Made me cry. All I’m saying.

Cristina saw Harry Potter a week ago and the results are finally in! You know the drill. If you want to be spoiler-free, run along!

I kinda want to do the I-told-you-so dance because it seems people are starting to dislike the movies for the same reason I have. Too many cuts and too many changes. I think I enjoyed this movie more than a lot of other people because my expectations were extremely low. I only saw one trailer and did not do anything to get myself hyped up except wear my Hogwarts jacket to the show.

I honestly think at this point there is no director out there that will ever be as faithful to any of the books as Chris Columbus was to the first two. However, this movie was definitely a step up from both PoA and GoF. But as all of us fans know there is much need for improvement.

Beginning was alright. I had a hard time trying to tell if that was Dudley’s real voice or if he was just doing mocking baby talk the whole time to piss Harry off. The dementors scene was great, and I’m happy they kept the Hollywood drama to a minimum. I got scared for a second when Harry’s wand got kicked away. I was afraid they were going to drag it out and make it seem like the most dramatic thing ever since getting the dragon’s egg but they didn’t. Yay. I didn’t like how calm Figg was. In the book all she kept doing was freaking out whereas in the movie she’s like, “Hiya! Weird dementors being here. Now don’t go outdoors.” Kinda had a deja vu moment from CoS, which I think has to do with the fact I am currently reading that book. I think I need to go straight to the 5th book because throughout the whole movie I was getting book 5 and 6 mixed up.

When the Order picked Harry up, I was like okay why is everyone here except Lupin? Did they cut Lupin? WTF I HATE THIS MOVIE. Then they get back to Grimmauld Place and there’s Lupin. Why is it so hard to squeeze in a tad bit of faithfulness? Why couldn’t Lupin be there like he’s suppose to? Why did you have to add two or three other people that we didn’t even know? Jesus. But I have to say I love Tonks. I love that Natalia Tena is playing her. And it gave me goosebumps when I saw her and Lupin.

Okay, we’re into what the 5th movie now? CAN WE PLEASE STOP THE DRAMATIC HERMIONE-HUGGING-HARRY?! We all know they don’t get together so just let it go! It was cute in CoS, fans know the hug was technically supposed to happen in SS/PS, so quit makin it such a big thing in each damn movie. If anything, have him hug Ginny already. Speaking of which, I watched Ginny’s facial expressions the whole time and I loved it! Especially when Harry was going ga-ga over Cho. And as much as I was looking forward to seeing Cho’s breakdown in the V-Day cafe scene, I got an evil kick out of it that they made her betray Dumbledore’s Army. I’ve never liked Cho so good riddins.

I was pretty much okay with everything up until the Threstrals scene. I think they need to get it straight that if you’re actually stick shit in from the book you need to explain why. You can’t just stick something because only the book readers will know and most of the movie franchise is people who’d rather see the movies than read the book. Like, let’s make Neville stand there with his Mimbulus Mimbletonia and not explain. Haw haw haw. I think Luna is awesome, though I wish they would have added more of her awesomeness into the movie other than her pudding and nargles obsession.

I have to say I love the way they made up Umbridge’s character. Her being the cat lady was just fantastic. Her little “ahem”… exactly how I imagined it in the book. I think they took it a bit too far with making the whole DA doing the “I will not tell lies” bit. The montage of her inspecting the teachers was well done. And poor poor Trelawney!!

Aside from the ending, my biggest complaint towards this film was … no Quidditch. HELLO WEASLEY IS OUR KING?! That’s like us fans big thing. You say “Weasley is our king” and we just know. But none of that and that just saddened me. I also wished they did a bit more with the Weasley twins exit. And how come no explanation about Percy?

I was bit bummed about the whole Department of Mysteries scene because the whole flying brains in the tank bit was confusing so I was hoping to see it on screen. Perhaps the screenwriter was confused too and left it out, haha. I loved Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix.

So I got teary eyed when Sirius died but man did that whole scene lack emotion. And once again, the director’s have a wonderful opportunity to tie up loose ends but refuse to do the Dumbledore-explaining-things-to-Potter scenes. WHY?! Do they realize how confusing they make it by not explaining? It’s the most pivotal part of the books! They didn’t do it in the last movie, which pissed me off, but this one was the BIG ONE. COME ON!

I love how the film was shot (like those flying shots in London were awesome) and the music. Other than that, it’s the same feelings I had toward Pirates. I think one of the father’s in our movie audience said it all when his snores could be heard echoing throughout the theatre.

I’m looking forward to the 7th book release more than anything.

I guess I’m not a huge fan of the HP movies, just because they seem so superficial after reading the books (which start to get really complex and layered after book three). But they generally do a good job for a book that was inevitably going to be translated to screen. Daniel Radcliffe gets better and better, even though Harry is sort of annoyingly emo in this one. Special effects, as always, were great – I think the most fun part of the movies is seeing all the little magical gadgets and things being brought to life. Maybe it’s just me, but the pace of this one seemed way too slow, even though there was a lot of action crammed into a short amount of time. For some reason, pace is one thing I always notice during movies and plays – I think my high school drama teacher was effective at drilling its importance into my head!

Why wasn’t the entire IMAX version done in 3D? By the time we got to put our glasses on, I’d practically forgotten it was supposed to be in 3D.

That’s not to say it wasn’t worth the extra couple bucks to see it on the HUGE screen instead of the Big screen. The movie is among the best in the series so far, lots of action and very few slow bits. And the actual 3D part of it was excellent, but I did feel a bit cheated, waiting so long to see the special special effects.

_{Awesome 3Dness!}

I bought tickets in advance for the Friday night showing that started at 10:15pm! ‘Oh it won’t be that crowded two nights after opening night at ten o’clock. 9:20 or 9:30 should be time to get a fairly good seat.’, I thought. I mean it’s onlyin IMAX 3D! Ok at least there were not little kids there! Packed, Packed, Packed! All the crap seats were left, but we snagged two second row seats.

The 3D was the greatest! The Order and Death Eater fight was the major highlight! I wonder what it would be like if the whole movie was 3D!?

So I am going back for a second 3D show!

Warning: A few spoilers if you haven’t read the books.

This was definitely the best movie so far. Daniel Radcliffe’s acting has improved (though Emma Watson is still overacting) and as the stories keep getting deeper and darker, the movies are doing them justice. The imagery was great, as usual, and I think they did a great job portraying certain things that might have been difficult to transfer from book to movie, such as the concept of occulemency.

At first, I was a little worried they would completely take out the occulency lessons with Snape, which would mean you don’t learn about his past and how James Potter used to bully him at school. Fortunately, they did manage to squeeze this in, although a bit later in the story than it was in the book.

There were a few moments I felt they kind of brushed over so it may not have made great sense to someone who hasn’t read the books but it was nothing like how confusing the 3rd movie, Prisoner of Azkaban, was to those not familar with the story. This one is definitely enjoyable for those who haven’t read the books too.

But for example, I think they could have explained a little better why Dumbledore was ignoring Harry the whole time. In the movie, he says he was just trying to protect Harry. But in the book it also explains that with Harry’s psychic-like connection forming with Voldemort, Dumbledore can’t risk Harry knowing too much without Voldemort possibly finding out as well. This seems like a minor thing to brush over but I believe it’s important to the story that the viewers understand how deep this connection can run if Harry can’t seal off his mind from Voldemort’s invasion. They also made it seem like this was just one of Voldemort’s many talents to take over someone’s mind. They didn’t explain that in the book, the connection between Harry and Voldemort is unique and in Harry’s dreams, the ability to enter each other’s minds is not just Voldemort’s doing and in fact, Voldemort is not even aware of it happening in the very beginning. I do understand these are difficult thing to get across in a movie though.

Another moment they seemed to brush over though was the court room scene. My husband who has never read the books felt it was rushed and there was no warning of it. There was no mention of him needing to go to court until he was suddenly there and it was happening. Although I do understand the purpose of rushing through the court room scene because it’s main importance was to introduce Umbridge, I felt they could have let the viewers know it was coming.

They also did not fully explain the prophecy but they did get across the main purpose of it: that eventually either Harry or Voldemort will be the undoing of the other.

Enough negativity though because the movie was excellent. They did a great job portraying how each character was feeling and what they were going through. The politics and build up was all the same as it was in the book. The casting was of course perfect. Staunton did an amazing job portraying Umbridge – you could really feel the frustration and disgust for her. Evanna Lynch was an excellent “Loony” Lovegood, she had the perfect voice for it too. Overall, they did a fantastic job packing so much into only 2 hours time and still have all the main points make sense and come across fluently.

Since I happen to be on vaction this week I was lucky enough to be able to run right out and see the latest Harry Potter movie on the first day it was released! The local theater had showings at 9AM but I was not that crazy – we went to the 10AM!!

The movie was dark & a bit scary – as expected. The action moved along and the new director seems to have picked up the story line nicely. I purposely did not re-read the book so I had some “Oh – right – that happens now” moments.

Very enjoyable!

18 people claim to have watched this??? It makes no sense to have watched a film that isn’t out until June or July 2007. Unless you have exclusive viewing rights. And I don’t think they’re THAT exclusive. Two weeks before maybe, but not 7 or 8 months.