heidi | (no subject)

Left my handheld at my parents' tonight so this is going to be a very short micro-review of GoF, which I saw today at the sneak preview in Miami - and I was lucky enough to win the first grab bag of prizes, so my kids are thrilled to now have the poster and colouring book, and I enjoyed my Ice Mice during the show.

FA's Premiere coverage is now up at the site thanks to

vlamidala and

darcey321's interviews will be up tomorrow or Tuesday, I hope. She spoke with Dan, Brendan, Miranda, Jamie, Katie, the Phelps twins, David Heyman and Mike Newell. I haven't seen it yet myself, but it sounds like it was all incredibly terrific.

Quick, nonspoilery thoughts on GoF: I liked it a lot, I think the kids are terrific, especially the twins, and of course the grownups were too.

I managed to keep myself almost entirely unspoiled by preview clips - the only thing I'd seen was the preview on Star Wars back in the Spring - so I didn't really know what to expect going in, which is how I saw PoA, too, and which I was pleased about.

Quick

Almost forgot to mention, for the dozen or so out there who read SoC - see, I *told* you forks could be weaponry!

I think I now know why JKR was insistent about discussing ship-stuff in the interview this summer. She had seen the script and portions of the film, and I am sure that it was clear to her that nobody would walk away from this film seeing any Harry/Ginny, as she looks so damned adorable with the incredibly wonderful, cute and talented Matthew Lewis, whose Neville is just wonderful. For once, Neville coming in last is a good thing. ;)

The hormonal substrata was just everywhere. The most obvious was, of course, Myrtle in the prefect's bathroom, but there were soooo many other elements as well. The dancing was magnificent, and while I wasn't a fan of the gender division for the two schools, it did work visually. Also, by having Gabrielle at Hogwarts with Fleur, and a few changes to the dialogue, it really explained well why each person was chosen - they were at Hogwarts in the first place.

Ralph was wonderful and the tiny bits of Jason that we got were delicious as well, of course. The whole graveyard scene was amazing, although I found it a little ironic that even though the dates were changed via CG, he still points to the wrong name. Pah! No biggie, though.

I didn't miss Molly, but I did miss Percy and I thought they had cast a Bill and a Charlie. No? Would have been good to have them there, but the tent was well-filled enough by the waves of Ron's OMGWTFBBQPOLARBEAR crush on Krum. And yes, crush. Totally.

The pace was fast, and it took a little bit of getting used to, but I think it was a necessary evil. And the end - well, this was the first time that I really *loved* the final scene. I mean, really, the Hagrid Love was just too much and the end of PoA was just too giddy for what it could have been, but this was just the right note.
And as I think of more things, I'll come back and add them, but for now, I need to clean up a lot of construction paper on the floor.

GAH! Before I go... how could I forget a few seconds on Draco? Much smaller presence this time, and will probably have the same-sized role next go-round too, but I can't wait, now, to see what he does with HBP.

I always was sort of like, "oh, yeah, GoF - I'll see it and it'll be fine but even though I didn't love the book I am really looking forward to seeing OotP on screen", but now I am really looking forward to seeing GoF again later this week.

Oh, yes - the kid issue. I am going to take Harry this weekend, but I am going to show him a picture of Voldemort ahead of time so he's not over-upset when he shows up from the cauldron (Now Complete With Robe!) and I am going to close his eyes for the dis-arm-ing scene, but I think he can handle the rest if he manages to finish listening to the audiobook first.

So, now, who am I going to see on Saturday at the IMAX?