Entertainment Today and Beyond

The Future Lord Voldemort

by: Michael Cooper
Co-Host of Entertainment Today and Beyond Radio

The new  Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince trailer is out and has been worth the long wait!  Every moment comes off the pages of Joanne Rowlings book as we learn the origin of Tom Marvelo Riddle who transforms himself into Lord Voldemort.

By the way, I will always refer to my favorite author as Joanne since that is her name and what she prefers to be called. The “J.K.” was a creation of her book publishers because they were afraid that little boys would never buy her first book,”The Philosopher’s Stone,” if they knew it was written by a woman. And yes, I’ll admit it – I share the world’s obsession with Harry Potter. To say it’s rare when a storyline so perfectly captures the child in all of us AND reflects the adult themes of good and evil is an understatement. You really have to marvel at her imagination and the detail that went into each character.

This movie marks the return of screenwriter Steve Kloves who took a break on the fifth adaptation to the screen, which fell to Michael Goldenberg.  Kloves adaptation of Rowling’s first book is, in my opinion, the most accurate translation of a book into a movie in film history and equally as well done in Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, and The Goblet of Fire.

Michael Goldenberg’s screenplay left enough confusion for me to finally read the books, so from that standpoint it succeeded.  However, after absorbing the 800 pages of the fifth book I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix again and it just felt empty as too many key elements were not in the movie. This is going to lead to confusion for non-book readers in these final three movies. (Hint – read book 5)

I’m pleased Director David Yates returns for his second consecutive crack at Harry and his dark turn on the series perfectly reflects the tone of these books.  As Joanne Rowling has said many times, she never set out to write a children’s book, she was writing Harry Potter for herself.  The confusion with it being a children’s book is simply because it starts out with Harry at the age of 11 and the publishers didn’t know how to classify it.

Voldemort's hidding place for the Horcruxe

The plot of the Harry Potter series has grown darker as we have watched this young wizard grow up and his arch nemesis grow stronger. I’ve already read some ridiculous criticism saying this new teaser isn’t fun enough.You can always tell critics and fans who have never read one of these books! I’ve also read critics who say there isn’t enough detail in this teaser. For Pete’s sake folks, it’s a minute and a half long and it is just supposed to TEASE you… right! 
 
Another critic says about the teaser, “Well it just isn’t exciting enough if you’re not a fan of the books.” Well, genius, nearly 400 million copies of these books have been sold worldwide.  That’s well over the entire population of the United States and Great Britain. I think that gives this movie a bigger base of fans than any film in history without non-readers. Personally, if you’re a fan of the movies and that hasn’t motivated you to pick up these books – what are you waiting for? 

Something a lot of you may not realize is that the first five Potter films have made more money than Star Wars and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. In fact, all 5 of the Harry Potter movies rank in the top 20 highest grossing movies in history worldwide. The first film, “The Sorcerer’s Stone” or, as the rest of the world knows it, “The Philosopher’s Stone” (it was dumbed down only here in the States because it was determined by American book publishers that our kids wouldn’t know what a Philosopher was!) has done nearly a Billion dollars on its own.  This franchise in book and movie sales has made Joanne Rowling the richest woman in Great Britain, which says a lot considering she took the title away from the Queen of England. Not bad for a woman who was unemployed and on welfare raising a daughter all by herself back in 1991.

Dumbledore fighting the Zombie Inferi

Here’s the new trailer setting the stage for the darkest of the Potter stories yet bringing to the screen an 11-year-old Tom Riddle whose screen presence is as unnerving as the little boy who played in the Omen way back in 1976.  VIEW TRAILER

This teaser has me salivating for the film which I predict will become the biggest movie in the series to date. In fact, there is no doubt in my mind that when the final three movies are released their box office total will dwarf that of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings combined.  All is well in the world of Harry Potter!   Please enjoy the teaser and let us know how you feel!  I give this trailer our 5/5 Zombie Rating.