For 10 years, “Harry Potter” and childhood have been synonymous.
Since the first book was released in 1998, the current generation of college students has grown up with the worldwide “Harry Potter” phenomenon.
The last book, which was published in 2007, coincided with the high school graduation of many college seniors today.
Now the release of the final films mirrors the final days of college for many students.
But as with any bestselling book that meets the big screen, Harry Potter is the source of an age-old debate over which is better: the books or the movies.
Some avid book fans argue that reading engages the imagination, allowing the reader to develop their own visual interpretations of the text.
For Lane Community College student Caitlin O’Rourke, the books are better.
“In your head, you can create the story how you want it, instead of how a director far away wants to portray it,” O’Rourke said.
Movies simply hand the visuals to the audience, removing the role of the imagination.
However, the special effects in movies can add an element of excitement and visual stimulation that cannot be easily conveyed through writing.
For instance, the action sequence that precedes the return of Voldemort in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” is best left to the hands of cinematic gurus.
University senior Adrian Ho said he is not a fan of the films, but he is trying to see the second-to-last film with an open mind.
“I’m afraid of the inaccuracies,” Ho said. “I’m not going to read the books before (and) create a false fantasy for myself.”
And, of course, movies allow viewers to submerge themselves in the story for a few hours and come out with a thorough understanding of the plot line, while books require more patience and time to work through the nitty-gritty details of character development and plot sequence.
This is especially true in the “Harry Potter” novels, with the shortest book having more than 300 pages and the longest having nearly 900.
Cory Frazer, a Smith Family Bookstore employee, said he liked the “Harry Potter” books better than the movies, but said they are both good for different reasons.
“You’re condensing the book into two- or three-hour movies,” Frazer said.
A lot of content that adds to the books cannot be fit into the movies, he said.
Because the “Harry Potter” books become thicker as the series progresses, it becomes even harder to fit all of the important details into a single movie.
That’s one of the reasons many people are pleased that the seventh segment in the series will be split into two films.
“I’ll probably be more upset this time if they leave stuff out,” Frazer said.
On the other hand, some people think a two-part finale overdoes it.
Some think it has to do with the film industry’s tendency to stretch movies out into as many parts in an effort to draw in more revenue.
Ariana Marquis, a clerk at Tsunami Books, said it makes sense to give more screen time to the final book rather than for each of the previous books, but that the motivations probably come down to money.
Regardless of the real intentions behind the two parts, it is still beneficial to break the movie into two segments so more details from the book can be included.
“In this case, whether it’s the movie industry trying to make more money or not, it’s a good thing,” Frazer said.
Overall though, Marquis said the movies stayed true to the overall message and mood of the books.
“The movies did a pretty good job of translating the details that would work, the stuff that would be relevant,” Marquis said.
Though the last film doesn’t actually premiere for another eight months, the release of the film based on the last books marks the end of a generation that has grown up knowing and loving “Harry Potter.”
“I really loved going out, celebrating ‘Harry Potter,’” University freshman Ashley Collingwood said. “(It’s) such a huge part of my life, and now it’s ending.”
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