Went to see Harry Potter tonight...

[gwuMACaddict]

at the Uptown movie theater in dc- best one in the city, in my opinion. old school theater- one big screen, balcony, curtains, etc.

the place was packed, lots of cheering (esp. when harry is in the bath-tub)

i enjoyed the film, wonderful to see how the actors are improving- it was like seeing old friends. a bit dissapointed though, felt like the more was a bit of a bridge for whatever is coming next. but left me very excited for the next one- so i guess that's a good thing...

it's late here, so a beer for me, then off to bed...

 

[tangerineyum]

i saw a midnight screening, im disappointed in the portrayal of Dumbledor. He comes off as angry impatient and ignorant. Not the wise methodical deliberate Dumbledor that Richard Harris was. Oh well.

 

[rickvanr]

I went to see it tonight, just managed to get tickets for the 1030 show. Arrived at the theatre around 8, but the 8 and 9 PM shows were both completely sold out, and we were only able to get tickets from the automative teller, and then there was still an 1 hour + wait to get decent seats.

As for the movie, I really enjoyed it. I could also see how this movie wasn't as much for the 10 and under crowd as the first few. The Goblet of Fire was dark, and there were some parts that even got a little jump out of me. Really good movie, I'm taking my sister to the matinee tomorrow.

That being said, the trailers at the beginning of the movie were also fantastic. King Kong I had already seen, but it's still a very powerful trailer on the big screen. Also, the sneak peak at the new Superman movie looked great.

 

[Kobushi]

i enjoyed the film, wonderful to see how the actors are improving- it was like seeing old friends. a bit dissapointed though, felt like the more was a bit of a bridge for whatever is coming next. but left me very excited for the next one- so i guess that's a good thing...

I haven't seen it yet, but that sounds promising. Excited for more a good thing as that's how the book ended, too. I just may have to catch a matinee...don't know if I want to fight the hordes on opening weekend, tho.

 

[devilot]

My boyfriend ditched class... so we caught the noon showing as opposed to a 2pm or even later night showing and it was definitely a wise decsision. By the time we came out, there was already a huuuuge line of kiddos and adults waiting to be let in (and of course, a gazillion iPods).

I liked this movie better than any of the others thus far. Of course, wished that it could have been more true to the book but that's a given, right?

rickvanr, I agree, the trailers were fun to watch. The animal/cartoony one got lots of laughs from the crowd, but the King Kong looks so sad! I, uh... I've never seen any King Kong movie so I had no clue what the story was about. And duh, I wish that the Superman trailer would have been longer.

 

[iGary]

We're going tonight. I hope it isn't filled with screaming children.

I thought about the Uptown, but I just can't be bothered with that place sometimes. Too hot.

Harry in a bath tub?

 

[gwuMACaddict]

after sleeping, i felt like i wanted to ammend the above post- i wasn't dissapointed with the movie- the movie was great- i just like conclusions at the end of my stories... and the people i've talked to who have read the books told me that the next few books are all leading up to one big final resolution... so i guess that makes sense

 

[gwuMACaddict]

I thought about the Uptown, but I just can't be bothered with that place sometimes. Too hot.

it was quite nice last night. of course, it was awfully coild outside...

Harry in a bath tub?

oh yeah... you read that right... seems like harry and ron have been spending some time at the hogwarts gym

 

[iGary]

it was quite nice last night. of course, it was awfully coild outside...



oh yeah... you read that right... seems like harry and ron have been spending some time at the hogwarts gym

Oh, so it's like a "Teen Beat" shoot to keep the teenage girlies happy.

 

[AP_piano295]

..no

 

[gwuMACaddict]

nah... it's low key- you can just tell that the boys (and girls) are getting older

 

[iGary]

nah... it's low key- you can just tell that the boys (and girls) are getting older

Well we're going to a 7:10 show at the mall. Maybe I'll just happen to park so we HAVE to walk by the Apple Store.

 

[amacgenius]

I tried to watch one of the first three, but I just couldn't get through them.

 

[3rdpath]

went with the mrs to the show last night...enjoyed it quite a bit but agree with the above posts that it lacked any sort of closure. obviously. i realize that it's a series of movies but the others just seemed to have more of a complete story arc within the confines of a single movie.

that said, the fx( dragons in particular) were brilliant and not overpowering, the score was a nice change and the acting was good. thought this movie had more humor than the past ones also.

 

[itmakesmecool]

I can't wait to see it!!! To bad it won't be in my movie theather for another few months. Makes me wish I was still in the States.

 

[AlBDamned]

Heading off to see it in an hour or so. Should be good.

Richard Harris is hard a hard guy to replace ^^^.

 

[rickvanr]

Heading off to see it in an hour or so. Should be good.

Richard Harris is hard a hard guy to replace ^^^.

I agree, Richard Harris was magical i the first two films, and his shoes are likely never to be filled, but I feel that Michael Gambon has done a stellar job in his own right.

I'm going to be leaving in an hour or so to see it again. I'm quite excited.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

I'm ganna try and go today, sometime. I really, really wanna go!

 

[w_parietti22]

Yeah... I went last night, it was really good.

PS- I went with 2 girls and they really liked the Harry in the bath scene! lol.

 

[Applespider]

I enjoyed it; and although they cut screeds out of the book, I thought they did it fairly well. I'm not a fan of the house-elves anyhow (unless one wants to come and live with me) so missing them out wasn't a problem. I did think that it was incredibly fast-paced - felt a bit like blink and you'll miss a chapter at points.

The end was dark... but not quite so dark as my imagination had painted it when I read it the first time. For some reason I expected a lot more cloaked figures...

Trouble with Gambon is that he's trying to keep Harris' Irish lilt but it slips - but he really doesn't have a lot of choice. Mad-eye Moody was marvellous!

The kids are older but eesh, Daniel whoever who plays Harry really can't act well. For a role that needs so much facial expression, he just doesn't have it, particularly compared to even Ron.

As for closure and what comes next, I'll be fascinated to see what happens in the next two films. The books are far more detailed in terms of what's going on behind the scenes and the upfront action isn't quite so in your face as the dragons/quidditch matches have been (esp in book 5) so how they're going to make a movie out of it will be interesting to see.

 

[homerjward]

my post is kinda a giant spoiler so it's in white. don't read if you haven't seen it.
i thought it was good, but i was disappointed by a lot of the things they left out and/or added. it seems like they rushed through the first chunk of the book just so they could get to hogwarts. they didn't even play the quidditch world cup! and some of the things they added, like ron dancing with macgonnagall (sp?). at least i dont think that was in the book...and the bathtub scene was too drawn out. and wtf was the deal with barty crouch being there with voldemort and pettigrew in harry's dream? he certainly wasn't there in the book.
they left out the sphinx! and pretty much all of the creatures in the maze! but still, the maze scene i thought was amazing, and reminded me of "battle royale" (an incredible movie if you haven't seen it)
i agree with people who said the ending seemed kind of leading up to the next book. especially when hermione said "things are going to change, aren't they?" and harry says "yes"
my final complaint for this post is that towards the end of the wand thingy with voldemort (god, i forget the name...) it looked like harry was just casually standing there, while voldemort was really struggling. i didn't feel that harry was even trying.
on the whole, i thought it was a great movie despite all of the things mentioned above, and some others. the special effects (i'm a sucker for them) especially underwater, and in the dragon scene, along with the overall magic/feeling of the story, and teh ball scene were enough to overcome the bad stuff.
btw, hermione was friggin hot in this movie.

 

[CorvusCamenarum]

I'll toss in my thoughts as well. My gf and I went to the midnight showing Friday, and it solemnly affirmed my belief that there should be a curfew where I live for small, annoying children That aside:

Acting:
Gambon needs to read the books and realize what he needs to be doing. We don't see Dumbledore really angry until the Dept. of Mysteries scene in OotP.

Moody could have been done better. He didn't seem to be grizzled enough. Maybe I'm wrong, but my impression of Moody is that he's rather like an overdone steak.

Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort) - A+. Perfect.

Everyone else was about what I expected, although I must admit I did enjoy Alan Rickman's being passively humorous.

Story:
I do undertand that it's very hard to accurately get a 700+ page novel down to a 2 1/2 hour film, but some things were just too much. The abscence of a Quidditch match left me disappointed. I understand showing Quidditch is supposed to be all about Harry, but they could at least have done something. The first task scene was nothing more than a car chase albeit one writ magically large. I'm also wondering why they cut Ludo Bagman from the film. I can understand why they did it with Dobby, as he's somewhat annoying. Additionally it gave Neville the chance to be somewhat more prominent (I think there's going to bemore to him than is let on). The mosh pit at the ball could have been done away with as well. Also, the maze was supposed to have been built on the Quidditch pitch, not something that seems like miles and miles of hedge. I also noticed that when Krum was cursed in the maze, his eyes were glossed over. The Imperius Curse doesn't leave physical evidence, and that's something important to both how it works and to the backstory in general.

Other stuff:
The cinematography was fairly good, if a bit dark. While I understand that GoF is in a way the low point of the series with Voldemort coming back, the whole film didn't need to be so dark.

All that being said, my aforementioned girlfriend wants to see it again, and I'll probably oblige her. A- overall.

 

[w_parietti22]

btw, hermione was friggin hot in this movie.

Yeah, when she came down the steps to the ball... WOW!

 

[2nyRiggz]

lets hope they have tickets tonight....i really want to see it but i am going out on 42nd street which is stupid but i gotta see it.

Bless

 

[Kernow]

Trouble with Gambon is that he's trying to keep Harris' Irish lilt but it slips - but he really doesn't have a lot of choice. Mad-eye Moody was marvellous!

Definitely - occasional words really jarred. Particularly the scene where Harry's name came out of the Goblet of Fire. Dumbledore seemed to be saying "Harry Poh-er".

Brendan Gleeson as Moody was indeed fantastic, particularly the facial expressions.

The cinematography was fairly good, if a bit dark

Also agreed. The tone of the film should understandably be dark, but for the first half an hour I was seriously considering asking them to check whether they had the brightness setting on their projector correct, as I couldn't see any of the actors' faces. It seems to improve after this, and doesn't really affect the film, but it is still a little odd.

Overall, I really enjoyed the film. It didn't have the visual style of the third film, but it was fast paced & funny, and the girlfriend pronounced it her favourite, and she is a Harry Potter fanatic so it must be good.