Harry Potter and the Ultrascreen Reserved

We went to Harry Potter at the Ultrascreen last night. We reserved our seats a few weeks ago. They were delightful. The entire experience of seeing a sold-out brand-new film was dramatically different. I remember sitting in long hallways for an hour to get jammed into a packed theater for the Phantom Menace. I hated the experience…the film wasn’t as bad as the wait. Rob and I started negotiating how soon we needed to see new blockbusters. I usually lost and we waited and waited. By showtime at 10, Harry Potter was sold out. Reserved seats does make people bold – we got their early enough to get popcorn and beer, but some people didn’t sit down until opening credits.  The people who sat in the unreserved seats down below (the hoi polloi, I say in jest) waited in line. Strained to file in and find seats together, seats far enough away from the giant screen to avoid neck and eye strain. At least that’s what I would have done.  We had debated what row to sit in (3) and which part (dead center) and whether we wanted to share a loveseat or have a little table between us. That debate was made moot by the ticket seller’s stance that she had to sell us a loveseat pair. And then it turned out, we had a table between us. There is something wacky in their software. The table was handy, and then a group of 5 and a group of 3 got to share the row with us.

I’ll wander off-topic to say that I like our trend lately to have the discussion/argument/heated exchange/fight about something far in advance. I would have been unhappy to sit really close to the screen and to wait on the floor for an hour. Rob would have been unhappy to not see the movie until next week or whenever the crowd had faded. So we negotiated/bartered/thought creatively and enjoyed a lovely evening.

The movie? Oh, that was quite fine. Emma Watson is luminous. The supporting cast is amazing. The reviews that call this movie filler, showing sign of “fatigue”, or feeling like a placeholder, well, they’re not wrong. Like catching up with old friends, it is delightful to see Harry, Ron and Hermoine. I remember this book as having a lot of talking and mystery – who was the Half Blood Prince? who? And then the endless debates over how evil Snape really was. And I am not sure the movie captured that sense of mystery. Or why it mattered. I welcomed the romance but I have to say I feel like a Puritan that the amount of snogging in dark corners alarmed me a bit. It was a gorgeous film to watch despite being very very dark. Can’t wait until 7 and 8.

I can wait for my children to grow out of their Harry Potter fixation. Rob read book 1 to Miranda. Then we watched the first movie. And then we watched the second movie because it was going to take so long to read 2 first. We are pausing before they try 3. The children have now seen 1 and 2 at least 3 times for each movie. Miranda absorbed the book and the story and it is delightful to see. Henry has decided to wave a wand everywhere, all day, all the time. They printed the spells off the internet, but he can’t read, so he still ends up saying wingardium leviosa over and over and over. And he talked me into a lightning bolt scar drawn on his forehead. I actually adore Harry Potter but I am so over the wand (a drumstick in our case) in the house.