From the very beginning, this movie feels intense, like the open of the close that it is. Our first glimpse of Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour, with his unblinking stare (he actually blinks three times but who is really counting), starts the film, followed by the incredible music composed and conducted by Alexandre Desplat, underscoring…
Half-Blood Prince continues almost directly from where Order of the Phoenix ended, showing Harry and Dumbledore at the Ministry of Magic shortly after the battle with Voldemort. Reporters are taking pictures of them for the Daily Prophet. I love this opening. I thought it was brilliant. From there, the film continues in a muggle office…
Let me make perfectly clear as I begin that I have not had an opportunity to see The Lord of the Rings Musical, and it is unlikely that I ever will. I have, however, seen some YouTube clips from the musical, and I have downloaded the entire soundtrack. On those both I will base my…
It is difficult to rate music inspired by Middle-Earth post-Shore. Howard Shore, the composer for the Lord of the Rings films, created the perfect musical backdrop for the Middle-Earth setting. It is nearly impossible to compare anything to it. However, this collection of songs by David Arkenstone was released before the Lord of the Rings…
I was not one of the first fans of the Harry Potter series. Actually, it wasn’t until I started to hear the hype surrounding the release of the first movie that I picked up Sorcerer’s Stone from my school’s library. I had read the entire Chronicles of Narnia series previously, so I was not unfamiliar…
The possibility has become anticipated reality. It had long been rumored that J. K. Rowling was working on another novel. However, perhaps “rumored” is not the correct word to use in this case, as Rowling herself has tweeted several times over the past two years that “pen and paper” were her priorities. Now, when you…
Technically, this isn’t an editorial because it doesn’t express any opinions, and technically, Baxter isn’t my dog since I gave it to my sister, but I think this makes for an interesting article nonetheless. J. K. Rowling has said that the four Hogwarts houses roughly coincide with the four “major elements”: earth, wind, fire, and…
I teach a class primarily focused on British Literature. One of the novels we read every year is The Hobbit, because J.R.R. Tolkien is a legendary British author. We started reading the novel in class on December 20, 2011. Little did I know that the announcement trailer for the new film would be released that…
I had been a fan of Ministry of Magic ever since I heard their song “Nothing to Fear” on The Leaky Cauldron’s Christmas release “Jingle Spells 3”. However, I hadn’t heard any more of their songs until I went to LeakyCon 2011 in Orlando, Florida in July. Hearing them live, I knew then that they…
Hey guys! I’m finally back from my (previously unannounced) hiatus. Let me remind you that I am a high school English teacher. Therefore, I don’t have much time to update this website. However, I chose today to break my silence by posting about the side-project that has been taking away all the time that this…