Midnight Movie Madness

I should have known that one hour and forty-five minutes was still not early enough to get closer to the front of the line when the line we're talking about is the one waiting to get into the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Duh. It wrapped all the way around the side of the building. I went last night with Owen and two of his friends. As a side note here, I must say it's pretty fun going to a midnight movie with three teenage boys. They did a good job of keeping me awake until the movie started! (my younger three kids stayed overnight with the neighbors (thank you Bakers!) so I could go with a clear conscience.) The whoop that went up as soon as the theater staff started allowing people in was loud and it got my adrenaline going. Once we got inside the ticket takers just told people to pick one of two screens to be seated in. In the decent seat area (anything five rows from the front or further back) there weren't four seats together to be had, so we all split up. We were all in single seats. I ended up next to a couple with eight kids. They were fun to talk with and we passed the remaining minutes until showtime sharing family stories.

It had been a long time since I'd read the book, so I figured there would plot elements that would surprise me. I know there are fans of the books who are offended if anything at all is changed in translation from print to screen, but I'm not one of those. I understand for visual story-telling purposes sometimes events and information need to be rearranged a bit in order to accommodate the medium, i.e. not all story lines will fit into a film; important plot points may be brought up in a different way than in the book. So if you're looking for a faithful, absolutely true-to-the-book adaptation you won't find it here. However, overall the film works very well and I think it does stay true to the purpose and mood of the book. A friend of mine pointed out that perhaps the flow of the film is a little choppy thanks to editing, that a smoother flow had to be cut down to fit a better length. I think that's a fair comment.

Editing and plot points aside, I have to say that I loved the characterizations in the film. Harry, Ron, and Hermione have grown into fine actors and they are genuine and believable teenagers. It's fun to watch them work together on screen. Snape is amazing as always. The fun surprises for me were Draco, Dumbledore, and Slughorn. Tom Felton suddenly grew up and turned into a handsome young man. He shows off the doubt, fear, anger, and determination that Draco experiences as he works to fulfill his mission. Michael Gambon as Dumbledore finally gets it right in this film. They gave him longer, whiter hair. He wasn't so angry/abrasive and I almost forgot I wasn't watching the Richard Harris Dumbledore of the first two movies. Jim Broadbent does a note-perfect Horace Slughorn. He is much more sympathetic in the movie than in the book. Bellatrix was more finely tuned and not so out-of-control.

There's a good deal more comedy than I expected and it's not out of place. Overall I was really happy with the film and I'd really like to go see it again...after getting more sleep (and earlier in the day!).