First I just want to say thanks to everyone who wrote a comment or sent an e-mail expressing support or concern after I shared the story of my hand injury last week. I’ve always maintained that Theater Hopper fans are some of the most courteous, supportive and understanding fans in all webcomics and your words encouraged me to get back on the horse that much faster.
That said, a few of you were teasing me a little bit when it came to my hand injury being similar to that of Shia LaBeouf’s while he was filming Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. A bit of karma played against me for giving the actor such a hard time in the past.
It’s cool, it’s cool. While my injury was nowhere near as serious as LaBeouf’s, turnabout is fair play, I suppose. I gotta give LaBeouf credit, though. He showed up for work with his injury. I don’t know if I would have done the same.
Then again, if a $200 million action sequel were resting on my shoulders and Michael Bay could provide a kevlar cast that looked like skin, I’d probably find the proper motivation to go back to work.
A few of you suggested that I write my injury into the comic. While I recognized that it would be therapeutic to do so, I wasn’t sure how to go about doing it. Then I got an e-mail from one CP Newcombe who gave me a nugget of a great idea. Immediately upon reading it, I could think of at least five different directions to take the storyline. So you have CP to thank for this next little story arc that not only bring Shia LaBeouf back into the Theater Hopper, but another long-lost character once thought dead. Who could it be? You have to wait to find out!
I things that are not hand-related, Cami and I saw Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince over the weekend. Cami didn’t like it because she felt the film took too many liberties with the book and was hard to follow. She recognizes that certain changes had to be made to adapt the book to the screen, but was ultimately disappointing.
I, on the other hand, was perfectly happy with the movie and I attribute much of that to the fact that I’ve never read a single Harry Potter book.
I tried reading the first book before the first movie came out, but I found Rowling’s use of language too impenetrable and annoying to bother to continue. It’s all the made up words. They distracted me.
So, as a result, my exposure to Harry Potter has occurred exclusively in the domain of film. Aside from the fourth movie (which I thought was horrid), I’ve enjoyed them all so far.
I suppose now that I’ve had some time to get away from the movie a little bit, there were some things about The Half-Blood Prince that bothered me. Certain revelations that should have a large impact simply don’t shock the way they should and there’s a little too much hemming and hawing over the multiple romantic subplots to keep the tension going.
Something I’ve noticed about the last few films is that their visual tone has become darker and darker, but the plot elements don’t always match up to this. Things should be getting deadlier and more serious for Harry, but the films seem to force this balance with the light stuff which then feels out of place.
I know Joe had some pretty strong opinions on the movie, so I’m sure we’ll debate these issues and more on tonight’s episode of The Triple Feature. I strongly encourage you to listen live at 9:00 PM CST. You can participate in the chat field with the other listeners and we always have a lot of fun. Plus, you get to the listen to the behind-the-scenes stuff before and after we record the show. I’ve been told by some it’s the sole reason they listen to the live broadcast.
Hope you can fit us in tonight and that everyone has a great week. Thanks again for all your support and I’ll talk to you soon!
He sent me to the emergency room to get 11 stitches in my hand!
Dude, that's so crazy!
It's just like how they dressed up Shia's hand injury for Transformers 2!
Yeah, yeah!
The irony IS kind of funny...
...IF IT WEREN'T A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY, YOU IDIOT!!!
Wow, I really wasen’t expecting a comic from you so soon. Great job!
Hey Tom, glad to see you back at it so quick. Hope the hand gets better soon.
Anyway, I saw Half-Blood Prince Wednesday night. I’ve made it a practice NOT to re-read the books prior to the movies, since the two are separate entities in my mind. That said…MINOR SPOILER ALERT AHEAD…
…Was it just me or did the last 30 minutes or so of HBP seem to be a condensed version of The Empire Strikes Back? The whole “I am the Half Blood Prince” line and the final shot of Ron, Harry and Hermione looking off onto the horizon seemed to seal the deal for me.
==TJ==
Hello Tom, great way to combine the comic with life. Funny, realistic and continuing a story arc. Nice combo.
As for the Harry Potter films. One of the on going difficulties with the series is the complexity of the books as the series expanded and the time limitations that film sets on the storytelling. I had expected that this book was going to be split into two movies from rumors that circulated in the Autumn when the release date was pushed into July. Thinking that I was waiting for the break while watching the movie this weekend.
There were a few points where the director could have finished a few of the plotlines and left the two big scenes at the end for a second film. Yes it would have been irritating to have to watch two movies but the developement of the dramatic and romantic plot lines could have been handled in a less streamlined way.
In the beginning I felt the Dark Wizards were a bit of a threat but the end of the film has the threat pushed by so quickly it does not resonate to me how dangerous these people are supposed to be.
Please be aware this next line has some spolieryness
In the book one of the things that makes the end event so dramatic and for people into the series “emotional” is the real danger that the Dark Wizards bring to Hogwarts when they arrive.
There is a huge battle and people are hurt and even killed. Yes this is very dark but it is how the book plays out. The movie just has a bit of vandalism and then they run away. It diminishes the real danger that the Dark Wizards present to the charaters that have developed in the books and films.
There are difficult times in the movie and people are threatened but there is no danger since no one is seriously hurt. (Dumbledore and emotions aside)
It was a fun movie, it was a quick movie. Even at three hours it was barely enough.
Re: Harry Potter I have to agree with the comments here. The two worst aspects of the movie were the complete failure to really build up the plot around the identity of the half-blood prince, so the reveal was really meaningless when it finally happened. And two, as Bryan noted, the complete failure to close the book properly. The viewers were left with a very inaccurate impression of events, and the real danger of the death eaters.
Having never read the books, I’ve been going along with the movies just fine up until this point. But I felt like this one was specifically a ‘fans only’ kind of movie, because I’ve really only been keeping up for the Harry vs. Voldemort angle. Everything else is unimportant to me. So going into this one to find half of the movie dedicated Ron’s love triangle, that does absolutely nothing for me, except feed my anxiety over the whole Voldemort thing. “Come on, guys, isn’t there something MORE important you should be doing right now???” I walked out of the movie pretty cold, all things considered.
The worst part was that I got dragged out to a midnight show. So I sat there in a room full of fans simply enraptured by what they were seeing, and all I could muster was a constant “get on with it already”.
I guess you could say that my whole problem with it was an expectation thing, and that’s probably true. However, as far as I’m concerned, the film did not deliver what the trailer promised: intensity.
Frankly, I too could do without the teenage romance angles, except that I compensated (and thus, angered my wife who’s a book fan) of doing little “Getting jiggy with it dances” in my seat at the theater.
One thing that Lord of the Rings always had over the Potter movies was the sense of urgency. The problem with these flicks is that they trod along and somehow get spaced over the course of a school year. I’ve always been under the impression that evil’s schedule isn’t dictated by a school calendar.
I should have commented on your hand post on Friday but I was a little shocked. It’s not the sort of accident you’d expect. I hope it heals soon.
As a fantasy reader I’ve tried to pick my way through the Potter books and each time I’m amazed at how popular they got. They’re a little too childish in places, plagiarising in others and the rest of the time sloppy (made up names as you pointed out). The films feel the same but are watchable, unfortunately they feel over drawn now. the indevidual films too long and combined far too repetitive
As a side note I thought Luna Lovegood’s shaggy coat at the Quiddich match was great. I have always felt the costuming in this series is exceptional.