Last night, my friends and I went to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. As you can tell apparently it was the only movie showing. I have been to my fair share of movie premieres but this one definitely takes the cake. There were people who waited in line since 4:30! This is a midnight premiere. I commend you on your dedication and bring your sleeping bags. At 10PM, the line was wrapped around the theater filled with quite the variety of people, all of which had ONE thing in common: their love of Harry Potter. They were people in costumes. There were signs. The news crew was even there interviewing crazed fans. I don't consider myself a super fan. I have read the books here and there and have an appreciation for the childhood series that has grown as I have. However, I'm not one of those people to dress up or recite Potter Puppet pal lines but I have an appreciation for those who do. They made that line pretty entertaining to wait in.
Overall, the movie was pretty phenomenal. In my opinion, it stuck to the storylines of the pretty closely. Although, there were certain moments in that classic book I wish they could had expanded upon, such as Mad-Eye's death or Harry's farewell with the Dudleys. Minor moments, maybe, but there impact on the series could had been more duly noted. The humor was cleverly developed and it took some of the more trivial moments I remember and bring them to a new level of awkwardness. The perfect example is the scene with the multiple Harrys. The movie brought a new awkwardly humorous perspective to that entire moment from the book. Sadly enough, Hogwarts has no real significance has a setting in the movie as it has be replaced with more vast environments. That is just the nature of the story by this point though. The new settings brought a sense of expansion that I felt the previously films have lacked. Although at times, the woods, forests, and hills seem to fit the typical requirements of a Twilight film. You had the sense that Edward and Bella have walked through those same dark forests in the movie. Minor critiques aside, the special effects were, in the words of a Ron Weasley, "bloody brilliant." The children's story of the Deathly Hallows was portrayed in a neat cell-shaded art style which I thought was aesthetically pleasing.
Obviously this was only part one, but I could had stayed in that theater hoping that part 2 was next to show on the screen. Maybe the biggest problem of this movie was that it ended on the biggest cliffhanger in the Harry Potter series. It's all by design of course. But, I would had completely been fine with a 5 hour movie, even at midnight. I'm very excited for July to come when Part 2 comes out. Although some may feel that this series deserved a grand one part finale, I think this is right. In the conclusion of any series, especially one of the following that Harry Potter has, it would be a mistake to skip out anything just to fit a time table. It is just gut-wrenching punishment to make us wait...but we will.
From a proud member of Dumbledore's Army,
-R.D.
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