Movie Review- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

*Spoilers are in this post.*
In the epic finale, the battle between the good and evil forces of the wizarding world escalates into an all-out war. The stakes have never been higher and no one is safe. But it is Harry Potter who may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice as he draws closer to the climactic showdown with Lord Voldemort. It all ends here. 


This morning I woke up and realized that there really won't be any more Harry Potter movies to look forward to. This really is the end.

I went and saw this movie Sunday night with some family. And I'll say that I loved it! One of the thoughts I remember thinking as I was watching it was "Man! I have to get this soundtrack!" And so I did. It's an epic soundtrack too.

Anyways, what I loved about this movie is the sense of danger and the emotions that it sparks in you. Although for the first half of the movie I kept getting this feeling like I saw it before. And I have no idea why, what I think is that I must have seen the trailers or a movie preview before and forgot about it. That or my brain likes to mess with me.

The special effects were really cool. One of my favorite special effects was when there was Hogwart's magical shield. It just looked cool. Anyways, and the ghost, I can't remember her name, but I've always thought they have done a good job showing the ghosts.

I thought the actors were all good too. I loved Professor McGonagall's "I've always wanted to use that spell" saying. It made me and the rest of the audience laugh. At the part where Snape dies, I was crying. It was so sad! I loved the memories they played, they were very touching and I thought they showed off the side of Snape we probably haven't seen before. Although for some reason when Snape said "you have your mother's eyes," my stepdad thought that that it could have been taken in a way that could mean he's Harry's dad. Which he all know isn't true, but he thought that it could imply that.

Neville was one of my favorites too. Like when he tells Harry that he's got to find Luna to tell her that he likes her, when he stands up to Lord Voldemort, and finally when he kills the snake himself. I was secretly cheering for him.

The other sad part was when Fred died. Or at least I think it was Fred, I could never tell the difference between those two. And the scene of Remus and Tonks when Harry sees them.  So sad!

I thought it was interesting when Malfoy's mom asks Harry if her son is alive and when he briefly nods his head, she turns to the Lord Voldemort and says "he's dead". But then in the end the Malfoy and his parents run away as Harry goes to defeat Lord Voldemort. I wasn't all that too crazy about that scene where they are flying through the air and they are fighting each other. It was strange, but fitting I guess.

I loved the ending, when Harry breaks the elder wand and throws it off the bridge. It told us that no one should ever have that kind of power again.

Plus the epilogue was great. I thought that the kids were so cute! Although I'm not to sure on how well of a job they did making Harry and the other's to look older. I didn't think Hermione looked older at all. And for some reason they all seemed really tall to me. Maybe it was because of the kids or what I'm not sure.

Overall it was an epic movie and if you haven't seen it you should! The soundtrack is epic too. And I loved a bunch of stuff with it. I also thought that they did a good job keeping to the book. I love it when movies stick to the books if they came from one.

So, have you seen it yet? If you have what did you think? And are you planning to go see it in theaters or wait till it comes out on DVD and rent/buy it?

Sincerely,
Peony

In The News- Random Gossip and Why Teachers are Hypocrites.

First of all, we'll start with the random gossip that really isn't news but I thought that some of you may like to hear.

Rebecca Black, the infamous teenage singer who's Friday video gained fame across the world for being...the world's worst singing ever? Now, I'll admit I do not like her singing but I think that a lot of people went out of line by giving her death threats and other nasty things. Eventually, the video was taken off of youtube and we thought that we had seen the last of the teen. 

Apparently not. According to Yahoo! The singer has release a new music video called My Moment. While her voice is still awfully auto tuned and the music video isn't all that exciting, I'll give her some points for not giving up. And with this new music video, it has been announced that a new 5 song EP has been released onto Itunes today called Yes There's More!. 

Link to the Yahoo! Article: Rebecca Black New Music Video
Edit: The Music Video was taken off because it didn't work. If you'd like to see it, click the link to the Yahoo! Article.

In other subjects that is video related and I'm not considering news at all, Jerusha Hess (who apparently has cowritten things (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre and Gentlemen Broncos) with her husband, and the famous Twilight author, Stephanie Meyer, are co-producing a movie called Austenland. 

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of this film and described it in a bit more detail as follows:

[Austenland] centers on a single, thirtysomething woman with a secret obsession with Mr. Darcy — as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. The obsession is ruining her love life because no real man can compare. When she decides to spend her life savings on a trip to an English resort catering to Jane Austen-crazed women, the woman’s fantasy of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman becomes more real than she could have imagined.

Link to the aritcle: Twilight Author to Co-Produce a Movie....

In the News
According to several reports 178 teachers and principals in Alabama have been caught in one of America's largest teaching scandals ever. For years everyone thought that everything was going great for the school districts grades kept on rising. But due to abnormal scores, investigators found that on standardized tests (yes this is why we shouldn't have them!) teachers would change their student's answers so that they would get better grades.

This, mind you, was not to help the students in any way, it was to save their own jobs. By getting higher test scores the Broad Foundation and the Gates Foundation would give them more funding. 
According to the Yahoo! Article:

One of the most troubling aspects of the Atlanta cheating scandal, says the report, is that the district repeatedly refused to properly investigate or take responsibility for the cheating. Moreover, the central office told some principals not to cooperate with investigators. In one case, an administrator instructed employees to tell investigators to "go to hell." When teachers tried to alert authorities, they were labeled "disgruntled." One principal opened an ethics investigation against a whistle-blower.

Because of the high stakes placed on these tests for teachers, these "educators" have resorted to cheating. Hypocrites! They tell us "don't cheat or you'll get a zero" yet they think it's perfectly okay to cheat themselves? How can we possibly trust them if they show us that we can't trust them.

Some of these high stakes include:

Ten states now use test scores as the main criterion in teacher evaluations. Other states reward high-scoring teachers with up to $25,000 bonuses – while low scores could result in principals losing their jobs or entire schools closing. Even as the number of scandals grows, experts say it remains fairly easy for teachers and principals to get away with ethical lapses.

In one report I read, teachers would get together on weekends or after school at each other's houses, drink coffee and eat while they would erase their students answers.  Much like some kinda of party. Why is this okay with you teachers? Why!

I think that this lady has a very good point:

"And that’s what ought to alarm us," adds Ms. Downey, "that these professionals ultimately felt their students could not even pass basic competency tests, despite targeted school improvement plans, proven reforms, and state-of-the-art teacher training."

True true. I find not only what the teachers did alarming, but insulting too. Kids are smarter than what you think. Just because there are those few who don't care, alot of us do care. And we'll do the best we can without your helping us cheat. And how did these teachers expect to get away with this? How I don't know, but something will have to be done about this so that this can never happen again.

In a recent report, the teachers and officials caught up in this scandal will be forced to resign this week or this will be forced to. So, yes teachers, there are punishments for cheating even with you too. I hope that every one of you feels ashamed of yourselves. And just think, you have now destroyed any hopes of getting another teaching job in this already bad economy.

You can read both news articles here and here.

So, what do you think about Rebecca Black's new songs, or Stephanie Meyer's new producer job? What about this teaching scandal?

Sincerely,
Peony