Call the men of blogwatch, and let them hear this song;

Tell them Albert Einstein and Copernicus were wrong…

So I saw the Harry Potter movie. Loved the Cuaronism–scenery, dark air of foreboding that never got boring or oppressive, time stuff, many lovely little directorial touches (Lupin’s Victrola, sugar skulls, Whomping Willow, toad choir). The script, not so much. The first seven minutes or so (Harry at Dursleys’) were really, really awful–I was embarrassed to be in the theater. Was indifferent to virtually all the characters. Draco is a lot of fun. I admit to liking Hermione, more here than in the books, though she is still too superheroiney. We only get about three seconds of Alan Rickman’s hideous purr, which left me truly disappointed. (Snape of the evening, wonderful Snape!) Disliked David Thewlis as Remus Lupin–wrong vocal inflections (fatuous and overly Mr. Chips–script did not help). Everyone is right about the Monster Book of Monsters: It’s super cute. I wanted to stroke its spine. (My parents’ cat bites and claws a lot, if you’re wondering where I get the impulse. Furry hostility is a challenge to be met, not a threat to be avoided.) Ending is even more compressed, and therefore emotionally undermotivated, than it needed to be. This is worth matinee price for a) fans or b) people who want to see the Harry Potter Mexican art flick. Hilarious (and spoileriffic) “Prisoner of Azkaban in Fifteen Minutes” summary here.

People who want very funny Harry Potter-related stuff should absolutely, without delay, hie themselves hither. (Especially if you, like me, are fonder of Slytherin than is strictly healthy.) …It would be too embarrassing to explain how I found this. Suffice it to say that I also really am underimpressed with Gilbert and Sullivan.

In much more important news, GetReligion has a good post on Reagan and Southern Baptists here: “…Nevertheless, the Reagan-loving Baptists lost their fear of politics and jumped back into the public square. But while the conservative grown-ups helped create the Religious Right, their children were alone in their bedrooms watching HBO and MTV. The parents thought they could vote in the kingdom. It didn’t work out that way. What they got was ‘I Love the ’80s.’

“And there were some Southern Baptists who saw Reagan as the Antichrist.

“I saw this close up. I had a dear friend in graduate school who literally lost his moderate Southern Baptist faith because of the election of Ronald Reagan. How could he believe in a loving God, if Reagan could be elected president? …

“So defeating Reagan was the way to vote in a radically different Kingdom.

[clipped] Whole thing.