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Double, double, toil and trouble, something wicked this way comes!
Note: This is a repost of my PoA line party and review posts on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zorb. Nothing new here if you've read those. Except for this introduction.
cindelius, hermionemalfoy and I were lucky enough to only hit the last remnants of traffic on our way up. The t00bs spent the trip talking about QAF and trying to study for their tests today - good luck! When we finally arrived, around 7:30, there was already a decent line going. Our group, consisting then of chickadilly, bekkio, prncspnut, dsneyvoice, kathybav, aaoconnor, and princesspotter had a place staked out at the front for people, so yay. So many people in costume! Mostly Gryffindors, but there were a few other houses thrown in. I was good and work my pp.org shirt and orange bracelet, with my trusty witch hat.
For an hour, I helped people make name tags, oohed and aahed over the Weird Sisters shirts, marveled at the amount of guys who were there compared to what we see online (come out of hiding! we don't bite!), and was generally giddy with excitement. Bekki and Jenny worked the crowd with trivia games. But at 8:40, just as Nancy was painting a pumpkin on my face, the theatre management came to tell everyone that the IMAX people were going to be let into the theatre in ten minutes! I guess we were a scary crowd for them to have taking up all that space outside, especially considering that not nearly all of us had arrived yet to the sold-out show.
We got prime seats in the theatre - my lovely roommates were luckily there by then - and saved a bunch more for the people to come. There weren't yet enough people there for saving so many to be a problem. We had wondered how on earth we could sit in the theatre for three and a half more hours doing nothing, but we were able to continue the line party activities to some extent. The trivia crew made their way down the rows, and the Odd Sock contest happened as planned down at the front. Bekki had tons of sugar with her - mwahaha - and Audrey made these fantastic PoA Survival Kits for us. The petrified theatre people were ticket stub nazis, though they didn't seem to know anything about the rumored night-vision goggles. I was too caught up in the film to look for them during it.constancev arrived not too long after we got inside.
ixchelmala, lizardlaugh, lagreyeyes and nmalfoy eventually came - and then left for the Cheesecake Factory to kill time. airemay and her mom made it, too. Mary, I have to tell you, your mom is so cool for taking you to something like this; I don't think my mother would ever have let me go to all these meetups. As we waited, the crowd grew, the random "Harry Potter rules!" shouts continued (and got old really fast), and my energy level flagged, resulting in the need for Diet Coke. The restaurant crowd returned, and before we knew it, it was lights down - movie time! More on that in the next post.
Post-film, we wandered out of the theatre in a daze. Pictures were taken, rushed chatter was had, most needed bathroom visits were made. We reconvened as a group outside of the theatre, but about ten security people descended upon us, declaring the Spectrum closed and ordering us to our cars. Everyone was too tired for anything else, and anyway, I had people to get home. There was a brief scare with my car on the way out, but a little oil fixed it, thank goodness. Dani and Kristine did a great job of keeping me awake on the drive home, except I was on total autopilot when we got off the freeway and turned left towards my apartment rather than right towards campus. Whoops. So there was some circling there before I finally made it home and into bed.
WARNING: SPOILERS!
Oh. My. God. That movie kicked so much ass. It kicked the other two off the map, chewed them up and spit them out. Columbus should be ashamed of producing such tripe in comparison to this...real film. Everything was so much better! It had color, life, personality! It had honesty and reality and power and magic. It was no longer, "Oh, look at the pretty fake world on film!" - it was, "OMG it's all real and I'm in it!" Or maybe that was just the size of my screen talking. ;-)
Speaking of color, life, and personality, HELLO, Dumbledore and Weasley Twins! Where the hell have you been? Finally! Michael Gambon should have been Dumbeldore from the start, because he embodied the power and zaniness of the Dumbledore I read about. He was so much more there. I can't wait to see him in OotP, if that happens. And Twins! You didn't suck! The Marauders' Map scene was hilarious! Silly me, blaming the actors for two films; you clearly had the talent in you.
Emma Thompson. I was looking forward to her performance the most out of all the new people, and I wasn't disappointed. Like Alan Rickman, she only faintly resembles my mental image of the character, but she took it and made it her own and did a fabulous job. World class acting, there. So much love. <3
David Thewlis and Gary Oldman (because you can't speak of them apart!). Again with the not fitting the image perfectly; again with the brilliance. Thewlis just was Lupin. Oldman went all the way, bursting out in the Shrieking Shack, the very first time we see him in person. Their passion made the Shack scene. Take that as you will. Theirloveissocanon!
And the Trio. My lovely, talented trio. You continue to prove to me that you are growing, talented actors who thrive under the correct conditions. Rupert! You grew more expressions! Good boy. Emma! You continue to be my favorite of the movie!trio actors. I have seen some comments about super!Hermione, but I honestly don't see it. PoA is a very Hermione-centric book. If anything, she's less superheroish in the film; we don't get to see her exhaustion as she plugs through all those classes, we don't get her fixing Harry's glasses in Quidditch, we don't get her helping out with Buckbeak at all. *shrugs* But that's just MHO.
Which brings me to Harry....and I have no idea what to say other than: <3
Scenes. Oh, so many excellent ones. The Shrieking Shack, of course, and the first DADA lesson. The entire ending sequence. The first night in the Great Hall (toads!). The dormitory scenes. The Knight Bus (I love the head because it makes the stupid jokes that I would make). Even Harry's "I'm the king of the world!" moment on Buckbeak.
Everything was so much fuller than in the past. Rather than actors pacing in front of pretty tableaux, it was real people interacting in their world. Even the seasonal transistions were noticeably better than before. Instead of static panoramas, we got exposition with a twist, with some little quirk or movement added that made the transitions worthy of inclusion, rather than better seen on the cutting room floor. The time-traveling sequence was fantastically done, making me consciously marvel as I was enthralled in the story, although the stone throwing and wolf howling were pretty easy to see through the first time around. ;-) We ended with Harry-love, as it should be - none of this Hagrid crap. And that opening scene? Sheer brilliance.
It was a blast to see with Fans because we were free to laugh at parts we mightn't've otherwise. I know our group got caught up in snickers a number of times, at semi-inappropriate moments. *g* The cheers, the silences, the mad squeeingairemay and I did - they all contributed to a real filmgoing experience.
I suppose I should say something about ship. As I'd gathered, there was something for everyone in this one. We all have our biases, which will make us say it leaned more one way or another, which makes me think that it was evenly balanced. Ron/Hermione people had some brief moments at the beginning; Harry/Hermione people had the entire ending sequence. A fair representation of the books, all in all. *ducks and runs* But seriously, there was even some Draco/Hermione stuff. Hehehe, the ferrets!
Yes, some of my favorite moments were cut. Yes, everything was rearranged willy-nilly. And yes, I can see how people who haven't read the books would be confused as hell, but as we discussed on the way to my car, these movies do not need to cater to those people, because it's those of us who have read the books over and over who are going to see the movie over and over.
My one criticism is the opening. As much as I loved and adored that scene (and the subsequent Marge scene was good, too, particularly the boing! noises she made when she hit the ceiling - yay, detail!), the whole beginning was rushed and choppy. I suppose Cuaron was eager to get to the real meat of the story, not that I blame him. I'm not too broken up over it, though, because of the absolute magic he worked on the rest of it.
That's all I can come up with now, after one late-night/early morning viewing. I am sure I will have more to say the next time I see it. Hopefully, that will be very soon.
zorb. Nothing new here if you've read those. Except for this introduction.cindelius, hermionemalfoy and I were lucky enough to only hit the last remnants of traffic on our way up. The t00bs spent the trip talking about QAF and trying to study for their tests today - good luck! When we finally arrived, around 7:30, there was already a decent line going. Our group, consisting then of chickadilly, bekkio, prncspnut, dsneyvoice, kathybav, aaoconnor, and princesspotter had a place staked out at the front for people, so yay. So many people in costume! Mostly Gryffindors, but there were a few other houses thrown in. I was good and work my pp.org shirt and orange bracelet, with my trusty witch hat. For an hour, I helped people make name tags, oohed and aahed over the Weird Sisters shirts, marveled at the amount of guys who were there compared to what we see online (come out of hiding! we don't bite!), and was generally giddy with excitement. Bekki and Jenny worked the crowd with trivia games. But at 8:40, just as Nancy was painting a pumpkin on my face, the theatre management came to tell everyone that the IMAX people were going to be let into the theatre in ten minutes! I guess we were a scary crowd for them to have taking up all that space outside, especially considering that not nearly all of us had arrived yet to the sold-out show.
We got prime seats in the theatre - my lovely roommates were luckily there by then - and saved a bunch more for the people to come. There weren't yet enough people there for saving so many to be a problem. We had wondered how on earth we could sit in the theatre for three and a half more hours doing nothing, but we were able to continue the line party activities to some extent. The trivia crew made their way down the rows, and the Odd Sock contest happened as planned down at the front. Bekki had tons of sugar with her - mwahaha - and Audrey made these fantastic PoA Survival Kits for us. The petrified theatre people were ticket stub nazis, though they didn't seem to know anything about the rumored night-vision goggles. I was too caught up in the film to look for them during it.
constancev arrived not too long after we got inside.ixchelmala, lizardlaugh, lagreyeyes and nmalfoy eventually came - and then left for the Cheesecake Factory to kill time. airemay and her mom made it, too. Mary, I have to tell you, your mom is so cool for taking you to something like this; I don't think my mother would ever have let me go to all these meetups. As we waited, the crowd grew, the random "Harry Potter rules!" shouts continued (and got old really fast), and my energy level flagged, resulting in the need for Diet Coke. The restaurant crowd returned, and before we knew it, it was lights down - movie time! More on that in the next post.Post-film, we wandered out of the theatre in a daze. Pictures were taken, rushed chatter was had, most needed bathroom visits were made. We reconvened as a group outside of the theatre, but about ten security people descended upon us, declaring the Spectrum closed and ordering us to our cars. Everyone was too tired for anything else, and anyway, I had people to get home. There was a brief scare with my car on the way out, but a little oil fixed it, thank goodness. Dani and Kristine did a great job of keeping me awake on the drive home, except I was on total autopilot when we got off the freeway and turned left towards my apartment rather than right towards campus. Whoops. So there was some circling there before I finally made it home and into bed.
WARNING: SPOILERS!
Oh. My. God. That movie kicked so much ass. It kicked the other two off the map, chewed them up and spit them out. Columbus should be ashamed of producing such tripe in comparison to this...real film. Everything was so much better! It had color, life, personality! It had honesty and reality and power and magic. It was no longer, "Oh, look at the pretty fake world on film!" - it was, "OMG it's all real and I'm in it!" Or maybe that was just the size of my screen talking. ;-)
Speaking of color, life, and personality, HELLO, Dumbledore and Weasley Twins! Where the hell have you been? Finally! Michael Gambon should have been Dumbeldore from the start, because he embodied the power and zaniness of the Dumbledore I read about. He was so much more there. I can't wait to see him in OotP, if that happens. And Twins! You didn't suck! The Marauders' Map scene was hilarious! Silly me, blaming the actors for two films; you clearly had the talent in you.
Emma Thompson. I was looking forward to her performance the most out of all the new people, and I wasn't disappointed. Like Alan Rickman, she only faintly resembles my mental image of the character, but she took it and made it her own and did a fabulous job. World class acting, there. So much love. <3
David Thewlis and Gary Oldman (because you can't speak of them apart!). Again with the not fitting the image perfectly; again with the brilliance. Thewlis just was Lupin. Oldman went all the way, bursting out in the Shrieking Shack, the very first time we see him in person. Their passion made the Shack scene. Take that as you will. Theirloveissocanon!
And the Trio. My lovely, talented trio. You continue to prove to me that you are growing, talented actors who thrive under the correct conditions. Rupert! You grew more expressions! Good boy. Emma! You continue to be my favorite of the movie!trio actors. I have seen some comments about super!Hermione, but I honestly don't see it. PoA is a very Hermione-centric book. If anything, she's less superheroish in the film; we don't get to see her exhaustion as she plugs through all those classes, we don't get her fixing Harry's glasses in Quidditch, we don't get her helping out with Buckbeak at all. *shrugs* But that's just MHO.
Which brings me to Harry....and I have no idea what to say other than: <3
Scenes. Oh, so many excellent ones. The Shrieking Shack, of course, and the first DADA lesson. The entire ending sequence. The first night in the Great Hall (toads!). The dormitory scenes. The Knight Bus (I love the head because it makes the stupid jokes that I would make). Even Harry's "I'm the king of the world!" moment on Buckbeak.
Everything was so much fuller than in the past. Rather than actors pacing in front of pretty tableaux, it was real people interacting in their world. Even the seasonal transistions were noticeably better than before. Instead of static panoramas, we got exposition with a twist, with some little quirk or movement added that made the transitions worthy of inclusion, rather than better seen on the cutting room floor. The time-traveling sequence was fantastically done, making me consciously marvel as I was enthralled in the story, although the stone throwing and wolf howling were pretty easy to see through the first time around. ;-) We ended with Harry-love, as it should be - none of this Hagrid crap. And that opening scene? Sheer brilliance.
It was a blast to see with Fans because we were free to laugh at parts we mightn't've otherwise. I know our group got caught up in snickers a number of times, at semi-inappropriate moments. *g* The cheers, the silences, the mad squeeing
airemay and I did - they all contributed to a real filmgoing experience.I suppose I should say something about ship. As I'd gathered, there was something for everyone in this one. We all have our biases, which will make us say it leaned more one way or another, which makes me think that it was evenly balanced. Ron/Hermione people had some brief moments at the beginning; Harry/Hermione people had the entire ending sequence. A fair representation of the books, all in all. *ducks and runs* But seriously, there was even some Draco/Hermione stuff. Hehehe, the ferrets!
Yes, some of my favorite moments were cut. Yes, everything was rearranged willy-nilly. And yes, I can see how people who haven't read the books would be confused as hell, but as we discussed on the way to my car, these movies do not need to cater to those people, because it's those of us who have read the books over and over who are going to see the movie over and over.
My one criticism is the opening. As much as I loved and adored that scene (and the subsequent Marge scene was good, too, particularly the boing! noises she made when she hit the ceiling - yay, detail!), the whole beginning was rushed and choppy. I suppose Cuaron was eager to get to the real meat of the story, not that I blame him. I'm not too broken up over it, though, because of the absolute magic he worked on the rest of it.
That's all I can come up with now, after one late-night/early morning viewing. I am sure I will have more to say the next time I see it. Hopefully, that will be very soon.