Nov 19 2010 4:11am
I Saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie posterJust got home from a midnight showing. IMAX. Wow.

This isn't a review, really;  I'm not an expert on the various ups and downs, arcs and aesthetics of the Harry Potter movies. And it's four a.m. (Though the movie wasn't four hours long, it just took me a while to shuffle out of the theater and get home. It ran ~2:36 and felt shorter.)

No, there will be a real review soon. But I am a big Harry Potter fan, and if anyone else here was nuts enough to go to the midnight or three a.m. showings, please come talk about it with me! I am so curious to hear other people's reactions!

First thing's first: I did cry. But not when bad things happened—it was the appearance of a blue, glowing deer that did me in. Cast your mind back. Yes, that blue glowing deer. And my weepy moment was emblematic of a) a problem that has always plagued these movies, and b) something I enjoy about them: they're for people who already speak the language. Fluently. If you do, it's quite thrilling, and this movie, being only part one, has a lot to offer in the way of things-to-come; it opens at the close.

Whoops. Micro-review, up to and including snappy last line, which I have now defused. I must have just kept writing to drown out the drunk teenagers on this train. Why couldn't the nice Potter cosplayers have gotten on instead? Tonight, in addition to many Harrys and Death-Eaters, we saw a couple as Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy (OMG, he's back! He's all shaken and scruffy! <3), an excellent Molly Weasley, and, of all things, two dudes dressed as Nimbus 2010's.

First reactions? Anyone have a cool midnight show experience?


Megan Messinger is going to bed, hoping not to dream of You-Know-Who...

1. DerigiblePlum
Oh yay!!! I only had my twitter to tell!!! I thought it was brilliant. It definitely did not seem like 2.5 hours; and, I wish it had gone longer. the film successfully balanced the in-crowd moments (i.e., the blue dear, Hedwig, and Dobby) with the overall stroytelling so that it wasn't necessary that you even knew who the characters, or apparitions, were to enjoy it - although I appreciated them being so faithfully represented. Several times, the audience I was with gasped audibly in reaction to something on the screen. Whether they had not read the book or simply did not remember what happened, it was excellent to hear that and feel the emotion in the theater; there was laughing, giggling, astonishment (can we say horcrux scene!) and teary eyes throughout the audience - and at all the right places.

Deathly Hallows is a great film in the HP franchise, but it is a good stand alone flim as well. I can't wait for Part 2 to be released so I can watch it in its full 5-hour glory!
James Hogan
2. Sonofthunder
I haven't seen it, but extremely jealous at all the facebook statuses from my friends that have. And now I'm jealous of you too. If my work isn't too crazy, hoping to see it this weekend...

I'm hearing good things from people though, so my hopes are rising. Should I squash them so I won't be disappointed, or is it really that good? For reference, I really did NOT like HP5 movie(too jumpy/slideshow-y) but loved HP6(because the characters were solid and it had some HILARIOUS moments). I've felt that for the past few movies, if one wasn't a reader of the books, most of the movie would be a bit confusing...but for someone that has, they're pretty enjoyable. For example, while I loved HP6, I can see how it would be really confusing for someone that hadn't read the book.

One more quick question - I always loved Harry/Ginny in the books...but the movies never really seemed to capture the magic. Only part that disappointed me in HP6. Did this movie do it any better?? And by that I mean, did Harry get his birthday present? And do they not seem totally awkward around each other anymore?

Also, one of your tags on this post deeply disturbs me.
Francesca Forrest
3. Asakiyume
Last night when my college-age son came home, he said, "Funny thing today: everywhere I went on campus, every conversation I overheard was about Harry Potter" --and that was *before* midnight. Sounds like the movie was able to live up to expectations, which is a great thing.
Rob S
4. RobSS
My 23 year old daughter went to the midnight show. She is sleeping so I will get her take later. I have to see it since I have been reading the books to all my kids since the start.
Ellen B. Wright
5. ellenw
The nice Harry Potter cosplayers weren't on your train because they were all on my train.

I cried once. But I also came close to tears several times, not because of things that happened in this movie but because of things I know will happen in the next. Sigh.
Alan Kinsey
6. alanwes
I saw it last night at 12:04 and it was incredible! Rather, I saw it this morning, but you understand. I've enjoyed HP6 and HP7P1 most because of the acting ability of the trio (I mean, compare the first couple and there ya go) and the overall storytelling. I completely agree that the directors have finally gotten the idea of balancing the books with a good story on film. And can I just say that I scared the bejeezus out of my wife during the Bathilda/Naigini scene? I grabbed at just the right point and she screamed. I was so proud.
7. delaney Dowding
i am ten and my dad and my sister and i are going to see it on the 19 at 10pm :) so happy, one question is it part 1 with the desturbing flm?
Luke M
8. lmelior
Personally I had advance screening tickets for last night at 6:30 PM. :)

It definitely seemed way shorter than it was. I'm glad that I didn't re-read the book right before I saw the movie, because some woman next to me was complaining half the time because they cut out so much. It seemed wonderfully executed to me: Voldemort was terrifying, and you could feel the desperation of everybody not connected to him.
Debbie Solomon
9. dsolo
I went to the midnight showing, and I enjoyed it. The Harry/Ginny romance is shown very briefly. Basically, I laughed and cried at the movie. I thought they did a nice job at the beginning with Hermione and her parents (I misted up). Having left Bill Weasley out of the previous movie, they had to introduce him with a chunk of expository dialogue here that was a bit awkward, but it worked. Luna's father was perfect. Cuts always have to be made, but I think they glossed over the Gellar Grindewald backstory. Perhaps more will be in the next movie. I did cry very near the end, and there was an audible reaction from the audience I was with at that point in the film. Overall, I think they did a pretty good job of capturing the essence of the book. This part of the story is basically Harry and his friends lost in the wilderness, trying to figure out what to do as their world descends into a nightmare.
10. Kalyani Al'Arenelle
We booked the tickets a month ago for IMAX and went to the midnight showing at 10:00 thinking that we will be one of the first few.. We are completely wrong.. The IMAX theatre is sooo full that I and my husband had to sit seperately to watch the movie.. This is the most faithful to the book sort of movie yet.. I cried at the right places, gasped at the right places, laughed at the right places and the entire crowd was with me.. I was wondering where they would break it up and they just selected the best place possible to do that.. All in all, its a spectacular beginning of the ending.. Cant wait to watch Part-2.. :)
Maggie M
11. Eswana
Hurray! Midnight showings are always the best- it's the crazy hardcore fans all together, and we just have so much fun. Our IMAX in Chicago (after a costumed Wizard March through the city and meet up at the Bean!) was packed too, but because it had assigned seating no one had to wait in line - we got to hang on in the theater complex's swanky bar until almost 11:45!

I loved it. Everyone I know who is a super-obsessed book fan
loved it too. But people who have only read the books once or twice (ie, are "normal") will probably have a hard time following it because so much was left out of previous films. This one was really faithful to the book, but that can only help so much; I just wish the previous films had been as faithful.

AND WOW: the Three Brothers animations sequence was GORGEOUS!!
Megan Messinger
12. thumbelinablues
Sonofthunder @2, ::grin::

alanwes @6, You are evil. Evil.

dsolo @9, I thought there were a lot of good shippy moments -- my theater certainly had a chuckle when Harry shouted at Ron, "Take it off!"

Eswana @11, I was surprised to see that Steve Kloves has written all the screenplays -- this one felt so different! Maybe he had trouble compressing the other books into one movie? Agreed on the animation. Wow. I keep wanting to tell people about it, but it was a pretty cool surprise for me, so I'm trying not to.

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