Harry Potter Tuesday!

I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan. I think the characters are great and I am FLOORED by the attention to detail in the plot. When I read the seventh book I was totally amazed by references to the older books that seemed innocuous at the time but ended up being really important. There is a reason the Harry Potter books became such a phenomenon: they are wonderful! I've been rereading books 6 and 7, and I am delighted -- I had forgotten how good the writing is.

The whole phenomenon is one of the reasons I wanted to be an editor in college. Wouldn't it be incredible to be part of a project that got so many kids reading? Kids who started when the first book came out, and ten years later were excited to see how the last one ended. How many authors have that effect on people?

I am also a fan of the movies. I think the actors are great and the screenplays have enough of the details to keep me happy. They may not have been made the way I picture them in my head and some key information and great lines are missing, but how tough must it be to translate a 500+ book into a 2+ hour movie? No, the directors and especially artistic directors have done a great job. I rewatched the first four movies last week in preparation for the latest, and was reminded once again how much I enjoyed them. It was also fun to think about the circumstances of my seeing all of them:
1. I saw the first movie the first day with my brothers Peter and David at about 10 at night. I wore a cloak, and I remember thinking it was kind of cool that David was wearing his glasses, Peter has red hair, and I have curly hair, like the three main characters! Since David was the one who introduced me to Harry Potter (he even read the first few chapters aloud for me), I was glad to see the movie with him. When we took my mom to see it a couple weeks later, she was inspired to make David and I our very own House scarves for Christmas -- Hufflepuff for David and Gryffindor for me. I always get compliments when I wear mine. One girl chased me down the street to ask me where I got it. Well done, Mom!
2. I saw the second movie a few days after it had come out; I was in school at the time and took a break from studying to see a matinee. I thought I'd hate the spider scene more than I actually did... There weren't many people in the theatre, and since I'd heard there was an extra scene at the end I made sure to tell as many people as possible to stay until the end of the credits.
3. When I saw the third movie, I had tickets for a noon matinee, and took the afternoon off at work. I invited a guy friend I had a HUGE crush on (we were both writing HP fanfiction at the time), and his best friend the Brad Pitt of our singles ward. They were pretty disappointed by the film, but I liked it!
4. For the fourth movie, a friend of my Dad rented out an entire theatre on opening day, so I got to go for free. I took the day off work again to see it with my mom, and even though it was in July I took my scarf. Why not?
5. For some reason, I didn't see the fifth movie until a week after it was released. I was tired of waiting for a group of friends to go, so I went by myself on a Saturday afternoon. When I got out of the movie, I had a message on my phone from my brother Aaron asking if I wanted to see the movie with him. So I went again that night. It was so fun seeing it with someone who wasn't familiar with the books. He hated Professor Umbridge as much as I did :D

This brings us to last Tuesday, the day before Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (movie 6) came out. My friends Kate and Laren had put together a group to see the film at 12:01 opening day. When they first mentioned the idea, I thought "I should invite Aaron". I had intended to do so, but the deadline to RSVP was the week I got sick and I forgot. Luckily, they had one ticket left over, and were happy to sell it to me. However, when Aaron came into town and I mentioned I had a ticket, he expressed an interest in going, as I had thought he might. A friend at work had mentioned he had tickets for 5:30 on Tuesday; I asked if there were any left that day, and he managed to get three. I bought two for Aaron and I and mentioned to another work friend, Emily A, that there was a third, so the three of us ended up going together. I had no worries Aaron and Emily would get along -- they are both the kind of people who get along with everyone.

Aaron met Emily and at work at 4, we drove to the District theatre together, found awesome seats, and Emily and I walked over to Target to buy snacks. We didn't see many people dressed up for that showing, but there were plenty waiting in the lobby when the movie was over. Hagrid, Tonks, Luna, and even one guy dressed as a Nimbus 2000 -- with a broom fitted around his neck to go over his head! It was pretty awesome.

But those costumes were nothing compared to the craziness going on at the Gateway when I finally arrived there about 11:30 that night. I am pretty sure the people with feathers were Hedwig, one guy looked like the European Father Christmas but probably was supposed to be Professor Dumbledore, and one middle-aged woman had brought a live owl. How cool is that? It was great to sit with my friends and see the movie again--

I liked the movie a lot! Book 6 is my favorite, mostly because of the contract of light-hearted humor and teenage angst vs. all of the dark goings-on and shocking climax. I wanted to like Jim Broadbent more as Professor Slughorn -- I thought he was surprisingly low energy -- but everyone else was fantastic, especially Rupert Grint and Bonnie Wright as Ron and Ginny, my two favorite characters from the series. Oh! And Alan Rickman was fantastic as Snape and I think Tom Felton is brilliant. If the bad guy in a movie stinks it just doesn't work (I could give you examples), but they more than made up for the lack of Voldemort. Good movie!

And if you want the opinion of someone who hasn't read the books, Aaron loved it too. He's going to take his girlfriend to see it when he returns to D.C.

So... go see it! Even if you already have! I'm already looking forward to the next in November 2010...

...I think I'll go to my condo pool and finish the last chapter of the novel Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this afternoon.

To read about my experience seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1, see this post.