Harry Potter vs Twilight

The debate always seems to rage when either one in the series releases a movie.

I haven't read any articles on these debates because I just don't want to. I think there really isn't anything to debate about. But it seems that you have to love one or the other. For example, I listen to a Harry Potter podcast called Pottercast, now I love Pottercast and everything they talk about but there are times when some of the hosts irk when when they disparage Twilight. The hosts have read The Twilight Saga too and some have enjoyed it but they seem to think it inferior to Twilight.

Now, I agree that storytelling wise Stephenie Meyer is nearly not as good a writer as JK Rowling but why do we have to chose between the two?

I love them both and you can't compare the two. The only thing they have in common is that they are popular book series and that Robert Pattinson is Cedric Diggory to Potter fans or Edward Cullen to Twilight fans. To me, he is both depending on my mood but mostly he is Edward to me.

I wrote in a previous blog post about this debate on which I love the most and I think I said Harry Potter because it got me to read. While that reason holds true still. Twilight crept up over the past few months because of all the New Moon hype and I am a romantic at heart and The Twilight Saga's basis is all about the love story between Bella and Edward.

As I also said in my previous blog, Harry Potter isn't abut romance but about Harry's journey to defeat Voldemort. There are twinges of romance in the books but I think the movies do a better job in bringing that forward and when I saw HP6 and the great job that Steve Kloves did with Ron and Hermione and Harry and Ginny, it has made me realize that I truly do love Harry Potter more. I think when you invest almost 10 years of your life to a book series, I think it deserves some more devotion as oppose to only 8 months with Twilight but I did fall hard for that series.

If there was another thing that the two have in common is that it looks like they are in the rare breed that they will have their entire series made into a film, joining Lord of the Rings. I can't think of another one but if someone knows of one, please post in the comments section.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is filming it's two parts now. New Moon is coming out November 20 and Eclipse starts filming next month here in Vancouver. Robert Pattinson has signed on to do Breaking Dawn but other than that, it still isn't in the bag that it will be made.

Other book series like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials probably won't have all of those books made into films considering the box office failuer of The Golden Compass.

Lemony Snicket's 13-book series probably won't hit the screen either since the first Lemony Snicket movie (based on the first three books) wasn't that great. I read somewhere that there is supposed to be a sequel but I think that is unlikely since you will have to recast the kids.

Inkheart, which was released earlier this year, really tanked at the box office so it is very unlikely that the rest of the book series will be made.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a five book series and the first film, The Lightening Thief, which is coincidentally being directed by HP1 and HP2's Chris Columbus, is coming out this fall. If it is successful then we can expect the rest of the books to be made into films.

People tell me I should read Percy Jackson because I love Harry Potter. My problem is that I really don't want to get into another book series. I resisted Twilight because I was told the same thing but I am glad that I did. So we will see if I pick-up Percy Jackson at the library.

The Chronicles of Narnia looked like they were going to get all of the books made into films considering the success of The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe but alas Prince Caspian didn't do as well and Disney dumped the franchise to 20th Century Fox to make The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Having just read on Wikipedia, it looks like Dawn Treader is being filmed now.

I was really hoping that Narnia will have all of its novels made because I really enjoyed the films. So it is good news to read that Dawn Treader is filming for a 2010 release. Here is hoping that The Silver Chair gets released.

But anyways, Twilight vs Harry Potter. To me there is no debate. I don't have to choose because I love them both equally and it is true depending on what hype cycle I am in, I might love one over the other ever so temporarily.