The tag line is It All Ends. And wow did it. It's going out with a bang. The biggest three day ever the estimate is $168.55 million. $475 million world wide.
My original plan was to go and see the movie today, Sunday. I wanted to see it at the Uptown in Washington. The Uptown has the largest screen of a regular theater in the DC area, not including IMAX theaters. I was really surprised and disappointed when I found out it wasn't going to be playing there. They had the transformer movie.
I resigned myself to see it somewhere else. Thursday night is my volunteer night at Food and Friends. I found out from a couple that the Uptown was indeed going to be showing the movie. It was going to be in 3D there. I hadn't know that the Uptown had converted over to 3D. I'd been looking in the 2D listings because I'm not a huge fan of 3D.
I get home from Food and Friends around 7:45. I go to Fandango and sure enough under the 3D listings there is the Uptown. It even showed that there were tickets available to the midnight show. I still find that a little hard to believe. Most everywhere else I looked all the midnight shows were sold out. In fact at one of the Mulitplexs near me had 14 show at midnight and all of them were sold out.
I started to think could I actually go to the midnight show. I hadn't eaten yet. I'd also need to take a shower. I wondered about parking around the Uptown. The Uptown is an old fashion movie house in that it is right in the middle of a residential area. There's no parking lot. The only parking is street parking. I was pretty sure even at this early hour people would already be in line. I thought some more about going. If I had planned to go with another person, I would have done it. But at 8 in the evening I didn't know many people I could call up and say hey won't to go to the midnight showing of Harry Potter. So I decided not to go.
But then I noticed the Uptown (along with several other theaters) had one more show. It was at 3:30 in the morning. I thought well there's no way I could do that. It wouldn't be the proper thing to do.
Then I thought screw that. This is what I decided to do. I set my alarm for 1:40am. I thought if I can wake up and get up then I'll go to the movie. I ate dinner and then went to bed. I probably drifted off to sleep around 9:45 or so. The alarm comes on at 1:40 and I'm up. A little after 2 I'm off to the theater to see the show.
As I get closer to the theater, I see people walking down the street. I'm pretty sure that they have come from the midnight showing. I thought about yelling out how was it but didn't. Now I wish I had. Anyway find a parking place. Get in line. A little after 3 am they let us in to the theater. There were probably between 150 to 200 people.
The movie is nothing short of brilliant. The action sequences leave you on the edge of your seat. The other parts of the film pack an absolutely incredible emotional punch. Each of the secondary characters have a moment. Luna, Neville, Professor McGonagall, etc. Each of their scenes brings a chill in some cases a laugh and in some cases a tear.
The scenes with Snape are probably the best in the whole movie if not in the whole series of movies. The attack that leads to Snape's death is fairly graphic. When Snape says to Harry you have your mother's eyes, Harry begins to understand exactly who Snape really is. Alan Rickman's performance is outstanding.
Ralph Finennes well as far as I'm concerned he is Lord Voldermort. He's commanding in every scene he is in. I thought his gestures convey a great deal especially when well for lack of a better way to describe it he rubs his bald head. As the movie progresses, you can tell from the way Finennes holds himself that Voldermort realises he just might not win in the end.
Another stand out is Michael Gambon. The "afterlife" scene between Dumbledore and Harry in very well done. They've captured, at least to me, exactly the way the look and fell is in the book.
As for the big three, they shine in this final movie. The scene where Watson and Grint finally kiss is very well done. That brought a hand from the crowd. Radcliffe is fantastic. His reactions when he finally realizes the truth about Snape are incredible. So is his acceptance that he has to die.
The movie is an emotional and visual roller coaster. It is sad to see this wonderful series of movies to end but it ends on incredibly high note. Enjoy it!
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