Harry Potter Takes On Batman, Wins
Yes, Virginia: the Harry Potter movies are over. But they went out with a bang— Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 broke the record previously held by The Dark Knight by earning $168.5 million in the U.S. The BBC also notes that the film broke four of the five records smashed by its predecessor, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, earning £23 million (about US$37 million) in its country of origin.
I have an odd relationship with Potter and co. myself: as a college freshman I dove into its fandom with the sort of relish that only a nerd with no nearby social circle could. That fandom faded as I made friends and became increasingly unimpressed with Rowling’s books— Order of the Phoenix was okay, if whiny, but some of the events in Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows felt more like the stuff of fanfiction than something written by a legit author (either Snape was in love with Harry’s mom OR Harry winds up with Ginny, Jo; the two combined is just too much cliché). The rest of the ending is a terrible mish-mash of boring crap.
Nonetheless, Harry Potter is actually sort of how I got my start writing. My first writing “gig,” if it can be called such since it was unpaid, was writing for a Harry Potter news/opinion/speculation site, which (you may have noticed!) has more or less become my career. (And yes, I wrote fanfiction; the popularity of a couple of my titles— no, I won’t share them —made me wonder if I could make writing a career, and I have.)
Anyway, enough reminiscing. You know what else is weird? Matthew Lewis, the actor who plays Neville Longbottom, has turned out to be a pretty good lookin’ dude. (Meanwhile, Rupert “Ron” Grint looks like he could still pass for 14 and Malfoy, played by Tom Felton, has a forehead with its own zip code. Oh, the years, they do pass us by. Seriously, look:
Gia Manry is a Texas-based geek who you can hire. Or you could just follow her on Twitter.