… or as Mel’s current MSN name reads “HPATHBP is too frickin’ short!”

But first, an anecdote about how my family obtained the latest book in JK Rowling’s best-selling series on the very day it was released.

While waiting for the results of the contest organised by The Straits Times to celebrate their 160th anniversary, Mom popped by the Marine Parade branch of the National Library and conveniently noticed that there were a whole bunch of kiddos rushing for a certain book. She calls my sister, who is the real Potter fan in the house, and asks whether she wants to borrow a copy. Like DUH. So there, that’s how we got it.

For free! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
(And if we conveniently “lose” it…. which, of course, as my sister just informs me, will do us no good because the penalty will be the cost price anyway. And, as I hear from one of my catechism kids, the book’s now going for 7 pounds in London.)

That aside, I must admit that I did enjoy this book more than most (the only one I liked best would be the Prisoner of Azkaban - which I haven’t finished reading - but I watched the movie - which barely scratched the surface - but has a WEREWOLF as a main (and soon to be recurring) character! *pant pant*). Perhaps, for once, I didn’t feel like I was reading a children’s book with this one. The Harry Potter series, like many of the comic books of today, has grown with its original readers and the main characters are now reaching the end of their adolescence and not bumbling around with their teenage discoveries. Although the hormonal thing is pretty rampant in this book.

I personally enjoyed the darker overtones in this book - a result perhaps because kids in the UK have been rudely thrown into the “real world” with the terrorist attacks - heralding a suspect wave - shaking London to its very core. The darker overtones are in line with my kind of fantasy, where escapism isn’t about psychedelic, drug induced hallucinations, but rather a series of thinly veiled fables about life.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince fails as a stand-alone book, unlike its predecessors, but never claimed to be one in the first place. If anything, it just serves to set the stage for the supposed finale book in the series, which would undoubtedly feature the final showdown between Harry Potter and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

(P.S. Does anyone NOT see the blatant similarities between Potter and Star Wars?)

I can’t help it, you know… it’s just really cool to discover how mainstream your interests are. I never thought I’d say this, but thank god for Blade and Wesley Snipes. I never really got into the character or the movie, but people did, and because they did… wham! You’ve got really decent superhero flicks like the current US Box Office #1, “Fantastic Four”.

The first thing that struck me when I saw the trailers was how amazing the casting was. Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd, last seen in King Arthur as Lancelot, is transformed into the splitting image of “Mr. Fantastic” Reed Richards. Even without the trademark white streaks in his hair (which later appeared a la Anna Paquin’s “Rouge”), the similarities were uncanny. Julian McMahon, of Nip/Tuck and Charmed fame, sizzles as Victor Von Doom, especially behind that mask. And Michael Chiklis as The Thing was nothing short of inspired. Apparently we have Jennifer Garner to thank for that casting decision, if imdb.com is to be believed. One wonders how she can pick the perfect guy for a superhero… and screw up picking the perfect guy for herself. Ah, stupidity.

But, back to the show. It was, as kakita put it, “nonsense!” and indeed, it never claimed to be anything else. One of the greatest trademarks of the Fantastic Four is that they are almost never derided by the public. Instead, the general populace has, from their comic book origins, always embraced these four unexpected superheroes as their idols. Which is admittedly a welcome change after every other superhero flick has portrayed the hero as one that is feared because of their differences - the “Spider-Man”/”X-Men” syndrome. It’s good to finally have a movie that reminds the audience, whether they realise or not, that the original Marvel superheroes were never feared. Personally, this also means I don’t have to sit through another fable with a moral about how we should always accept who we are.

Sure, the Thing is all about not initially accepting his grotesque appearance, leading to his eventual realisation that his hideous mug comes with the job description. That’s all well and good, but I guess having En next to me in the cinema kinda made the Reed/Sue subplot all the more enjoyable. But that’s another story.

Fantastic Four rules the roost as being the first superhero movie to just enjoy its status among the others in the genre. It doesn’t try to top the Spider-Man or X-Men franchises, but rather holds its own, even in the wake of the very successful (and similar) Incredibles movie. I gave it a 7 out of 10.