Seen it yet?

I did.

I saw it on opening night, which is always extra fun. I was saying to my fella, imagine how excited kids are, if we are this excited? I was curious to see how the film would represent the book, and how well the text would translate to film, because the first half of the book is quite slow to get going. I’d read some great reviews, and some not so great (great, not so great). I had my fingers crossed.

The long and the short of it? I loved it. In fact, I think it would make it into my top three of the film versions along with The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet of Fire. It’s dark and moody and sad, and it’s quite beautiful to watch. There are some gorgeous epic landscape shots when Harry and Ron and Hermione are hiding in the country, and the battle scene at the beginning is edge-of-your-seat satisfying. I thought that the shadow-puppet type representation of the story of The Tale of the Three Brothers was perfection – quite unexpected and creative. I don’t understand people griping that there isn’t enough “action.” There was plenty of tension throughout, and I thought that the pacing wasn’t too rushed or too slow. It is a much more character-focused book at the beginning, so it makes sense that the movie would represent that. Boring? I don’t think so. Of course, if you’re not a Potter fan, at this point, I’m not sure why you’d go. The story is so tied up in all that has come before that I wonder how you could appreciate it without knowing the backstory.

I’ll see it again. And I’ll be waiting for July. Maybe in the meantime, I’ll read this (can’t believe I haven’t already):

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