I love Harry Potter and this is the first time since 2007 I've had a new "Harry Potter" book in my hand. The first time since 2007 I got excited over a book release. I never thought I would celebrate anything like this ever again, but I did. I'm 13 years old again, going into the seventh grade where it might have been uncool to like "Harry Potter" but I still did. I went to the midnight release party for "Cursed Child" on July 30 (as I have been to many before) and I expected to see people mostly my age and older but I was surprised (and happied) to see younger audience at the party for the book.
"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" takes place 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts and Harry is now the Head of Magical Law Enforcement.... and a deadbeat dad. This is the tale of Albus though. And his daddy issues. I would argue the main theme of this screenplay is daddy issues. Draco Malfoy's son Scorpius faces similar issues with Daddy Malfoy that Albus faces with Harry. A new character Delphini is the daughter of none other than the Dark Lord himself and the always favorite Bellatrix Lestrange. The Cursed Children. But truthfully, this story is about growing up and accepting where you come from. Beautiful, really.
There were parts of the screenplay that made my heart well up inside. The fact that the story starts off exactly where it left off in the "Deathly Hallows" epilogue had me emotional ten minutes in. Towards the end of the screenplay Harry said, "In my fifth year I did - I did a lot of stuff. Some of it good. Some of it bad. A lot of it quite confusing." It forces me to look back when Harry was 15 and me reading and watching "Order of the Phoenix" for the first time. Harry led Dumbledore's Army, defied Umbridge, attempted to be a part of the Order of the Phoenix and, of course, had a thing for Cho Chang. Then it forces me look back and think about what I was doing at age 15. Uh, taking a photography course and listening to grunge nineties bands. Harry tells Albus he's afraid of the dark and small spaces (and pigeons - WTF Harry) and my heart broke in half. It brings us back to those cupboard under the stairs days and it makes you want to hug Harry. The scenes from "Goblet of Fire" made me happy and Hermione reminiscing about the last time she and Harry were at Godric's Hollow made me want to rip the book apart and use the pages as tissues. Ron running Weasley Wizard Wheezes and Ginny being the sports editor at "The Daily Prophet" are nothing short of what I wished for them. The best part of the screenplay was the nostalgia.
But where the hell did the story's main focus come from? While I love the nostalgia, why aren't there more new characters and storylines? An elderly and deranged Amos Diggory comes out of nowhere 25 years after his beautiful son Cedric dies and asks Harry to go back in time and save "the spare" (Robert Pattinson, if you're reading this, please come back for the movie version). The revival of some characters seemed unnecessary. Hello, portrait version of Dumbledore and alternative universe Snape. Somehow McGonagall is ageless yet where is Hagrid? Where is George if Ron is running the joke shop? I didn't think this story would be about Voldemort and here we are with another story on apparently the only bad guy within the last 19 years.
The storyline was cliche. It pains me to say this because I believe J.K. Rowling has singlehandedly created the greatest fictional world in fantasy (sorry, J.R.R. Tolkien. I'm honestly just bias). Don't mess with time. That's the moral of the story. We've seen it on every show and movie. One slight action or event can change the entire course of history and that's what happens in "Cursed Child." The use of alternative realities and paralell universes are cheap and overused and I expected more if Rowling approved the screenplay. The Time Turner was always one of my favorite gadgets within the Potterverse but I hoped to see new and original plots and figures brought into the new story.
Seeing Harry as a father was not my favorite thing. I want Harry to be 17 forever. I want him to be my age forever. I'm 21 but I'll always see me, Harry, Ron, and Hermione as the same age as me. We grew up together. I've known them since I was six years old and their Hogwarts journey ended just a little bit before my high school journey did. Harry as a father was too much for my nostalgic heart to handle. We see a vulnerable side of Harry as a father, and in Draco in the same role.
The story was written by playwright Jack Thorne and directed by John Tiffany. Rowling's involvement was simply the "okay" and the use of her characters and world. The script is truly lacking what we love about Rowling's books though. The imagination involved, being fully a part of the story, and learning about the wizarding world as we read on, but I'm blaming the screenplay format, not Thorne and company. Although the book read, at best, like fan fiction sales were, unsurprisingly, amazing. According to the New York Times, "[t]he book topped the 2016 pre-order charts for Amazon's print and Kindle e-book sales, while also becoming Barnes & Noble's top pre-ordered book since 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,' in 2007" and "has sold over two million copies in just two days in North America alone," according to Vulture.
Like I've stated before: if it's not broken don't fix it. I wanted more Harry Potter but I didn't want this. I wanted more about Harry's children and less about Harry and Voldemort. Beggars can't be choosers so now give me "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"!!!!!!!!!! For Voldemort and Valor.