Consider This Counter-Programming to all the MJ Stuff
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is almost my favorite of the entire series. The movie comes out July 15th, and boy does it look like they're not skimping on the dark stuff! Which works for me, because it's all a ramp up to the big final showdown in Deathly Hallows, but I hope they don't short shrift the romantic stuff in HBP. My favorite thing so far, though, is this poster of Alan Rickman as Severus Snape.
A thread on the Romance Divas forum yesterday asked about people's favorite movie villains, and as I thought about it I realized how many of them were played by Alan Rickman! The Sheriff of Nottingham in the otherwise-forgettable Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Hans Gruber in the first (and best) Die Hard, and of course, Severus Snape. With that gorgeous baritone and those deep, dark eyes, he's a perfect typecast villain. But what makes his portrayals of bad guys interesting and memorable is the depth of feeling he brings to the character. There's more going on for these villains than the simple wish to do evil. The inner life Rickman creates for his characters shines through his eyes, his face, his body, and comes perilously close to making you root for the bad guy to win.
Especially as Snape. Severus Snape is one of the most conflicted, embattled characters in modern literature, and Alan Rickman was inspired casting. I can't imagine anyone else in the part, and I can't wait for this movie!
