I know I usually review books on Fridays, but OMG HARRY POTTER!!!1!!
(I might be a little overly excited about seeing it last night.)
Kristian managed to score us some tickets to an advanced screening of the newest Harry Potter movie. Instead of waiting until midnight, we got to see the movie at the much more reasonable hour of 7pm. For free, no less. All we had to do was sit through a five minute spiel about DigiCert. And they even cut out the previews!
First the Celtics, now Harry Potter. Kristian keeps getting free tickets to things that I love and that he’s decidedly neutral (at best) about. Maybe, some day, I’ll get tickets through work for something car related and we’ll be even. For now, I’m just happy that he says yes to things that he doesn’t particularly care to see because he knows how happy it will make me. That, my friends, is love right there.
Enough about me, on to the movie!
I’ll admit, I didn’t have the highest of expectations for this one. I thought that the sixth movie was, by far, the worst of the series. They tried to cram too long of a book into too short of a movie. The only reason I wasn’t confused is that I reread the book in expectation of seeing it on film. Kristian has read exactly zero of the books, so I had to explain to him what the hell had just happened when we got out of the theater. I knew that this movie was going to be a two-parter, but I was still unsure about the direction of the Harry Potter movie franchise.
Let me reassure you all, right now, that this movie exceeded all of my (lowered) expectations. And then some. It wasn’t quite as good as the third (the movie that I still consider to be the gold standard), but it was damn close. The adaptation was expertly done. They changed enough of it that it stood on its own as a movie (it has a cohesive plot and you don’t need to have read the books to understand what’s going on) but they stayed true to the book in spirit and all of the important plot points. I got chills the moment John Williams’ score sounded above the opening credits and I was fully engaged all the way through to the end. This movie just sucks you in.
I was a little nervous about how the movie was going to end. The book isn’t a two parter, even though the movie is. I had been wondering where they were going to cut it off because there didn’t seem to be a logical stopping point. I thought that they did a decent job of ending the movie at a good stopping point, although it’s very much a “to be continued” feeling than it is a “the end” type of situation. In fact, if I hadn’t read the books, I’d have left the theater saying “what the #@$^@^!” I’m actually surprised that Kristian hasn’t asked me how the damn thing ends.
And now we have to wait until next Spring for the next one! I know that’s the way of marketing campaigns and blah blah blah but seriously. Eight months. I have the patience of a fruit fly! I can’t believe they’re going to make me wait that long. If I was an evil studio overlord, I’d bundle the two movies together – and then charge patrons $50 a ticket to see the second one. “Oh, you want to see how it all ends? Well, we take Visa, MasterCard and souls.” I’d have totally forked over my credit card.
(This is why nobody ever puts me in charge of anything.)
Apropos of nothing, can I just say how wildly inappropriate it was that the people behind us brought several small children? They had a little kid who couldn’t have been much more than two who spent the entire movie crying and kicking the back of my seat. Oh, and occasionally poking his head in between our chairs and yelling, “I’m scared! Mommy, I’m scared!” I wanted to turn around and say something but:
- I was not really in the mood to cause a scene.
- We didn’t pay for our tickets, so I didn’t feel like I could really be picky about the whole experience.
- I’m a giant pussy.
I wanted to go and find an usher. But, you know, we didn’t pay for our tickets. I just felt weird about saying, “This free movie experience isn’t meeting my expectations. Please do something about it.” I know that’s what they’re there for, but I also didn’t want to miss any of the movie while I went to find someone. I came >< this close to saying something after the movie was over. But, you know, I’m still a giant pussy.
Not only were the little kids completely disrupting our movie experience (we were in the shmancy theater at Fenway with the big, comfy chairs and giant screen), they’re probably going to have nightmares. What kind of parent terrifies their small children because they want to see a movie and they’re too lazy to get a babysitter? A terrible parent, that’s who. Anybody who knows anything about Harry Potter knows that this is a decently scary story with some grownup plot points. If you didn’t read the book, at least check out Wikipedia before you take your kid to see the movie. Those poor kids.
On our way out, we passed a bunch of people waiting in line for the midnight show. I really wanted to walk by and loudly proclaim, “I can’t believe Snape kills Dumbledore… again!” Because, you know, I’m a terrible person. But I was just so happy to have seen such a great movie that I kept my obnoxious thoughts to myself as we walked to the car. In other words, if you like Harry Potter, you should see this movie.
Ugh, I really, really hate when parents bring kids to a movie they shouldn’t be in! We are seeing it tonight. I haven’t read any of the books.
As long as you’ve seen the movies, it will be fine. And, even if you haven’t seen the movies, you’ll still probably be fine. They did a good job with this one of making it stand on its own as a film.
I wanted to be a good ehellion and politely but firmly ask the parents behind us to shut up their @#$@$^! kids. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
So you saw an “advanced” screening, huh? Did it score really high on it’s SATs? Or start walking at two months?
Hee hee.
It was like me. Wicked smart.