Harry Potter Week

Aside from my initial reactions of “OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME”, I bring you a list as it comes to me:

• The film just zoooomed by! It did feel rushed, but it is difficult for me to see a solution to this problem. There is a lot of information to cram in there.
• I didn’t like how when they rescued Harry, the Order was very non-plussed about Muggles being able to see them. There was nothing sneaky about playing chicken with a boat full of people. It looked cool, but they would have never been that reckless.
• Kreacher looked fantastic!
• The extendable ears – did anyone ever imagine a wiggly hairy ear attached at the end?! It was a funny interpretation, and the addition of Crookshanks eating it was actually really funny.
• There was so much shuffling of roles and plot devices, it was a little annoying, but again, it is one of those things where you just kinda throw your arms up and go along for the ride.
• The kitten plates=<3. OMG. So. Much. Love.
• Grawp was not nearless as violent as he needed to be, but due to time constraints, yadda yadda. Giving Hermione the bicycle bell was adorable though. Even if she was completely terrified in the book and not in the movie. King Kong anyone?
• Umbridge really was excellent.
• And Luna was a complete delight! Perfect casting!
• I agree with everyone who said that the flashback scenes were really well done.
• And LOL about Snape’s Worst Memory. It was cool and so not worth the fangirl’s obsessive whining about casting!
• What was up with Gambon/Dumbledore yelling at all the kids, “Don’t you all have schoolwork to do?!” AHHHHH! I really loathe his interpretation. He should really pick up the books and read them sometime. Richard Harris, can’t you come down and possess his body when he goes on camera? Do it for the fans. Do it for the big kids!
• The interdepartmental memos made me really smile.
• The Department of Mysteries was uber glossy and awesome. Not at all how I imagined it, but a lot cooler.
• I hated how the Umbridge punishment was handed out like candy. It was a dirty little secret, not the standard punishment! A friend made a good point saying that it was just the movie’s way to show how evil and dirty she was in such a short time.
• IMAX specific stuff:
• Without 3D, the film was just as amazing as I remembered it should be (I saw GoF there). We got awesome seats right in the middle of the HUGE theater. The screen is probably three times as big, in more of a 4:6 proportion, so because the film is widescreen, the whole screen is not used. Even though this is the case, the picture feels like it is about 4x as big as a normal theater (twice as high/wide).
• When we walked in, we were handed spiffy looking 3D glasses that we were not to keep. At least, they looked spiffy until you put them on, then you just looked retarded.
• The whole thing about wondering when we were going to put on the  glasses was solved. There really was a sign when you put them on and took them off! When you put them on, the image all of a sudden looked fuzzy, and green glowing glasses icons showed up on the bottom edge of the screen. This was right when the kids took off on the thestrals to go to the Ministry. We took them off when the image looked fuzzy again and red glasses icons showed up on the bottom, right after the throwdown at the Ministry.
• It was not nearly as distracting as one would have thought to be doing those things during the film. They chose really good spots to do this in.
• I expected the 3D stuff to be a bit mediocre since the film wasn’t done in 3D to begin with. Boy, was I wrong! It looked AMAZING! The thestrals, the hallway as you go into the ministry, the hall of prophecies, the fighting, OMG! It was just INCREDIBLE! I would flip off my glasses just to see what it would look like without it, and it was pretty normal looking, but with the glasses it was just – wow!
• The column of sand that was suspended around Harry at the end was really cool looking. Excellent use of 3D there.
• When it came time to take them off, I was relieved, however. It was overwhelming to the senses and I know that I would not have been able to see the entire length of the movie in 3D. The chunk that we saw was just perfect. Oh, and I loved how they all made their entrances in swirls of smoke, black and white. So classic and cool!

I know I will remember more things later, but I wanted to share sooner rather than later. If you have a chance to catch this movie in 3D, by all means, try to do it! It is really cool!