Change Your Image
puckcub
Reviews
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses (2021)
An innocent night of Family Fun
An evening of good clean family fun, following a fandom of frenzied fanatics and fan favourites.
Fervently familiar with the questions source content, few fear a wrong answer, so focus follows features few would find fascinating forthwith under favourable circumstances.
Further more, ferocious competition, it is not. This is afterall, the Wizarding world of Harry Potter, not the Indianapolis 500 or Wrestle-mania, let alone a gimmicky game-show like those with fearsome amounts of gags and practical jokes.
Its stately, almost too understated with how well behaved everyone is in the audience. The contrast is jarring to some. They may expect a DrWho style Ann Droid Zapp, or a gimmicky gush of goop for a wrong answer, or even a silly hat for a foible so bad that it is equal to that of the unforgivable curse itself. Nope. Just simple focused good natured trivia fun.
Filmed during the pandemic, audience restrictions are certainly being felt by way of smaller audience/houses, and the amount of enthusiasm they can express safely in a closed environment.
My favourite portions of the show have been the delightful use and categorization of the various segments .... As a limited engagement, I'm not really giving anything away.... General questions, simple, easy, they feel almost TOO easy; Dueling Grounds where they try to trip the other team up; and then Magical Games where each spell is treated as a game variant... example Obscuro is 'listen but not see'; Accio where they get to examine and guess what props are real from the movie...
I mean, getting to use actual props from the movies, not many games have THAT bonus now do they? Lol
As someone whose made an amateur career of examining human body language, I'd have to say its not scripted, but its simplistic childish nature merely makes it seem as such. As there are several moments in both episodes so far, that are genuine enthusiasm and sorrow over responses given.
If you're a Potter fan, and don't care about the subtext of politics that lingers in the background when discussion the stories, its a great piece of work I'd be happy to put my name to as a creator.
Fun, simple enough but with a bit of a challenge, decent use of practical and digital set pieces, guest appearances and just overall a good sense of community.
So if you're expecting Marvel level excitment, but sad they're giving you Mickey Mouse; then might I suggest a different game show for you? Perhaps a different fandom entirely?
Mean while, I'm going to settle back in my chair, with my pipe and pint of butter beer and see if i can get the answers right myself.
My only regret and sadness, is that we don't get to see what was originally planned for this show. Scuttlebutt said the host was changed when Rowling 'put her foot in it' (again); and budgets were slashed when the pandemic struck. Just imagine what we could have had!
Mars et Avril (2012)
What to expect, when you're not expecting a Free Trip;
A love story of purity, expressions of perception inverted from reality, Misunderstood emotions, immature minds mixing with old souls. Substitution, simulacra and discovery. Personification, possibility, Potential.
The child, caught up in materialism, The father with eyes towards the "impossible"; the lovers, avatars for everything and nothing at the same time caught in a triangle of the mistaken witness, an iteration of soul out of time and place, yet required to bridge the connection now.
A pursuit of an experience, beyond the mundane, the ordinary. Simple mechanics, yet unexpected results; but what is possible, if you just believe. Or, failing that, just sit and allow what is, to unfold. However, be-careful what you wish for, You may not understand how to cope with the results. A being such, a moment when, a thought unspoken, create the unexpected, within the realms of the expected impossibility.
If you believe, you may be blessed with the witness to see, or else the comfort of knowing you contributed to the next iteration.
In a pique of contrasting thought; As much as DUNE is about a Saviour role, this is about the individual. With no group expectation. What is possible for a single soul, with few constraints and a lost purpose? A bitter sweet ending for a love unknown, recently discovered and forever lost except to impossible memory... and that's not even right way to express the messy triangle....
*Triangle; doesn't play as the typical dynamic until the *scoff* just before the subconscious feedback.
*I found the discourse between father and son, a little forced at points. To do justice to their relationship, they needed more screen time.
The 'disbelief' factor .... lost me at about 1hr10 minutes.... i get lost with the technical (visual storytelling) 'subconscious' interpretations of 'unconscious' interpretations by others.
Though the following instrument scene at least is anchored well, and gave me a point to anchor myself to again.
Thank you for doing this story. Though it introduces choices I'm still not familiar with, nor ready to contemplate; and thus, leaves me as confused as when i began... the expression of that moment, is enough to sooth my soul a little. A reminder of what was, what is, what will be. The story of connection, of recognition beyond the basic story line. The power of potential. ::hugs:: now i have to go find a box of klenex or a roll of toilet paper, or my shirt if it comes to that. I'm not crying, You're crying! 😛
It might not have had the same budget (as Dune, and other Big Budget films), with sets and scenery at moments reminiscent of an Art House project, but its arguably just as important in the histories of SciFi gospels. (I need to find my copy and watch it again, in fact; now that i have found the story again. See where it fits, so i may better discuss its contents.)
But there is a key within, for those who find, that unlocks the most wonderful and frightening doorway of the mind/soul. We need these keys to be continually produced, for there are many who would have them destroyed, for the freedom such keys give to a person. This freedom is scary to any form of uniformity and homogeneity. Yet it allows all things to be possible, if you so desire and your desire is true.
----
Slow burn intro, especially if one is not familiar with the different schools of philosophical thought and unable to pickup the subtly blunt almost too on the nose interpretations of the characters roots. But pacing, is a personal thing; so never take a reviewers opinion about such things, unless you're familiar with and agree with their previous or existing expressions. I myself, enjoy a slow burn. As cold as I may be, one thing i learned from nearly freezing to death, a slow burn is better than a flash burn, if you want to get through every bit of fuel to heat energy ratio. If you're used to tossing aside unspent moments, disregarded and unappreciated. Like spare change from a transaction; you may not enjoy this story. But, if you're familiar with the amount of effort it takes to deliver quality, take this one for a spin. At the very least, its some time spent watching a fun scifi story.