Order of the Phoenix (Year 5) is my favorite book in the series. And I loved the movie. I think that they did the best with the crappy time frame that Warner Brothers gave them. This movie deserved 3+ hours.

I saw it at the IMAX in 3D and that was WAY cool! If you get a chance to see it at one it is worth the cost of admission. I think that Imelda Staunton nailed Dolores Umbridge! She made you hate the character even more than in the books. And Evanna Lynch nailed Luna Lovegood. Not bad for a girl who was just a fan of the serious and won the open casted role! She was amazing, IMO.

I loved Kreacher and I think that they captured his mood very well. Would have liked to seen more of his mutterings. I am glad J.K. Rowling told them to put him in the movie.

I was disappointed in the way they handled the scene with Sirius Black dying. First, I always pictured that gate with an actual curtain, not some hazy thing. Second, he dodged her first shot and then got hit with the second which knocked him backwards into the veil. In the movie it appeared that he was dead as he fell back into the veil. According to the book Bellatrix Lestrange shot one curse at him that emitted a streak of red light that Sirius dodged and then she hit him with another one that knocks him through the veil, but the color is never mentioned. The Avada Kedavra emits a green light. The red one is unknown, so far but his commonly known as the stupefy curse, in the Potter world. To me that was quite a bit different between the movie and the book.

I did not like the way they did Fred and George’s exit. They left out their challenge to the students to get rid of Umbridge and the swamp. Everything else was great about it though!

The kiss scene was a waste of time, in my opinion, and that time could have been used towards other much more important things. They should have done it just like Rowling had written it in the books.

I like how Harry went into the DA lessons with not too much confidence, but gained it over time. Which is like how it was in the book. So I thought that that was okay.

I missed the brain scene in the Ministry of Magic.

All in all it was a great movie and the best of the bunch, IMO.

Next week I get to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! I am looking forward to spending the evening at Borders with my wife for the midnight book release party. Yes, I am that geeky!

There is a new movie that came out yesterday called Amazing Grace. It is not about how the song came to be penned, but instead it is about a Briton named William Wilberforce. But what is so special about him that someone would write a movie about his life? It is because he helped lead Britain’s Parliament to have a historic vote in 1807 to abolish the slave trade throughout the British Empire.

The connection with the song Amazing Grace is that the man who penned that song, John Newton, was the mentor of William Wilberforce. John Newton wrote this song while on board a slave ship on May 10th, 1748 returning home during a storm when he experienced a “great deliverance”. And so that is the connection with the song and the movie.

I am really looking forward to seeing this movie. Here is the movie trailer for Amazing Grace.

I read an interesting article in the USA Today on Thursday. It was entitled Evangelicals rally around — and disagree on — ‘Grace’. It made me so angry! I sometimes just do not get Christians. Why do we have to be so flippin’ stupid and shoot ourselves in the foot.

Christians are complaining that Wilberforce’s spirituality is toned down, which is what they did intentionally. According to the article….

“The spiritual side (of Wilberforce) has been extremely toned down,” says associate producer Bob Beltz, one of several evangelicals involved in the project. “The purpose of the film is to introduce him to a new generation” by appealing to a broad audience that is not necessarily religious.

I can see their point and besides that I am sure that there will be a lot more people who would go and see the movie because there is no religious bent to the film. I can understand the view that by not emphasizing Wilberforce’s spirituality you are in many ways taking away a part of who he is, but I honestly do not have a problem with this. I think that Christian’s mainly complain about this because they do not want to have to get up off of their lazy butts and witness to people. They would rather just have the movie do it.

So instead of them talking with their friends about their faith after watching the movie and giving them that important connection, they would rather have the movie witness to them so that way they don’t have to do the work. It is a lot like how many Christians complained about The Passion of the Christ and how they didn’t show more of the resurrection. They wanted it all to be done for them, so they wouldn’t have to do more work. We would rather just see people who are not Christians come begging us to tell them about our faith cause they saw a movie or whatever. But it is not that simple and it shouldn’t be.

I like movies like this that help give an open door and make it a little easier for us to share our faith. So instead of seeing the problems, we need to see these things as opportunities. So I encourage you to go see this movie and look for a way that you can maybe use it as an opportunity to share your faith with another person. After all William Wilberforce used his faith to change a nation and set captives free, maybe you can use it to set a captive or two free.

I have recently had the opportunity to watch the movie Jesus Camp. Having had grown up in a pentecostal/charismatic church all I can say is, “Wow, that is eerily familiar.” Some things that I noticed…..

1) That whole part were the adults basically used fear and intimidation to get kids to commit to a relationship with Christ is very true. That is basically the way that they do it.

2) I loved how they went on about how evil Harry Potter is, like they have actually read it and know this for a fact. And then in one scene you could clearly see one of the families had a Lord of the Rings book. Funny! I thought that they used witches and warlocks in that book as well.

3) The part where the woman who runs the camp was talking with the guy on the radio and he pointed out how they are basically turning out recruits for the Republican party along with teaching them about God. And she denied it, even though they showed a scene of her and another woman with a cardboard cutout of President George W. Bush and had the kids lay hands on it to pray for him. Do you think they did or would have done that with President Bill Clinton or any President that is a democrat? I doubt it. And then there was several scenes where a pro-Republican agenda was clearly being endorsed.

4) I also couldn’t believe the part where the mom was telling her home schooled son that global warming was completely false and made up. Granted that I question some of it, but is it possible that the science on this could be true? It is possible. And I see no problems with doing what we can to recycle, reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, etc. to help our environment and reduce the likely hood of global warming. And I believe that Christian’s should be at the forefront of this mindset to recycle and do our best to save and preserve the earth. Aren’t we commanded in the Bible to take care of the earth? But the American Christian mindset goes contrary to that.

5) I thought the part with Ted Haggard was especially ironic. Here is this man who a few months ago admitted to using drugs and engaging in homosexual sex, and in the talk that he was giving he mentioned that it was obvious in the Bible that homosexuality is a sin. I guess he should have listened to his own messages.

All in all, this movie is very scary because it is so true. The sad part about all of this is that many Christians will see this and see nothing wrong with it. But the problem is that Christians need to look at this and realize how ridiculous we look. This is a movie that I recommend to leaders in the Church to watch along with Saved! and The Village, so that we can see how we are looking to the world. I think it is important for leaders in the Church to look at these things with the thought of seeing how we need to improve our image in the world, which will hopefully also help us improve our image.

Last night Kimmy and I watched The Illusionist. This was a great movie! I love movies that have a twist and keep you guessing, that are not just all about action and no substance. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind watching the occasional action flick to just tune out and be entertained, but I prefer to be challenged and have something that is intellectually stimulating. And I think that The Illusionist did just that.

Ed Norton and Jessica Biel did an excellent job, and made their characters come alive. I liked how the style in which is was filmed was similar to how they did The Phantom of the Opera, so the movie had a neat feel to it. I encourage everyone to go and rent this movie. You will not be disappointed.

Kimmy and I on Monday got to see a special sneak preview of The Nativity Story. I thought it was actually very well done. We both were impressed with it and I do not feel that it was cheesy. Okay, there was one cheesy part. The whole manger scene looked just like many photos you would see, but it wasn’t that bad. But there was some very funny lines and moments!

Then there is the whole historical inaccuracy of the 3 Magi being there at Jesus’ birth. But overall I thought it was very good and gave you some very interesting perspectives.

Some of them being how Mary (Keisha Castle-Hughes- The Queen of Naboo from Episode 3) was betrothed to a man she didn’t know or love. And her whole reaction and wrestling with that. And how when Mary came back from her visit with Elizabeth (Shohreh Aghdashloo- Dina from 24) that she would have been fairly obviously pregnant and how though Joesph stood up for her, the community would still look down on them.

I also liked the fact that Mary was played by a very ordinary looking woman and that Joesph was as well. All of the actors I thought looked the part. In other words the cast were not white people, but middle eastern looking people. And the guy who played Herod, did a great job of playing his evilness.

I would recommend seeing it. We plan on getting it when it comes out on DVD.

Yesterday, I got my copy of what I consider one of the best movies in the series so far. I am thinking that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be better. That was my favorite book in the series so far anyway, so I may be biased.

Can’t wait to watch my new DVD and see al the extras!