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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think that all this Harry Potter hype is

52 replies

M0naLisa · 08/07/2011 23:22

well....ermmmmm

Boring!

All i hear is harry potter this harry potter that [condused]

So what???

whats all the hype about?

OP posts:
AgentZigzag · 08/07/2011 23:25

I haven't seen a thread about it, but aren't those emoticons just recycled halloween ones?

The recession hits us all I suppose.

LineRunner · 08/07/2011 23:35

HP 7

sounds like a virus.

or a sauce.

SmartyHan · 08/07/2011 23:41

Perhaps you are a bit too old to understand the hype? The Harry Potter series was fantastic! The books are great with believable characters and they have good story lines.

I am actually really sad it's finishing! Oh well, I'll have to start TTC so I have someone to read them to!

queenmaeve · 08/07/2011 23:42

Did you read the books op?

MoonGirl1981 · 08/07/2011 23:43

Nope! Poorly written books and badly acted films (or the first two were, not seen the others).

They are aimed at children though. Maybe I'd be more impressed if I was six?

I like the witchy-hat smileys though!

[hsmile]

razzlebathbone · 08/07/2011 23:46

YANBU

I feel like the only person in the world who hasn't read any of the books or seen any of the films. Couldn't even name a character except the eponymous one.

Punkatheart · 08/07/2011 23:47

....also the franchise has singlehandedly brought the film industry back to life. The films employ over 3,000 people - including my OH. Lots of creative talent and also, it makes American companies like Warners want to make their films over here. There is a lot of talent in the UK.

I can understand that it all gets too much though - we don't talk about Potter at home. Rowling has put a lot of people in work and made a lot of fans happy..also got children reading, so encouraged the youth literature element as well.

Original poster
M0naLisa · 09/07/2011 00:03

No not too old I'm 25.

I watched an hour of the first film and got bored.

Not read any books either!

OP posts:
Original poster
M0naLisa · 09/07/2011 00:03

No not too old I'm 25.

I watched an hour of the first film and got bored.

Not read any books either!

OP posts:
razzlebathbone · 09/07/2011 00:04

Got children reading what? Is there any evidence that she's hot them reading anything other than her own books?

razzlebathbone · 09/07/2011 00:04

got

Mems · 09/07/2011 00:29

I think for parents with children of a certain age it's a defining series - DD1 was 6 when first film came out, we were reading books as bedtime stories to DD1 & DD2 for years, dressed up and queued at midnight for Goblet of Fire and subsequent books, went to see films as birthday treat (the films come out around my birthday), dressed up as characters for World Book Day, re-read series to DS. My DC grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermione - I love them. DDs 1&2 watched the premiere online reliving memories and crying along with the stars. & we're all looking forward to seeing HP7 Part 2 next week. Can see it's no everyone's cup of tea but for me it sums up my DC's childhood - and I am really sad there'll be no more to look forward to .... and I really need to get a life Wink!

AuntiePickleBottom · 09/07/2011 00:34

yabu...i love harry potter since i was given the 1st book as a present

NerfHerder · 09/07/2011 00:35

This is nothing compared to the original Potterdammerung.

Goodness, there were a lot more potter fans on MN in those days.

Mems · 09/07/2011 00:38

That obviously should have been a [hwink]!!

GetOrfMoiLand · 09/07/2011 00:41

I remember one helluva MN row years ago when it was revealed on a thread that Dumbledore had karked it.

Agree that there was a lot more interest in HP years ago. I think it is good that people are more meh about it now. It's only a crappy series of books or films. I agree with the OP.

randommoment · 09/07/2011 00:42

I read the first three books, I thought they were reasonably good school adventure stories with a magic twist. I started number four and failed to finish, three times, each time losing the will to carry on somewhere around page 100. I kept trying because the same thing happened with Captain Corelli, and I did love that when I got past the blockage there. But HP - no - I think the trouble was that by that time, JK Rowling was so important to Bloomsbury (her publisher) that she was able to ride roughshod over her editor and keep an awful lot of waffle in. My children have read all seven, but frankly prefer Percy Jackson.

queenmaeve · 09/07/2011 00:43

expelliramus! Stupefy! AVADAKEDAVA!!!!

GinevraMollyWeasley · 09/07/2011 00:50

I never read the books when they came out, I only saw the first three films as littlest sister was too young to go alone. But suddenly a couple of years back I got a bit involved... geeky about it all! Read all the books, now have all the films thus far. And a Hufflepuff scarf [hblush] !!

I thinks its well written for the target age group, engages children to discover reading and develop imagination. I wish I had read them at an age where I could have imagined myself at Hogwarts! The films are exciting and although like many fans I have gripes about stuff missing/being changed it is a brilliant franchise. And I know the publicity is done to death but isn't it always? For every film that comes out? This is the last one and a lot of people have grown up with the series and love it.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 09/07/2011 07:01

YABU.... What's wrong with a bit of hype? I'd much rather we were bigging up some home-grown talent than the next 3D bore-you-to-death Hollywood blockbuster. Apart from anything else, it's good for our economy.

sausagesandmarmelade · 09/07/2011 08:06

Have read all the books and loved them BUT was not amusing trying to get home on Thursday night...with Trafalgar Square roads all blocked off for the zillions of screaming HP fans. Traffic ground to a stand-still...and added a good 45 mins extra to my journey.

Very annoying!

Tarenath · 09/07/2011 08:33

YANBU

When it first became popular there was so much hype that I felt it was being shoved down everyones throat. Had I discovered the book series on my own I probably would have enjoyed it, but because of all the hype it put me off and I refused to have anything to do with it.

Now I am psyching myself up to go see the final movie in the cinema with my partner. She REALLY wants to see it but doesn't want to go on her own. Of course in order to have a clue what's going on I'm having to watch the previous 7 movies (eye rolling smiley) I've made it through the first two so far. The things we do for love eh?

Random: Have to say at moment I prefer Percy Jackson too!

Greythorne · 09/07/2011 08:42

I don't get the hype at all. They are very pleasant children's books, in the line of Narnia and Enid Blyton (all the boarding school antics are very appealinf to children at day schools). But when I read the first book, I was amazed that any grown up would find it at all absorbing. The plots are really basic, you can spot the 'twists' from a thousand paces, the characters are very binary and clichéed, the dialogue is stilted.....
Perhaps if you discovered them as a child then reread them as an adult, they might hold some nostalgic charm (much as the Chalet School does for our generation) but as fiction for adults? Biggest media scam after phone tapping.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 09/07/2011 09:13

YABU. If they bring pleasure to people, surely that's all that matters.
I have to find out when it is being released in Belgium. My DD is very excited.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 09/07/2011 09:27

"I was amazed that any grown up would find it at all absorbing"

Having been an avid Enid Blyton reader as a kid, Harry Potter took me straight back to that kind of landscape and I found it charming. Also, remembering the transition to secondary school and the lists of uniform and equipment, I rather liked the Diagon Alley shopping trip scene. I disagree that the plots are not that complex. Quite often some throwaway character or reference in one book becomes important in another... and that's a lot more complex than Blyton ever expected children to cope with. :)

I think the Potter series filled a need for fantasy books that weren't babyish and yet weren't asking that 8 - 12 year old market to deal with too many real-life adult issues prematurely. Without Potter I don't think we'd have had Percy Jackson, Twilight or the Skullduggery Pleasant series.