Heart is an Awesome Power

My mom took me to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two today. This is the start of the two-week celebration that is my birthday; Mom likes to stretch these things out and I'm gonna let her.

Note: SPOILERS for anyone who has neither seen nor read Harry Potter through to the end... if there are any left.


Now, I'm a fan of these stories. I've watched those kids grow up with their roles and some of them have grown as actors to the point that if they can get past the inevitable typecasting, they will be absolutely wonderful. All of them have matured well enough to play almost anything, but the two I see as "most improved" are Matthew Lewis (Neville, who really comes into his own in this movie, as much as or more so than he does in the book) and Tom Felton (Draco, who manages to play as more than the angsty teen anti-villain he is in the books). These two were especially good.

And the adults... I knew they were good casting from the first movie, all of them, really, but especially Snape. But when Molly Weasley uttered her immortal B-bomb and destroyed Bellatrix Lestrange, I cheered (one forgets that she's just as brave-and-true Gryffindor as anyone else), and when Minerva McGonagall (played by the incomparable Dame Maggie Smith) set up her Substitutiary Locomotion spell (or whatever it was called) I was thrilled (although a little surprised at her trying a new spell at that point in the battle).

One thing that was all through the books and the other movies that I hadn't noticed until this movie was that the usual colors for good and evil were reversed. Generally speaking in the fiction I'm read (or seen), red is for Bad Guys - your Toraks, your Sith Lords - and blue or green is for the Good Guys - your Belgarions and Jedi Knights, with some variations into other cool colors. But here Red and Gold is Gryffindor Good, and Green and Silver is Slytherin Evil. Now, it's a plot point that Slytherin does not always equal Evil, any more than Gryffindor does Good, but it's interesting nonetheless.

And then there's the Power Trio - Hermione is the Brains, Ron is the Brawn, and Harry is the Heart. The reason Voldemort was defeated? He's all What Kind of Lame Power is Heart Anyway?. And the answer - the reason he was defeated in the long run?

Heart is an Awesome Power.

Oh, and next March I am not only taking my husband and my dad to see John Carter, I'm taking my mom too.