Movie Smackdowns

So in this past week, I've managed to watch most of four movies, an unprecedented feat that is even more astonishing given the craziness of my family's summer so far. The movies were each pretty good in their own way, but I had thoughts about which were the better movies in the two pairs I watched. One pair was a set of "kids" shows. The other was more PG-13 fare. So, a quick rundown, then the smackdown.

• The Lion King: Yeah, I know it's an old movie (we have it on VHS!), but my kids hadn't seen it in a very long time and most certainly didn't remember it. This is still one of Disney's finest cartoons of that era, and the children were entranced. I put it on just to listen to the opening sequence to test the surround sound connection to our VCR. One by one, the kids came over and sat down and didn't move. This, of course, had a stellar message about taking responsibility.
• Rango: Okay, this one was a PG movie that had a lot of buzz. I'd been told it was weird, but, wow, was it weird. I wouldn't have actually rated this as PG, either, because of all the swearing that's in the movie, all of which could have been left out. Clearly in PG-13 territory, the kids were complaining about the swearing and it frightened my youngest son in all the wrong places. Yeah, it was weird. I did appreciate the messages it was conveying, especially the one about how you are what you choose to be.
  

Smackdown result between these two movies? Clearly, The Lion King wins. Rango was too inappropriate for very young children.

Okay, so the next set:

• Source Code: I had heard lots of great things about this movie, so we got it from Netflix and watched it in one sitting (that's a feat for my wife and I). We enjoyed piecing the puzzle together through to the very end. I won't spoil it here, but I thought the ending was satisfying.
• The Adjustment Bureau: I hadn't heard very much about this movie, but Netflix suggested it as a good choice. After reading about it and watching a little video online that showed how they constructed one of the "doors" scenes, I was intrigued. My wife was completely clueless about the movie, but we were enthralled from the first scene. It was a great movie, with interesting theological suggestions, and had a satisfying ending.
  

Smackdown results? I think The Adjustment Bureau wins. While Source Code had a stronger and more emotionally fulfilling ending, I have to fault that movie for being derivative. My wife and I are well-schooled in alternate realities and diverging timelines thanks to our passion for nearly all things Star Trek, so we weren't wowed by the big reveal at the end. The Adjustment Bureau, on the other hand, posed some very fascinating questions about the nature of free will, God's (oh, excuse me, The Chairman's) divine plan for humanity, and how unrestrained freedom can run amok to cause so much trouble. Wrap this up with a solid romantic plotline and both my wife and I were satisfied with the results.

Okay, so, with this smackdown, a few recommendations:

• Re-watch The Lion King. It's just good-hearted fun.
• Watch Rango ... once. But only if you have nothing else to do.
• Watch Source Code.
• Definitely watch The Adjustment Bureau.

Ah, summertime ... Who knew I'd have time to actually watch these many movies, let alone construct this blog post about them? (And, please, please, don't remind me of any of the million other things I should have been doing instead ...)

On a Botched Lyrics Translation - Dites-moi

Last night I was running on the treadmill and watching the newer version of South Pacific, with Glenn Close and Harry Connick, Jr. (which my wife and I like better than the 1958 version, by the way), and there is this little song in it called "Dites-moi". For some reason, I really love this song. Perhaps it's because I find it's simplicity charming, or perhaps it's because I took 5 years of French when I was in school and I still retain a minimal capacity to understand it. Either way, I enjoy the song quite a bit.

So this morning I'm in the shower and this song is going through my head, but I couldn't remember some of the words. Once I got online, I went to go look up the lyrics, and was stunned to find a translation that goes like this:

Tell me why
The sky
Is filled with music
Tell me why
We fly
On clouds above
Can it be
That we
Can fly to music
Just because
Just because
We're in love

I was appalled, astonished, and slightly enraged. This particular translation is absolutely, completely, and wholeheartedly false, and loses the entire intent and beauty of the song. To wit, the actual words are as follows:

Dites-moi
Pourquoi
La vie est belle
Dites-moi
Pourquoi
La vie est gai
Dites-moi
Pourquoi,
Chere Mad'moiselle,
Est-ce que
Parce que
Vous m'aimez?

This actually translates, line by line, to the following:

Tell me
Why
Life is beautiful
Tell me
Why
Life is happy
Tell me
Why,
Dear young lady,
Is it
Because
You love me?

I can hear it gently in my head as I type, and I love it. As for that other translation, well, you can keep it. I'll keep singing it in French.

Holy Immunity Idol Batman

Tonight's episode of Survivor was probably the best I have ever seen. We've seen double-crosses, blindsides, bad choices, manipulated players, and played immunity idols before, but WOW! never at the same time. Incredible. Russell Hantz ... wow, the dude has guts.

On American Idol

My wife and I watched American Idol during its first season when Kelly Clarkson won, and, just like everybody else, we were amazed. Since that time, we drifted away from the show, only occasionally peeking in to see what was happening.

However, last season we started watching again about mid-way through the semi-finals, and we were very pleased with the results. So it was that we decided to watch Season 9, with high expectations. However, as we've been watching Season 9, we're realizing more and more that last season was Something Special. Week after week, we keep wondering why we haven't seen the likes of Allison Iraheta and Kris Allen (we recognize that Adam Lambert was one of a kind). Looking back, even my least favorite of the top four, Danny Gokey, still seemed to perform better than nearly all of the people we see during this season.

So, we're kind of bored. We are invested, though, and still have hopes that it will work out, but we don't have any illusions that the cream of the crop this season are really nothing special compared to last season. Unless somebody does something great sometime soon, we may find ourselves drifting away again ...

Fall TV

This fall there's been a lot of television that has intrigued me. Since I'm a diehard science fiction fan, I've been absolutely delighted by the introduction of new shows to watch that are of this nature, such as the new Stargate: Universe, FlashForward, and V.

My wife and I, however, are particularly choosy about what kind of television shows we watch because: 1) we have certain moral standards, and 2) we tend to wholeheartedly commit to what we watch. So, let me give the run-down of what has basically happened this fall.

First off was Stargate: Universe. We watched the first episode and were miffed at the gratuitous sex scene that was included. However, we know that directors have a tendency to put stuff like that in a new show's pilot in order to be "edgier" and to grab target audiences who like that kind of stuff. We saw the same thing with the original Stargate television show where there was nudity in the pilot episode, but it cleaned up nicely after that to face an astonishingly successful 10 seasons.

So it was that we had similar expectations for this new show. However, we have been terribly disappointed. Not only has the show not lived up to the "fun-ness" of the other two Stargate series, but it has already had several sex scenes in its brief run, one of which was quite ... blatant. We're not very happy about it since we have high hopes and are looking forward to seeing where it will go. We haven't given up on the series just yet, but we're very close to doing so. We're watching for that little ratings box at the front of the episode to see if the dreaded "S" is included and treading lightly. Time will tell.

With regards to FlashForward, we watched the first few episodes, but have been disappointed in just how ... gross ... it can be. We're not into the whole "medical procedural" thing, nor do we particularly enjoy hyper-violence, but what really broke us here was the gratuitous lesbian sex scene. I know our society has become more "open" to this kind of stuff, but, as I've said in this space before (often), I don't approve of that behavior. I don't mind that a main character is a lesbian, really I don't. I just don't want to see her making out with some other woman, and I think they could have skipped that whole thing and still got "the point" across.

So, we dropped it. I still follow the story-line, casually, but only because I'm curious to know where it will go.

Lastly was V. We'd been burned by the other two shows, so we approached this one with extreme caution. I scanned the first episode and was stunned by the level of violence. My wife really does not appreciate that, so we decided not to even start that one. Too bad, too, because I really enjoyed the original ...

So, here we are, well into the fall television season and we have no new shows to watch. Our old standbys still keep us pleased enough (Survivor, Amazing Race, The Big Bang Theory, and we're awaiting Lost's return), but I was really hoping for something new. Ah, well, there's always next year.

Why, oh, why, can't there be a new television show that skips the sex, the language, and the hyper-violence, and instead focuses on intriguing and dramatic storylines? Why can't somebody entertain me without offending my moral standards? Why?!

Tron Legacy

When I was a kid, I absolutely loved Tron. Then a few years back I actually watched it again, and realized that the story definitely left something to be desired. Nevertheless, even all those years later, I felt the special effects were something special. So it is with mixed feelings that I learn about a follow-on film, called "Tron Legacy". The trailer is below. With today's special effects being so extraordinary, I don't expect to be "wowed" by what they can do on-screen, but I am hoping that they focus on telling a great story. The trailer appears to show an appropriate gravity, so I have high hopes. Apologies if the video below is too wide ...

Just Saw Star Trek

Spoilers ahead. You have been warned.

I absolutely loved it. It was a really good "reboot" to the series, which it most certainly, clearly will be. I understand they're already in negotiations for two more movies ...

One thing I'm a little unhappy about, though, is that they ignored one of the most "sacred" things about Vulcans and their culture that is actually quite central to the reason they are the way they are. Vulcans don't, under any circumstances, like to be touched. This is because of the whole mind-meld thing -- touching is a very intimate and personal thing for them, and yet in this movie, it was flagrantly violated.

Another thing I was kind of unhappy about is that the whole thing basically wipes out all that we know and love from the original Star Trek series, The Next Generation, DS-9, and Voyager. (Enterprise, arguably the weakest series of the bunch, should be considered "untouched".) ALL of the storylines effectively don't exist now ... kind of a bummer.

I loved, loved, loved all the "Easter eggs" in the movie. I regularly saw (and heard) things that made me giggle.

I also loved that they spent a little bit of time with each of the major characters. Each one of them played a key role in the resolution of the story, and I thought it was wonderful that it worked out that way. Even Chekov, who was often just a wall-flower in the original series, had a key role in this film. I was very pleased to see them being true to who the characters were (except maybe Uhura ... what gives?!), even though the circumstances of the story were intentionally different than what we've been used to.

And two Spocks! How cool is that ...

Normally, time travel stories end with the original, "correct" timeline being reinstated. Not so this time, which makes me sad because of all the emotional involvement I have with the other series, but it does make me very curious to see things happen "again" with the new timeline. It'd be fascinating to see a re-introduction of the Dominion, the Ferengi, Q, and (wow!) the Borg, etc.

We're in for interesting times ...

A Man Crush?

My wife says I have a man-crush on Adam Lambert, from American Idol. It cracks me up, but I think she just might be right. I honestly think that his rendition of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" from a few weeks back is one of the coolest things I have ever heard. Check it out ...

One of the Most Awesome Movie Trailers I've Ever Seen

Seriously. If I were, like, somebody who says, this is da bomb! I would totally say that. If the movie is half as good as this trailer, it will be worth it.

Worst Restaurant Salad Ever

Red Robin: Asian Chicken Salad

It seemed like they took bagged salad from a grocery store, dumped a few chopped peppers on top and a can of mandarin oranges and called it good. Even the dressing was unremarkable, certainly less flavorful than stuff you can get from the grocery store. And for $10 a salad, it was a major rip-off. To make matters worse, my wife's chicken (what little there was) had three short, black hairs cooked into the top of it. Totally gross.

We only went because the kids had coupons for free meals that they earned from school. They still have a few more, but I don't think we'll be going back.

Television Review: Crusoe

I'm really not much of a television watcher; there isn't very much on TV that captures my interest -- mostly because of the paucity of science fiction fare that is on network television. Nevertheless, the commercials for "Crusoe" caught my attention, and as my wife was out for the evening (for a "Girls Night Out", whatever that is ...) I was at home by myself with the kids soundly tucked into bed. Normally, I'd find some family history to work on, a video game to play, or just read a book, but I thought I'd watch this show just to see how it went.

And honestly, it went very well. I really quite enjoyed it! It was definitely the "cleanest" television I've seen in a long time. The typical things that turn me off on a television show, such as gore, sex, and language, were nearly completely absent. That's not to say that there wasn't violence and innuendo, but it wasn't in the in-your-face, let's-see-how-far-we-can-push-the-boundary kind of way.

I found the dialog to be crisp, the backstory compelling, and the overall structure of how the episode was put together to be refreshing. The narrative couldn't help but use back-flashes to help anchor the story, which some may feel is derivative or a weak story-telling tool. However, I felt that there needed to be some way to explain how Robinson Crusoe got where he was, and why he was the way he was, and I thought they worked well. His motivations would have been a complete mystery without it.

In any case, I do look forward to watching the next episode. For a guy who follows fewer than 5 television shows at any given time (I was down to 3 ...), it's a pretty big accomplishment to find a television show that is entertaining without feeling cheap. However, it's because of the aforementioned "cleanliness" of the show that means it probably won't last very long.

To make matters worse, I actually liked it, which definitely puts a death-knell in it; my history isn't too good (remember Jericho? Enterprise? or -- let's go way back -- Space: Above and Beyond?). But I've been surprised before -- Lost has been a pleasant surprise -- and I hope I am surprised again and that this show lasts for a while.

Book Review: Breaking Dawn

All right, I'm about six years late (it seems) on writing this review. I actually just came in possession of "Breaking Dawn" this past week, and, shockingly enough, this one sucked me in. In fact, I pretty much just sat around all this past holiday weekend (it was Labor Day, I think) reading this book, much to the chagrin of my very loving and patient wife. (Truth be told, she couldn't very well tell me not to be a lazy bookworm, as whenever she's got a book she really wants to read, she's not much better!)

Let it be known, however, that I'm a guy, and I'm a guy who really likes science fiction (not fantasy, mind you, which really should never be placed on the same shelf as science fiction in a book store, in my opinion), so the fact that this one actually engaged me was remarkable. I'd read the earlier books, and they all seemed to have far too much romantic nonsense to be worth all the crazy attention they had received.

With this last book, however, I feel like Stephenie Meyer finally got around to story-telling. Interestingly, I believe I'm a lone voice in the crowd in that I believe this book was far superior to her previous books. All the previous ones, if you deleted all the mental gyrations of the protagonist, could probably be summed up tidily in a 20 page, illustrated chapter book. To me, their only redeeming value was in setting the stage for this book, which was sharp and fast-moving and veered left, and then right, on it's way to the final conclusion.

I consider myself a fairly sophisticated reader, and it takes a lot to truly engage me. Yet this book not only did that, but it actually surprised me -- not just once, but several times. This, despite having been privy to several key spoilers. Some of the criticisms I've heard are about how the book predictably ended -- to that, I say that I like "good" endings. Others criticized the introduction of a second point of view -- I thought adding that second voice introduced a wonderful dimension to the story and gave us a richer experience. Indeed, if she had added one or two more voices, I may have been even happier (Edward, Carlisle, or even Alice?! -- now that would have been a challenge ...).

In any case, I must actually recommend the book. If it wasn't for the fact that you couldn't understand it if you didn't first read the other books, I'd say skip them altogether and save your time to savor this one, but they do provide needed context. Nevertheless, this one pleased me well, and I give credit where credit is due. Good job, Stephenie Meyer!

Movie Review: 10,000 B.C.

I saw some previews about this movie, and it looked like something I'd kind of dig, so I put it way down my priority list for watching with the thought I'd get to it "eventually." Well, my wife and I have been frequenting Redbox recently because we usually just want a DVD for a day, it's convenient, and Blockbuster is too pricey for "casual" renting. The other day, we were looking to rent a movie, my wife knew I wanted to see it, and Redbox just happened to have it, so she got it, fully knowing it was a "guy" movie.

Well, it most certainly was a "guy" movie. I knew it wasn't historically accurate (despite presenting itself as being so), but I also knew it was from a director that I actually really like -- Roland Emmerich. He had directed such movies as The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, and Independence Day; so I was willing to give this one a shot.

During the movie, we ended up turning closed-captioning on so we could understand the words that were often delivered in a muddled or heavily-accented fashion -- you really had to pay attention to connect the logical dots in the story. Nevertheless, I did really enjoy it. It was an active, energetic film that I thought was well-crafted. I was also extremely pleased that there wasn't a single swear word or sex scene, the latter being particularly astonishing given how it could have been added to provide greater "historical" accuracy. It had it's measure of violence, but it made sense given the story, it wasn't gratuitous, and it was quite tame by today's "television" standards.

All in all, I liked it. I'd give it a solid 3 of 4 stars, with an emphasis that you should probably see it once.

Movie Review: Wall-E

Wall-E = Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class. It's also a very good movie. Most of the reviews I read about the movie have marked it as 3 1/2 stars or better (out of 4). I took all three of my children (a very remarkable thing, considering the price of movie tickets these days), ranging from my almost-9-year-old to my 3-year-old, and they all were absolutely enthralled. I was, too. The movie started off beautifully illustrating a lonely Earth with just one last, surviving robot.

This little robot, in it's solitude, had developed strategies for survival that were clever, but unsustainable in the very long run (using spare parts from it's broken peers only works until they run out ...). His solitude is rudely interrupted by a far more advanced visitor, to whom he quickly gets emotionally attached. Needless to say, soon Wall-E is far from home and finds himself in all sorts of wacky situations.

My favorite scenes involved a beautifully-rendered and emotionally-moving "dance" scene in space between Wall-E and another robot, and another scene which made me laugh out loud involving a "medical ward" for broken robots. While the movie did introduce humans with, shall we say, certain physical deficiencies, I was very pleased that the creators of the movie chose not to portray them as either stupid or inept; they could have played a much heavier hand with the themes of human laziness and short-sightedness, but didn't, and that was notable.

We stayed through to the end of the credits, and that was worth it. I discovered that the creators of the movie had help from my place of business -- I'm assuming it was either to realistically design the robots, and/or to get the astrodynamics right. Either way, as an extraordinarily nerdy engineer with an eye for finding flaws of that nature in movies, I was duly impressed and nothing stood out that detracted from the story. The movie wasn't entirely kid-centric (as Pixar films usually aren't) and there were plenty of funny little quirks that only adults would get (and some others that only nerdy engineers would get).

Indeed, I really want to see it again (and probably again, and again) so that I can look for more hidden gems and more closely watch the eye-candy in the backgrounds. We will definitely be buying it when it comes out on DVD. All in all, I give it a good 4 star rating (out of 4) -- a very fine G-rated film that the whole family can enjoy (mine did!).

Movie Review: TMNT

How many of you readers know what that acronym stands for? Anybody? Anybody? Okay, I'll tell you. It means "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Anybody who lived through the '80s probably knows that, except those who were not paying attention to popular childhood culture at the time.

This particular movie is a computer animated film that was reviewed as nothing more than middle-of-the-road. As it turns out, I quite enjoyed it. I put it into our Blockbuster queue, fully expecting that it would show up sometime in 2009, but suddenly it was on it's way, and we were obligated to watch it. (Okay, I was -- my wife wasn't so convinced.) What I found was pretty compelling stuff. Read on.

The fact that the main characters are mutant turtles that walk, talk, and eat a lot of pizza was actually fairly irrelevant. They could have been replaced by any four (or even three, as the case may be) brothers with a penchant for the martial arts. The movie itself was actually quite grown up -- there were only a few flatulence gags and, strangely enough, I thought there were far too few utterances of "cowabunga" and "dude" for the characters being portrayed.

What impressed me most were the themes involved. Portrayed were the concepts of honor (of course, what ninja movie can do without?), brotherly kindness, teamwork, forgiveness, and long-coming penitence. All this was wrapped around fairly grown up dialog, steadily paced through the film in a manner that was quite contrary to what one would expect. The action sequences were very well done, particularly for CGI, and a rooftop scene in the rain where two of the brother-turtles were fighting each other was nothing short of poignant.

All in all, I'll give this a 3 out of 4 stars. I think it's well worth renting once, particularly if you remember the Turtles from your youth and want to take a more grown up stroll down memory lane. All in all, it was even fairly child appropriate -- if you children know anything about the Turtles. We decided not to have our kids spend 2 hours in front of the TV watching characters with whom they have no emotional history.

I wonder what Blockbuster will send us next?!

Movie Review: Transformers

Last Friday, my wife and I went out on a date to see the Transformers live-action movie. It was our semi-regular date night, which we don't get as often as we'd like. In addition, we don't usually get out to many movies -- there's just not that many that seem worth the time and money (around $10 per ticket, $5 per hour for the babysitter, plus any money we spend on dinner ... it adds up). But my wife knew I really wanted to see it, so she humored me and off we went!

As it turns out, this movie was everything I expected it to be: a good romp with plenty of action that allowed me to reminisce on my memories of watching the cartoon while satisfying some of my baser teenage instincts. Huh?, you may say? Well, read on.

As a kid, I loved the Transformers. Not just liked, but absolutely loved them. My parents didn't have a lot of resources, so I often would beg and plead and whine for a Transformer for the usual gift-receiving holidays. Only a few times did I actually get one, and there's one in particular that I still love and adore to this day (The G1 Jetfire, which design was blatantly stolen from the Robotech Veritech Fighter). I don't even allow my kids to play with it and it sits reverently on a shelf in my closet. One of these days I'll probably bronze it and mount it above my fireplace.

Anyway, back to the movie. It was pretty silly in a lot of good ways. The storyline wasn't unique or unusual (from a science fiction standpoint), and contained the usual plot devices one would expect to see, as follows:

-- Nerdy boy inherits important artifact from grandfather
-- Nerdy boy lusts after very attractive girl (VAG, for short) who doesn't know he exists and is way out of his league.
-- Nerdy boy and VAG get caught in the crossfire of very large robots (VLRs, for short) that somehow don't end up pasting the two of them to the sidewalk.
-- Nerdy boy and VAG end up as part of a government plot to keep the existence of VLRs under wraps, in the process discovering something using the aforementioned artifact that will allow them to later save the world.
-- Nerdy boy and VAG end up in the middle of even more crossfire between many VLRs, again somehow not getting pasted to the sidewalk.
-- Nerdy boy is able to escape the biggest, baddest VLR in a footrace.
-- Nerdy boy dispatches the biggest, baddest VLR using the aforementioned discovery, thereby saving the world.
-- Nerdy boy and VAG get together.

Along the way, there were plenty of things that annoyed, such as a mother whose every utterance was cringe-inducing, slow pans across the fenders of various automobiles, and even more slow pans across the fenders of the VAG intermixed with shots of the nerdy boy biting his knuckles in sexual frustration. There is no doubt, however, that these things appeal to the two primary target audiences for this movie, namely teenage boys and early middle-aged boys who grew up watching Transformers (that'd be me).

But there were also plenty of things that I loved, too. Each and every time a Transformer did it's thing, I wanted to put it on super-slow-motion and zoom in on every frame. The action scenes were well done (not overdone, as is often the case with this type of movie) and the story didn't even have that many plot holes.

I did have to suspend my disbelief whenever the Transformers changed because, apparently, there's no such thing as conservation of mass (or volume, as far as constant-temperature solids are concerned), and I was a little perplexed about why the main plot device, which creates new Transformers, would always create mean and nasty little buggers (which were quite humorous, in many cases, though).

Nevertheless, I did quite enjoy the movie. It's not one I'll buy to put on my shelf, as it's got plenty of morally ambiguous content that I don't want to keep in my home, but I'll probably rent it someday so I can do the super-slow-motion/zooming that I was desperate to do in the theater.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars. Well worth watching twice.

Book Review: The Deathly Hallows

Last night I finished reading the seventh Harry Potter book. It was very good. My wife had been extremely frustrated with me because she had finished reading it after only a few days and wanted to visit with me about what I read. To this end, I think I read about four hours yesterday, as she made every excuse to get me to read and literally dictated that I not play with the kids and instead read the book. How crazy is that, eh?

In any case, I thought the book was very good. It was a fitting and satisfying ending to the long march that the novels have been. I do feel that the epilogue left something to be desired since Ms. Rowling did not fully flush out the "where are they now". Happily, she granted an interview and filled in some of the details, which was printed by the associated press.

Spoiler Alert - Stop Reading Now if you would like to remain blissfully ignorant of the outcome of the characters. To wit, the article went on as such:

Harry Potter, who always voiced a desire to become an Auror, or someone who fights dark wizards, was named head of the Auror Department under the new wizarding government headed by his friend and ally, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

His wife, Ginny Weasley, stuck with her athletic career, playing for the Holyhead Harpies, the all-female Quidditch team. Eventually, Ginny left the team to raise their three children -- James, Albus and Lily -- while writing as the senior Quidditch correspondent for the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet.

Harry's best friend Ron Weasley joined his brother, George, as a partner at their successful joke shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Hermione Granger, Ron's wife and the third person of the series' dark wizard fighting trio, furthered the rights of subjugated creatures, such as house elves, in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures before joining the magical law enforcement squad. The couple had two children -- Rose and Hugo.

Luna Lovegood, Harry's airily distracted friend with a love for imaginary animals who joins the fight against Voldemort in the Order of the Phoenix, becomes a famous wizarding naturalist who eventually marries the grandson of Newt Scamander, author of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them."

And what Muggle, or non-wizard, song would have been played at the funeral of Albus Dumbledore, the most brilliant and talented wizard the world had ever known?

"Surely 'I Did It My Way' by Frank Sinatra," Rowling told her fans, referring to the song "My Way," written by Paul Anka but popularized by Sinatra, among other singers.

With this, I now have closure.

Interestingly enough, I had originally resisted reading the first book for a long time, as I have a tendency to try to steer clear of all things that popular culture says is "cool." Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me and I found it to be a very engaging novel that kept my interest. For me, this was a big deal since I nearly always read science fiction for entertainment.

In any case, I soon discovered that with each book, Ms. Rowling would evolve in her writing. The first book was juvenile and crisp, the middle books were bloated and in desperate need of a better editor, but towards the end, she pulled things together again into a well-written prose that will no doubt be considered among the finest of the classics. (To me, the very term "classics" can generally be translated into "boring", but not in this case.)

Happily, it ended well. I am sad to know there are no more books planned, as I always want to know what happens next, but it's fitting that it ended where it did. It'll be interesting to see what else comes out. I expect to see plenty of additional fan fiction, franchises, and other novels set in the same "universe" (think the insanity that is Star Wars). In any case, I do hope that Ms. Rowling doesn't return to this storyline. It feels to me that doing so would over-stretch it and would just leave the stench of greediness on the whole thing.

And now that she's done with that, I'm curious to know what else she has in mind ...