Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

I watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and was very pleased with how well it stuck to the book. Because of this, I had high expectations for Part 2. I mean, if you did so well in the first half, you have to do just as well in the second half, right? Right? The movie started off very well, starting from exactly where it left off in Part 1 and staying faithful to the book all the way to when Harry and co break into Hogwarts. That's where it starts to go down hill..
The good:- Neville. He was perfectly perfect. I really wish they gave him more screen time because he was adorable.- The Gringott's scene. Very well done.
- The emotion we are shown from Snape. Throughout the series, he's been rather monotonous and emotionless. In the pensieve, we see a different side of him and it is a refreshing change.
- The battle at Hogwarts. It was intense and wonderfully done.
- Helena Ravenclaw. It was very emotional and creepy. Although they did not tell us her back story with the Bloody Baron.
- Rupert Grint and Dan Radcliffe shirtless. That's certainly a plus.
OK you know it's bad when I resort to writing about that.

The bad:
- They completely took out the scene where Harry and Luna go into the Ravenclaw Common Room, where they are ambushed by one of the Carrows. It appeared as if they would show it, as I hope they would (I've always wanted to see the other common rooms), but then they don't. Hm.
- Fred's death scene. Gone. Yup. They show his body once at the end and don't even give you time to grieve before moving on to the next scene. This was an insult to his character's memory.
- Crabbe's disappeared. Gets replaced by Zabini, and replaced in a different way by Goyle.
- Snape's memories are rushed and they take out some of the most interesting memories. They just go through a few of them quickly. I've always enjoyed the memories, because you get to see life at Hogwarts through the eyes of someone else for a change, in a different time era.
- Hermione and Ron battle Nagini, and eventually Neville slays the snake. Eventually. It takes some time getting to that scene.
- There is not a single mention of Teddy Lupin. That is, until the end when Harry suddenly knows about Lupin's son. Weird, considering Harry was camping in a forest and hadn't heard of any of this.
- Collin Creevey is replaced by that random Nigel kid.
- The students are not sent home. No, the teachers think it's OK to just lock the Slytherins in the dungeons and let everybody else stay and fight.
- Still no mention of the significance of the horcruxes. Hufflepuff's cup is just a plain old cup that Voldy turned into a horcrux.
- Not enough interaction with characters other than the trio. Too much Harry. It's as if everybody else just have cameos.
- Random scene where they blow up one of the bridges (ignoring the fact that there are like 2 other bridges that would take them into the school).
- Voldemort's and Bellatrix's death = explosion into confetti!
- Percy's on the good side all of a sudden. No explanation at all (a reoccurring theme with Yates, don't you think?).
- Harry does not fix his old wand with the Elder Wand. No, instead he takes the Elder Wand and SNAPS IT IN HALF. Is that even possible? I didn't think so. So Harry breaks the wand and then chucks it into the abyss. Really Yates, really?
- All of the fun and cheerful dialogue from the future scene has been resorted to everybody staring and smiling at each other. No explanation once again. They don't even say who's who! Plus there is absolutely no chemistry between Dan and Albus Severus. And it was really awkward to see them all with old make up on.
- Goodbye Dumbledore's back story!
- Too many attempts at one-liners and humorless jokes.
All in all, all of the personality and charm of the series was zapped away in an attempts to make this final movie is action-packed as possible. It's a shame to see something that you've grown up with, learned to love, taken and twisted into somebody's 'vision.' I mean, why bother adding your own unimportant scenes to the movie, when there are perfectly good ones in the book that you did not bother using at all? There's no...bonding with the characters, no connection with them you felt in Part 1. I did not feel the love for this movie like I had with the book. There was just so much significance that was left out of that movie, and it is such a shame. It had such potential to be a fantastic movie, and it fell short all because of the changes that were unnecessarily made.
See the movie, and I'm sure you'll form your own opinion of it. It's not a bad movie, just disappointing and unsatisfying for a die-hard fan who's been following the books for 10 years of their life.
Release dates for
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) More at
Country              Date
UK                    7 July 2011     (London) (premiere)
USA                  11 July 2011     (New York City, New York) (premiere)
Kuwait               12 July 2011   
Australia             13 July 2011   
Azerbaijan          13 July 2011   
Belgium              13 July 2011   
Bosnia and Her. 13 July 2011   
Denmark            13 July 2011   
Egypt                 13 July 2011   
Finland               13 July 2011   
France                13 July 2011   
Germany             13 July 2011   
Iceland                13 July 2011   
Israel                   13 July 2011   
Italy                     13 July 2011   
Japan                  13 July 2011     (Tokyo) (premiere)
Lithuania              13 July 2011     (Vilnius) (premiere)
Netherlands         13 July 2011   
Norway               13 July 2011   
Russia                  13 July 2011   
Serbia                  13 July 2011     (Belgrade)
Sweden                13 July 2011   
Turkey                 13 July 2011   
Ukraine                13 July 2011   
Argentina              14 July 2011   
Chile                     14 July 2011   
Croatia                 14 July 2011   
Czech Republic     14 July 2011   
Georgia                 14 July 2011   
Greece                  14 July 2011   
Hong Kong           14 July 2011   
Malaysia               14 July 2011   
New Zealand         14 July 2011   
Peru                      14 July 2011   
Philippines             14 July 2011   
Portugal                 14 July 2011   
Puerto Rico            14 July 2011   
Singapore               14 July 2011   
Slovenia                  14 July 2011   
South Korea           14 July 2011   
Taiwan                   14 July 2011   
Thailand                 14 July 2011   
Armenia                 15 July 2011   
Brazil                     15 July 2011   
Bulgaria                  15 July 2011   
Canada                   15 July 2011   
Colombia                15 July 2011   
Estonia                   15 July 2011   
Hungary                  15 July 2011   
India                        15 July 2011   
Ireland                     15 July 2011   
Japan                       15 July 2011   
Mexico                    15 July 2011   
Panama                    15 July 2011   
Paraguay                  15 July 2011   
Poland                     15 July 2011   
Republic of Maced  15 July 2011   
Romania                  15 July 2011   
Spain                       15 July 2011   
UK                          15 July 2011   
USA                        15 July 2011   
Uruguay                  15 July 2011   
Venezuela                15 July 2011   
Pakistan                   22 July 2011   
Indonesia                  29 July 2011   
China                       4 August 2011 

Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall's royal wedding to be a humble affair

Zara Phillips

As a "private family occasion", even one closing part of Edinburgh and costing taxpayers up to £500,000 in security, Saturday's royal wedding is likely to reveal only the briefest public glimpses of bride and groom, Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall.Unlike the wedding, beamed across the globe three months ago, international TV anchors are not camping outside Canongate Kirk on the Royal Mile, as the Queen's eldest granddaughter and 13th in line, marries the England rugby captain."There doesn't seem to be any American interest," said Dickie Arbiter, formerly palace press officer now a royal pundit for Sky News. "Zara's so far down the pecking order. She's a Miss, not a princess. And Americans just don't get rugby!"And unlike another "private family occasion", the 2008 wedding of Phillips's brother, Peter, to Autumn Kelly, there will be no 

pictures of the royals – such as Sophie Wessex, "getting it down" on the dancefloor – appearing in a £500,000 Hello! magazine exclusive deal.

At the time some newspapers lambasted the "vulgarity" of it all, while simultaneously drooling over the magazine's sales-boosting shots of princes William and Harry's then girlfriends, Kate Middleton and Chelsy Davy, across 20 glossy pages.No such blatant commercialisation this time: though reports that the Queen had stamped a regal foot and forbidden her granddaughter from similarly cashing in seem wide of the mark. Phillips and Tindall made it plain from the moment of their engagement that there would be no magazine deal, one impeccably placed source stressed."I'm not surprised," said Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine. "After all that damage, Peter Phillips will forever be known as the chap who sold his wedding to Hello! for half-a-million and upset the rest of the family.

Zara Phillips and Tindall

"Saturday's going to be very different. Not sure what we'll be allowed to see, though."

Apart from arrivals and departures at the church and the short hop to the reception at the Palace of Holyroodhouse – for which the Queen has donated £40,000 to compensate for lost ticket sales while the tourist attraction is closed to the public – the optimistic crowd might struggle to see very much of the 300 guests.The bride, 30, an equestrian eventer, does not carry the title HRH at the request of her parents, the Princess Royal and first husband, Captain Mark Phillips. Nevertheless, this is an A-list royal occasion, with a hefty contingent of seniors including Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.Tindall, 32, a 16-stone (102kg) Yorkshireman who plays his club rugby for Gloucester, is known as "the Fridge", or "Tins" – a soubriquet earned during a valiant 2003 attempt to match the Australian cricketer David Boon's record of 52 in-air "tinnies" (beers) on a flight to Australia. And he will have his own weighty contingent – of rugby-playing friends.Best man is Iain Balshaw, who plays for the French side Biarritz. "Balsh has got some great stories on Tins, and everyone's looking forward to hearing them," groomsman James Simpson-Daniel, Tindall's club team-mate, told Gloucestershire's Citizen newspaper.

Tasked with kitting-out the brawny groom, best man and ushers is the Savile Row tailor Cad & The Dandy. True to tradition, the bride's dress remains secret. Stewart Parvin, 44, the Queen's couturier who trained at Edinburgh College of Art, is the bookies' favourite. His denials, as emphatic as Sarah Burton's on Middleton's dress, has shortened his odds further.Phillips and Tindall, a couple since Prince Harry introduced them in Sydney during the 2003 Rugby World Cup, are kicking off celebrations on Friday night with a pre-wedding bash for 150 of the "younger guests" aboard the decommissioned Royal Yacht Britannia, berthed in Leith.

Family holidays on the yacht provide one of few links Phillips has with Scotland, others being that she studied at Gordonstoun, in Elgin, and her mother is patron of the Scottish Rugby Union. She and Tindall share an £800,000 home in Cheltenham."I'm rather surprised they didn't have a little country church wedding in Gloucestershire," said Little, "or at St George's, Windsor, like her brother." No one is discounting the proximity of Edinburgh to the Queen's annual summer sojourn at Balmoral as a possible factor.

Certainly, securing Canongate Kirk, where the Queen worships during her Holyrood Week, seemed imperative, as the obliging Cherith Harrison and Gregg Walter, both 27, who had already booked the 30 July wedding slot, discovered on being asked to move their ceremony somewhere else.

Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall are to marry at
Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh. Photograph:
 Chris Jackson/Getty Images Europe

Phillips and Tindall's wedding list is at John Lewis, but they have already rejected one well-meaning gift offer. Immediately after he proposed to Phillips – while she was lounging on the sofa watching X-Men – she rang her mother. Princess Anne's swift response? "First thing she says is, 'Can we get his nose straightened for the wedding' and she was happy to pay for it," the groom revealed.But Tindall, whose nose has its own Facebook page with, at last count, 871 fans, seems happy the way he is.There will be no time for an immediate honeymoon for this successful sporting couple, as both return to training two days after the nuptials – he for the World Cup in New Zealand, and she for the British eventing festival at her mother's Gatcombe Park home in Gloucestershire.Tindall's parents, Phil, a retired bank official, and Linda, a social worker are, naturally, looking forward to the day. And, it should be stressed, it's not just a second wedding for the royals. Tindall's brother, Ian, married in May.Chatting outside the family home in the village of Crigglestone, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Linda Tindall said: "With Ian's we were a bit more involved with the organising than we have been this time.

Pippa Middleton TLC Documentary To Air In August

Pippa Middleton and a certain Prince Harry of Wales at the royal wedding (PA)

According to its makers, in Crazy About Pippa those closest to the lady who was maid of honour at the nuptials of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will 'provide insight into the life and work of the future Queen of England’s sister'.
Set to air on Tuesday, August 9 at 9pm, the cable network's documentary will also deliver the earth-shattering nugget that Pippa's new brother-in-law Prince Harry refers to her as a ‘foxy filly’.
The pair of in-laws have been subject to feverish speculation - and/or wishful thinking - that they may eventually get together, or that they did indeed hook up on that fateful night back in April.


Reports even surfaced at one point that the third in line to the throne had been warned off the foxy lady by one of her friends, who told the Daily Mirror she's 'smitten' with boyfriend Alex Loudon.
'Alex has no reason to fear Harry would turn Pippa's head,' said the pal, adding: 'Harry may be royal, but Alex is upper crust, rich and good looking. He's exactly Pippa's type and I don't think even a prince would be much competition.'
Whether any light is actually shed on Pippa and Harry's 'relationship' (we're thinking: 'no'), August's documentary is unlikely to cause anything but more Philippa-themed worship and hysteria, such is the public's appetite for trivia - rehashed or otherwise - on the shapely 27-year-old.
Before TLC came along with its P-Middy telly gold, there were reports Pippa had been offered $5 million by Vivid Entertainment to star in a porn movie - as well as the news she was the judges' hot favourite to be one of the celebrity contestants on this year's Strictly Come Dancing.

Fashionista Pippa Middleton knows what she likes and sticks with it, whether it’s dresses or dates.

Pippa, sister of the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, was spotted at Wimbledon this week wearing a see-through navy blue crochet dress, identical to the white one she wore earlier in the month when she attended the AEGON tennis tournament.
Another accessory that Pippa recycled was her date. On Friday, Pippa watched the tennis match with her ex-boyfriend George Percy, the same guy that she brought with her to the June 10th, AEGON tournament.

Percy, the son of the Duke of Northumberland, dated Middleton when they attended college at the University of Edinburgh.

Being the son of Duke has its perks, one of which includes usually inheriting massive wealth and real estate – in Percy’s case the Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, made famous for its stand in appearence as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.

Middleton, in addition to working at her parent’s party planning company, has also taken a job where she will help lobby for government licenses for Percy’s geothermal energy firm.

While rumors have been floating around that Middleton and her boyfriend, Alex Loudon – a former England cricket player – have split, nothing has been verified and it truly seems as if Pippa just enjoys the company of her male friends.

What we do know for sure, however, is that Pippa Middleton and her clothing choices certainly have a way of “stealing the show.”