Eye update, Part II ~ Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix ~ Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean ~
July 14th, 2003Eye update, Part II
Well, to make a short story shorter … my eye healed up overnight and has been fine ever since. No sweat! BTW: The triage nurse gave me an eye exam and I am, apparently 20/20 in both eyes. That’s good to know.
I’ve finished reading Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix
That had to be one of the fastest and most enjoyable 870 page books I’ve ever read! I thought it would be hard to get through something that thick, but I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong.
In a brilliant literary style, each chapter ends with a bit of a cliff hanger, just enough to really, really get you to start the next chapter. Also, unlike the 4th book, this one had far less monologue and a great deal more action.
There was only one thing that bothered me about the book, and it isn’t even a critique of the writing. It’s Harry’s attitude during most of the book. He’s insufferable! He treats his friends harshly, rages at those that try to help him, and spends a great deal of time wallowing in self-pity. So, it’s hard to read about a protagonist who can be so self-centered and unlikable … but, that is a pretty good portrait of a teenage boy! I remember being quite insufferable myself, at that age. That’s probably why it read so uncomfortably … it hit too close to home.
Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean
Well, readers of this journal will note that I saw most of this movie with a black patch over my left eye … putting me in the mood but disrupting my ability to focus clearly. Half-way through the movie I took the eye-patch off.
The movie, itself, was OK. Not great, but not that bad either - just OK.
- The Good Points:
- Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow
very funny, very over-the-top performance, and totally redeemed this movie!
- The SFX were amazing, especially as the pirates appeared as undead skeletons in moonlight!
- The action was all swashbucklery and amazing, very cool pirate-action stuff
- The Bad Points:
- The rest of the actors were only so-so
- The plot was so amazingly predictable that there was little motivation to sit through the whole movie
- Too many of the characters were “Disney-fied” and were too good to be true … the pirate movies of my youth had a great deal more moral ambiguity some really nasty characters.
This movie is touted as the “Best Pirate Movie in Years!” … not much of an accolade as it’s the only pirate movie I’ve even heard of in years! For some reason, Hollywood has almost completely stopped making Pirate movies and Westerns … and they used to be staples. That’s too bad, because Hollywood cranks out hours and hours of total crap and could use a little bit of high adventure in the old tradition to keep things interesting.
