I wish I could recall the which Mac was the first one I ever used but I do know it was the first computer I had ever used and it was sometime in the early years of elementary school. The Mac was my first foray into an area that would solidify what person I am today and the biggest and greatest hobby I have ever had. It wasn’t until junior high or high school that I began hearing about one of the Steve’s behind the Apple Computer company and the creators of the Macintosh. I would hear about Apple’s meteoric rise in the early to mid-80′s making personal computers for everyone and be amazed at how two men called Steve – which I would later learn there was a third Steve in the very early infancy of Apple that didn’t stay very long – and the device they created spurred a new generation of tech-savvy geeks.

Since then I was fascinated by the life of Steve Jobs and the history of computers long before I would know the detail history of Steve’s existence at Apple and the companies he would later found or acquire that would go on to as much greatness as Apple today. Including one such organization that spawned itself from the arms of another entertainment icon in my geek life and the creator of my favorite Science Fiction franchise of all time, George Lucas; a company that would go on to create movies each of which has been as entertaining as the last and has broken box office records numerous times: Pixar.

The first book I read on the man behind the business acuity of Apple was “iCon” by Jeffrey S. Young. Since then I have also read other history books on Apple as a company as parts of the book “The Second Coming of Steve Jobs” by Alan Deutschman. Both books while a bit gossipy in spots didn’t quite grasp the personality I had already interpreted of Steve from watching the various interviews he’s done and the exuberant Apple keynotes from the years of the early Mac’s in the 80′s to the ones after his return in 1997. I wonder if the upcoming Walter Isaacson authorized biography will provide me with more of an insight into the man I have admired but feel like I barely know.

Regardless of what I’ve read or seen about Steve third-party – and that includes the “Pirates of Silicon Valley” made-for-tv movie which I thoroughly enjoy more so for the portrayal of Steve Jobs by the fantastic and scarily similar looking Noah Wiley (seriously, look at early pictures of Jobs from the 80′s with the full-on beard; he looks like Wiley’s twin brother!) – he has always inspired some semblance of respect for the way to conduct business in the technology heavy world of the new millennium.

When he stepped down from CEO of Apple I thought to myself: “There’s not much time left. If Steve’s left the company and stepped down to boot, he’s not long for this world.” That goes to show how passionate the man was about the company he founded. He worked nearly to the day he died because he enjoyed what he was doing and the products he was making. He will forever be a powerhouse of the technology industry and a person to look at for business acuity and overall innovation excellence.

So long, Steve, and thanks for all the apples – I mean fish!

To say that there will be spoilers… Just don’t read if you haven’t watched the movie or read the book.

To say that I was excited about July 15th, 2011 at 12:01 a.m. was an understatement. For the entire week I waited with eager anticipation for the coming onslaught of geeky glee in the form of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″. Call it HP7.5, HP8, or whatever you like. I call it, as I see many of my fellow writers of the blogosphere have, the end of my childhood. Saying I grew up with Harry is a little subjective. I was in the 9th grade when after a discussion of Harry Potter in my English class introduced me to the world of Hogwarts, wizards, muggles, and quidditch.

As I have previously recounted in my essay “My Life and Harry Potter”, I began my journey in the parking lot of a Big K-Mart in Toledo, Ohio — which is still there today, even after K-Mart’s almost journey into bankruptcy. To say, the words flew off the page, and I began a reading experience that has since yet to be paralleled. To this day I can count a few books on my fingers that have changed my life in such a way as Harry, but my man Potter will always be at the top. Even the newly announced website Pottermore has me giddy as a glorified geek/nerd. So going into the 12:01 a.m. showing of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ at the Rave Theater Ann Arbor amidst a sell-out crowd donning those horrible 3D glasses, I imagined my fellow geeky friends doing the same miles away. Indeed they were. A friend in Toledo was posting to Facebook about being at a similar Rave Theater there. My cousin was also doing the same at a theater in Toledo as well. A work colleague was also at a theater doing the same. We conjoined geeks were proud of our heritage; celebrating a bespectacled “Boy Who Lived” vanquishing “The Dark Lord”. But even with all this, one thing will always ring true:

The books will always trump the movies.

And this is how I will start my “review” of the last HP movie. To say I was satisfied with how the movie was outlined is more than sufficient. I definitely didn’t hate it. In fact I think combined with Part 1 it is starting to become one of my favorites. But, as always with Mr. Kloves, I find myself cursing him for a few hours afterwards wondering why he didn’t put this little detail in, which only would have took him 1/8th of a page to write and 10-20 seconds of film to shoot.

The start of the film is very fast-paced. I want to say that because I think with how much they crammed into Part 1, things moved very fast. Blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fast. I was excited to see Griphook played by the fantastic Warwick Davis. In fact, I’m sure that if they had managed to get Verne Troyer back as Griphook I would have been upset. I am not a fan of him anymore.

John Hurt as Ollivander is always a treat. Although I find myself blinking back to the scene from Alien every time I see him. And his cameo in Spaceballs. I am such a geek.

The scene in Gringotts was awesome. Helena Bonham Carter portraying Emma Watson portraying Hermione portraying Bellatrix Lestrange is golden. This scene makes me super glad that they dub the voices of the characters who are using the Polyjuice Potion to imitate these people. It just makes it even more comical than ever.

The dragon scene was interesting. I imagined the dragon being a lot less pathetic in the books, but it makes sense he would be very malnourished and tortured looking.

The encounter at Aberforth’s house was, I think a little muted without a history about Ariana. Seriously if this could have been at the very least referenced in deleted scenes from Part 1 I would have been happy and accepted they had to remove because of time constraints. Otherwise, the viewer is wondering who is this Ariana and why is Aberforth so vindictive about Dumbledore’s treatment of Ariana. Maybe I’m not recalling some line from the first movie where this was covered. Maybe when I watch again for the 90th time I will see this, but maybe not. I’ll just call it a SKFU moment for now (Steve Kloves Fucked Up). That was gripe #1 (there are more ).

The scene in the Room of Requirement was ok, and I don’t quite get why there wasn’t a reference to the DA, but maybe because Kloves didn’t want to step on OotP scriptwriter’s coat-tails. Who knows?! Ginny’s reaction to Harry returning and Ron’s reaction to Ginny… Loved it! Also nice to see some familiar faces of previous movies. And who can forget the awesome Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom?! More on him later.

The banter back and forth between Cho Chang and Luna was also cute. Then we are taken out to the main hall, where shit is about to hit the proverbial fan. Headmaster Snivellus Snape brings together the students of Hogwarts because he has heard that Harry Potter was spotted in Hogsmead. Naturally, he assumes that Harry has come back to Hogwarts and someone is hiding him. This is a rather large detachment from the books, although I don’t mind it much anymore. The majority is still here but executed in a different way. We still see McGonagal duel briefly with Snape, have Harry finally take out his repressed anger on Snape having killed Dumbledore, and McGonagal telling Snape he is the coward we believe him to be… at that moment… More on that later.

Next we get to see more awesome McGonagal moments as she transfigures the castle statues to stand up and protect their school. Her quip of “I’ve always wanted to do that!” is my favorite line that wasn’t in the book. My two favorite lines from the books, one of which was not in the movie in the form I wanted it to be (grumble grumble), and the other was. More on that later.

So Harry is on his way to find the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw when Luna catches up with him and finally tells that stubborn Potter kid to listen to her for once. Stupid, Harry, Cho said that “no one ALIVE had ever seen it”. ALIVE! So, duh, find the Grey Lady. The Grey Lady was a little interesting. We never find out that she died because of the Bloody Baron — and honestly it wouldn’t have really done much to the plot of the movie anyways — but would explain why she’s so maudlin in this scene. She’s really depressing. But eventually Harry gets her to tell him where it is. “It’s where everything’s hidden. And if you don’t know where then you’ll never know where.” Something like that. Luckily Harry shows some smarts here and figures it out.

The scene in the Room of Requirement was good. Sadly the actor who played Crabbe is not in here, but we get to see Goyle bite it, so joy! And Ron’s reaction to Harry saving Zabini and Malfoy is pretty funny.

So let’s skip back to what Ron and Hermione is doing, shall we? So in the book, Ron and Hermione go off to destroy the goblet while Harry search’s for the Diadem. They don’t originally tell Harry that they’re heading towards the Chamber of Secrets for the plethora of Basilisk fangs there until after they’ve done it. And because we’re following Harry in the book we don’t get much info about what went on down there. But because Kloves threw out the SPEW storyline from the 4th movie and we didn’t have a whole lot of Hermione being fairy godmother to the House Elves, the setup for Ron and Hermione’s kiss needed to be rewritten. So, okay, have it be because they destroy a Horcrux. Not really daring, but it leaves them alone with each other. And with the hand holding thereafter, Harry assumes they are finally snogging each other. Which I’m sure he’s glad to have finally happened.

So back on track! So we are out of the Room of Requirement now and are on our way… So now with only two Horcruxes to go, one of which we know is the snake Nagini, the other which is a secret to everyone but those who’ve read the books, the trio is on its way to find the snake. And because of Harry’s connection to Voldemort, we figure out he’s at the docks. Ok, docks. Fair enough.

So we go to the docks and Harry eavesdrops with Hermione and Ron on Snivellus and Voldy talking about the wand. Voldy is mad that the wand hasn’t been working as well for him while Snivellus is boasting about how powerful the wand has been and will be for him. I think at this point Snape knows he’s about to be killed because he can tell that Voldy is deducing that the wand can only be won by defeating the last wizard to be the owner. And deducing that because Voldy thinks Snape disarmed Dumbledore before killing him that Snape is the rightful owner. Therefore, with a swish and flick of the carotid artery, Snape is near death. Voldy leaves triumphantly thinking he is the owner of the wand now and we see Snape begin to die. From behind the curtain Harry comes in to attempt to feel sorry for Snape but Snape knowing he’s about to die relinquishes with his memories of Lily and what he’s been doing all these years and tells Harry to take it to the Pensieve in the headmaster’s office. Then tells Harry to look into his eyes so he can see Lily’s eyes. Awwww! Snivellus has a heart after all. I knew he did. Did you?

So the next bit is Harry and his dynamic duo returning to the castle to be turned into blubbering crying fools. Some shit has gone down and people have died. Lupin? Dead. Tonks? Dead. Fred? Dead. Fuck! Reading about this in the book was painful. Although George’s death was a little more dramatic. But because Percy was erased from the 6th, 7th, and 8th  movies, that had to be rewritten as well. Seriously, people, read the BOOKS!

ROOKWOOD!

Oh and Lupin and Tonks had a baby boy that they (the movie people not the characters) haven’t told anybody about yet but will in passing in about 15 minutes. That was kind of stupid way of doing it, but whatyagonnado?

So Harry goes up to the Headmaster’s office and we get to see the Pensieve up close. Pretty slick, if I say so myself. Reminded me of the spaceship from Flight of the Navigator. And now we will be treated to a tear-filled slap in the face while we find out that Snape wasn’t such a prat after all.

Seriously, read the book or watch the movie if you want to know what happened here. This is getting long. My thoughts? Not word for word from the book, but the sentiments were the same. I liked it.

Ok, so the next scene I will go into a little more detail for. Since my first of two favorite lines is coming up. So after Harry is done with the Pensieve he starts to realize that it is his duty to die. Harry’s the final horcrux! We fans saw this coming a mile away. Maybe you did, too. So Harry realizes he needs to go face his death.

He meets Hermione and Ron on the way and Hermione has already figured it out, too. “Clever girl!” (Think of the line from Jurassic Park where the guy gets eaten by the Raptors).

So Harry starts walking to the forest. And on his way he pulls out the snitch from Part 1 and realizes what “I Open At The Close” really means. In the book, he says “I am about to die.” And that line is my first of two favorite lines, but fucking Kloves rewrites it to “I am ready to die.” Damn you, Steve Kloves! Give me back my favorite line!

And open goes the Snitch and out comes the second Deathly Hallow, the Resurrection Stone. A sidenote: either read the books or ask me sometime about Harry’s connection to the Three Brother’s from Part 1 and the Deathly Hallows. There is a connection that they didn’t really go over in the movies.

Because Harry is now the master of death — having all three hallows; the cloak, the wand (technically), the stone — he doesn’t bring back his dead loved ones in the horrible way as the one brother did. His dead loved ones are his mum and dad, Sirius, and Remus. They talk to him and tell him how proud they are of him. He asks them if dying hurts and if they’ll be there for him. The usual. Moving on, cause again, this is getting long.

So Harry faces Voldemort and of course, Voldemort wastes no time and kills him. Avada Kedavra!

Cue white mystical death world! So Harry is technically dead. And so is the horcrux inside him. He talks with none other than Dumbledore himself, which he tells him he can go back if he wants, and Harry does. Voldy tell’s Draco’s mommy to check that he (Harry) is indeed dead. She feigns checking only to ask if Draco’s still alive. Which Harry nods, and she lies saying he’s dead.

Oh yeah, Hagrid’s there. First time he showed up this entire movie. Hi, Hagrid! So Hagrid is made to carry Harry’s dead body back to the school. When they get back Voldy announces Potter’s death — to which Ginny screams but is held back by dear old Dad — and tells them to accept him and join him in his tyrannical vision of a new wizarding world.

Who first steps forward to join the ranks? Nevile “fucking” Longbottom! But not to join them. Oh, no, because Neville is super-awesome and then goes on to taunt the crowd including Voldy. Then Harry goes “Hey everybody! I’m still alive!” and runs off pissing Voldy to no end.

Wrap it up! So Harry and Voldy chase each other and fight while inside the Death Eaters fight the good guys. This includes a duel between Molly Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange where my second favorite line comes into play. “NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!” I loved it! And she looked so satisfied afterwards. Oh, Molly, you had a little evilness inside you, too. And it’s beautiful!

So Harry and Voldy… Fighting. The snake is sneaking up on Ron and Hermione and then goes to strike, but who comes to save the day? NEVILLE FUCKING LONGBOTTOM! HOORAY! He once was a blithering little goofball, but now he’s the mighty Thor! The last horcrux is caput!

Voldy see’s this and so does Harry. Voldy looks and is all like “OH SHIT!” He fires the killing curse at Harry, which Harry fires back — the book has him with his trusty Expelliarmus — and because the Elder wand won’t attack its true master, Harry, it backfires on Voldy thusly killing him. Now some people have expressed to me that they didn’t like how he fizzled away like that in the movie. This is not how he died in the book. Read it! For the last time!

So in the end, Harry breaks the Elder Wand in half and throws it overboard. That’s not how it happened in the book, but I’m starting to sound like a broken record. I will say that this was my last gripe with the movie. But hey, it’s about to end, right? Well there’s the Epilogue.

I loved the Epilogue. I liked it in the book and I liked it on screen. Hate me if you will, but I did. So stuff it! Get your own blog!

So I will close out my thoughts with a conclusion.

I must say this movie as a whole was the best I could ask for. It is among my favorites. I thank all the people involved for giving us fans the movies these 11 years. I can speak for myself and say I liked them even if there were places I still gripe about today. You can’t make us perfectly happy, unfortunately. So stop trying!

One last time: READ THE BOOKS!