"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'" ~ C. S. Lewis

Friday, July 22, 2011

It's a Harry Potter World

It's over. That's it. No more new Harry Potter.

If we could pause for a moment of silence and copious weeping.

Naomi and I realized that we would be in Toronto on the night of the midnight release. We had already planned on going a day early to do some sightseeing, as I talked about on Tuesday, but now we were really glad we had, because there's no way we could have gone to the midnight release at home, gotten to bed at 3 and then left in any kind of decent time on Friday to make it in time for Polaris.

So we ordered tickets online, finding a theatre only 5 minutes and a straight shot from our hotel. Yeah!

It was a huge fancy theatre. I have never been to one like this.
It looked much more impressive at night with a million neon lights
But I forgot to take a picture then
Trelawney has a prediction for you!
What is wrong with my face?
We got there early, not sure how the line would be, and it was pretty long already. We decided to dress up, because - come on! - it's the last Harry Potter for goodness sake! When we got there we didn't see anyone else in costume and I felt a little weird (Naomi would say I was a lot weird, but whatever) anyhoo.


Once we got inside it was better. Not because a lot of people were dressed up, because they weren't, but because of the whole atmosphere. The place was charged with anticipation, Potter love, and good natured Muggleness.

We got in line and after a while, they shifted us all forward. Our line snaked into this side entrance, which was basically a concrete floored, cinder block walled, hallway with no ventilation. Fortunately we discovered that the doors at the end of the hall led outside and were not alarmed. Naomi and I stood by the door and sang the Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog soundtrack to amuse ourselves.

Finally they let us into our theatre, but there was still at least half an hour before the movie started. Naomi and I had great fun listening to the conversations around us. Two girls to my right kept trying to one up each other with horror stories from their childhood. Everything from stove burns to wasp swarms. It was pretty hilarious.

Then. The movie.

I thought it was really well done. It was very satisfying and a solid ending to the movie series. I won't say anything more, because I avoid spoilers, so I'll just say I enjoyed it.

But the best part of the whole thing was the way the audience reacted. I've never experienced anything like it before. Not even when I went to the midnight release of Half Blood Prince. I don't know if it's Canada, if it's because it was the last movie, or if it was just the group of people in the room, but it was amazing. Everyone gasped, cheered, booed, clapped, awwwed, laughed, and just generally interacted with the happenings on the screen, but without being distracting or detracting from the movie. In my opinion it enhanced it and I will look back on that night with special fondness whenever I think about the final book or movie.

Have you seen it yet? Are you planning on seeing it? Did you like it? No spoilers please!
:D

5 comments:

Sarah Ahiers said...

did see it. Loved it. Cried as expected. And then, when it was done, i was much sadder than i thought i was going to be. I didn't really think it would bother me, but it totally did. I was sad for a good couple days.

Gillian Whitfield said...

I've seen it twice now, and I LOVED it. I've been a Potterhead for 11 years now, so I was sad to see it end. Definitely seeing it again.

Laura S. said...

I've heard the same things about the audience from other people's movie experience. My husband and I are probably going to see it this weekend! I'm really not much of a fan of the movies, but I love the books a lot a lot, and this is the last film so I figured I gotta see it in the theater!

Love both of your costumes! How fun!

Shooting Stars Mag said...

I dressed up too. I was a Ravenclaw!! :) I love midnight shows. Everyone really got into it at my theater as well. Such a great time, such a great movie. I'm so sad it's over though.

-Lauren

Unknown said...

You WERE a lot weird and I laughed at your discomfort because I'm mean like that. Listening in on conversations were hilarious. That other group of people sounding like they were 11 years old but were really married and in their twenties. So hilarious. I'm so glad we got to go see it. Yay!

zired: so tired you get loopy and start acting like a bozo head.