of a marathon with friends and familiars.
But I’ll be honest: Despite growing up with this (and many other series, truth be told), I did not cried copiously during the whole last movie, like many did. There were parts, however, that I couldn’t hold myself to tear up a bit, I admit. But I see no reason to cry and be so sad about “the end of it all”.
After all, if you think about it, it’s just closure to a specific part of ours (or, rather, my) life, a series that ended some time ago in its book format and just now in the film one. It’s nothing to be sad about.
If anything, life goes on and, as stated before, J.K.’s characters also have a life of their own, and so should we.
After all this time, still writing,
Arthur Müller.
Empty Encore 