Dan's Webpage: Because everyone loves a farce: I Am Our Bold Hero

As of yesterday night I was off the Lortab and free to leave the house; suffice it to say that this was very good news. Over the past few days I've done some serious thinking (and went up three levels in Halo 3), but I was looking forward to the chance to talk to people other than my brother and his girlfriend.

A viewing of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres fell through, as drunk-talk plans we make at Barry's are wont to do, but my coworker Peter and I managed to meet at Pracna for drinks and a 7 pm screening of I Am Legend.

As it happens, Jubb and I had discussed the movie that afternoon, so I knew that there'd be some glaring differences between film and novella.

I've become less critical of book-to-film adaptations lately — I know this is heresy, but I enjoyed the Harry Potter movies much more than the books — and this movie was no exception. I liked it: the characterization, the setting, the surprisingly sharp pacing... I could even tolerate the end.

I'm still not sure that seeing it in a theater with loud, inconsiderate strangers was the best choice, but I don't feel like my money was wasted.

(That said, I also enjoyed I, Robot. My DVD rack is full of movies best viewed with low expectations.)

If I could've been sure I'd be in good health, I would have tried to do something more elaborate yesterday: the 15th is, after all, the quintessential Christmas Party day. So far I've put up the Christmas tree, but I haven't done any Xmas shopping and my goodwill towards men is, unfortunately, at one of its periodic ebbs.

(Certainly working on that last: without at least seasonal forgiveness it's easy to slip from "a good judge of character" to "petty-minded"... but too much forgiveness is a whole other problem. Sigh... freakin' lack of afterlife...)

There are rumblings about a New Year's Eve party; that night was a very big deal for my family when I was growing up, but as with Halloween, these days New Year's Eve seems like a holiday that needs to be saved. Katy did that last year, but with our Lawrence reunion moved to a more fitting weekend, i.e. Jubb's B-day, it looks like I'll be in the Cities for this one.

I'll see if can restart the ball rolling on Wednesday: anything so I don't have to sit through another horrifying episode of Crowned.

Nora will be in the Cities with me, and I'm guessing Drew and John will want to do something. You liked, them a little at least, right? Drinking games at my house or something or other? Bars? Always an option for you.

The Potter flicks are expertly distilled, especially after the second. The first films are on the clumsy side, particularly in the screenwriting department--I won't lay all the blame on Chris Columbus, though doubtless he deserves some--but Kloves hit his stride in the third and since has seemed more willing to play with the source material instead of parroting it. The fifth entry is the longest book but the shortest movie. Information comes quick in that film; the Daily Prophet mini-montages are especially effective.

Anyway, I enjoyed all the flicks and I agree Dan should post his opinion, but I don't know if he's finished all the books as of yet.

I'll try to get around to a post on the subject, though Joshua is correct in thinking that I haven't finished reading the series.

(I'm mortally afraid of spoilers, and so I'm very nervous about broaching such subjects when I have friends who immediately discuss how stuff ends, tell me that certain plot twists are too obvious to count as spoilers, pass off their knowledge as clever predictions, etc.)

One quick contention in favor of the books over the movies is that minor characters are much more sympathetically realized in the movie versions. Neville and the fortune-telling professor spring to mind.

You think the minor characters are more sympathetically realized in the movies? Okay, you really do need a dedicated post about this.

I have a really hard time separating the books from the movies, because the pre-knowledge from the books so heavily informs my movie experience. That said, I think that the characters are more sympathetically realized in the books---they unfold more slowly, they are more fleshed out, they stand for something besides comic relief.