The Half-Blood Prince Midnight Showing ~ Spoilers

[rattlesnakeroot]

Hey all ~ So sorry to be here two hours late. We got home just after three A.M. and I was ready to get online and chat, but our cable connection wasn’t working because Comcast was doing maintenance just in the area of my small town, tonight of all nights! So I tried to make good use of the time and spent about an hour typing up my first impressions

Comments

[lunas_ceiling]

I went to a movie plex that ran it on 14 screens and all were sold out. It was a sea of people, many dressed up. There is another theater close by that ran it on 22 screens and all were sold out. So in my suburban area within a couple mile radius it ran on 36 screens at midnight and sold every seat, that is a massive turnout.

I thought by far this was the best of the 6 movies. The kids have come into their own as actors and actresses and really played the scenes for maximum benefit. I thought Ron's felix felicis scene was great, but the Ron and Lavender stuff was hysterical. I thought the scene with Ron having eaten the chocolates filled with love potion were exceptionally well done.

I also thought Slughorne stealing from Prof Sprout and the Harry felix felicis scenes were perfect. I thought Dan was great in them. There were lots of funny moments, to the point my 15 year old son in all adolescent self consciousness was telling me I was laughing too loud. I did find more humor in it than most in the theater I will give him that. One example was when Dumbledore explained away the ability to apparate inside Hogwarts. I knew we had discussed that here so it struck me funny.

I also agree Tom Riddle scenes were great. The boy who played him was a very good actor and he was just amazing at conveying the general foreboding anyone would imagine would be in Riddle at that age. I thought one of the best scenes for Snape was just before he uses the Avadra Kedavra on DD and he makes the motion to Harry for quiet. I thought AR made full use of the good guy/bad guy infusing his scenes with clues merely by the intensity of his eyes or the expression on his face. He is an excellent actor. My nephew came with us and he hasn't read the 7th book (heretic) he was asking me tons of questions about Snape which tells you something about how well Rickman acted his scenes.

I would defintely see this again. I was never a fan of the movies but this one was exceptional. I got weepy when the students held their wands up for DD, but I am a sap and cry easily. My daughter didn't think DD's death was emotional enough, I think she has a point. Oooh one more thing the cave scene was really good, it was almost exactly like what I imagined in the books. This movie was really exceptionally well done.

[rattlesnakeroot]

By the time we saw the movie again and then had lunch, I needed more sleep, so I crashed when we came home. But I was in awe after seeing again because I enjoyed it more, if that's possible! I can't say it's my favorite movie of all time, because I have a long list of those, but I could easily sit down and watch it again and never be bored.

After a second showing, I'm even more impressed with the teenage romance stories. My husband and I were talking about the fact that those scenes worked really well as comic relief to balance off the serious scenes. And I pointed out to him that in the book, it often seems strange that Harry can be learning all these dark things about young Voldemort and wondering about the HBP book, but then skipping off to play Quidditch or daydream about Ginny. In the movie, we only see Harry's actions while he talks alot about serious issues, and the kissing and worrying about Ron and Ginny are at a minimum. So I like the balance alot better in the movie.

My husband also had some thoughts on other movies that reminded him of this one. I'm saving that for a future post because I want to look at some video clips.