I solemnly swear I am up to no good...

It's almost over-- the glorious mystery of what will be next in the world of Harry Potter.  There is only one installment left.  I have attended midnight movie showings and book releases for almost ten years now.  Come next summer, I will no longer have Harry to look forward to.  It's foreign and I don't know how to comprehend it.  When all is said and done, I will own 7 magical, whimsical books and 8 dvds with a cache of wonderful memories.  It will be the end of an era.  An era I don't think I'm quite ready to let go of.

I set my facebook status last night to read "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."  M, who has no interest whatsoever in Harry Potter, was reading his news feed and asks across the room, "you solemnly swear you're up to no good?"  I pulled my eyes away from my computer screen and looked upon him with pity and said, "sorry, you're a muggle, you wouldn't understand."  This only confused him further.

Finally, 10 pm arrived and Carolyn, Brandon and my brother showed up at the house, causing Sally to ooze excitement.  She didn't know how to contain herself with the arrival of three more exciting people than M and I.  We loaded up and drove to the Green Hills theatre.  Now, I have seen midnight showings at Thoroughbred in Cool Springs and the Pinnacle in Knoxville.  It was hyped up and hectic with lots of crazy Harry Potter nut-sos.  Green Hills was not quite like that.  There were people who were dressed up, but there was no dueling on the floor below the screen, and no crazy paper mache with feathers Hedwig costume.  It was nice, though.  The ushers were letting people into the theatres instead of forcing us to sit in a queue for the specific auditorium we were in and letting us scramble into the theatre for seats.  We got some decent seats, settled in and hung out for an hour and a half before the movie started.  

There were surprisingly few previews before the movie, 2, maybe 3?  The movie started promptly at 12:10, which shocked me as I expected 20 minutes or so.  

Overall, I thought the movie was a great!  Maybe the best and most accurate so far.  Sure, there were things that weren't exactly spot-on, but there were no additional scenes that never happened (like in HBP) and the things that were changed won't be that significant to the overall plot.  It was a bit more scary than the others have been, and the slight bits of humor were great.  

I was rather concerned about what the stopping point would be for part 1, and I was pleasantly pleased.  I won't say because I don't want to ruin it for others, but it sets part 2 up to be action-packed.  I find this more appealing than Harry, Ron, and Hermione jumping around from forest to beach, and so forth. (which was actually rather minimal in the movie)

I will be attending the midnight premiere of Part 2 next summer.  I will be thoroughly exhausted for work just like I am now, but it will be worth it.  I will complete my obsession with Harry Potter in the proper fashion, and I'm sure I will cry both during the course of the movie, and at the end knowing there's nothing to look forward to.  There will no longer be the next movie trailer to come out or promotional stills.  It will be devastating, but I suppose it can't go on forever.

Mischief Managed!