Yeah. AWESOME. They've finally gotten the films good near the end of this franchise and just in time too! Hell yeah for David Yates. (Review continued after my story of how I got there)
I decided that I would go see the midnight screening (and the rescreening of Part 1 that happened before it) at Joondalup. Problem with this is I couldn't tell my mother what I was doing as she doesn't like Harry Potter. Oh well, simple enough, go with a friend and say I was doing something else. I bought tickets online and printed them off. That's important to the story later on.
Of course there were costumed people. I wasn't ("yeah just going out... dressed as a Wizard mum... no I'm not seeing the Harry Potter premier that's silly...") but there were some interesting costumes. Death eaters, Hermione, Ron, Luna - but no Voldemort. I suppose no one had the money/time/effort to make a proper prosthetic face.
I had to go to the counter to get a proper ticket printed off. My part 2 ticket worked fine and they're like "here, ticket" and then they couldn't find a trace of my part 1 ticket (despite working on it for 15+ minutes). Eventually they gave up and decided to print me off a ticket anyway (which said $0.00 on it so it looked like I was getting in for free) which means I could've just photoshopped the thing and go in for free!
Watched part 1, obviously. Yay! It was in Cinema 6 and part 2 in 2D was in Cinema 5 so people who were seeing it in 3D stayed seated (not many of them were there) and people like me (nearly everyone) filed through to the secret conjoining passageway between the two cinemas at the front (that's where the mysterious green EXIT sign leads to... the next room. Whodathunkit?) Well anyway, somehow in the slow supervised walk between the rooms I had dropped my ticket for part 2. Oh no! I wasn't going to try and get through scores of fans to search for it on the floor 10 metres back and lose sight of my friend so I flashed my part 1 ticket at them (covering the bit that said "part 1") and they let me in. They didn't tear it, they barely even looked at it. It said "Harry Potter" yep, that's good enough!
Once again, I could've seen both movies without paying a cent. But I did. Because I support cinema. I'm a good guy in that way. You should also be good and pay for films. Piracy is wrong. Rar.
The audience was not too bright and a bit too eager. They thought that when the lights down it meant the movie was about to start. Wrong. Previews. Every single time a preview started they cheered and clapped and then they realised that real movies don't start with "check the classification earlier to the release date". The Green Lantern trailer nearly got a standing ovation before it even started. Oh audience, you so silly.
Then it really did start. AND VOLDEMORT WAS THERE. AND THE AUDIENCE REALLY MADE NOISE! And then they calmed down... and it was on. Movie time. The silent anticipation and enthrallment of the audience was only broken by little bits of laughter at the funny parts, or cheers at the bits they'd been waiting for for so long like the kiss or the line "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU B****!" (Totally OK, I will accept that some parts of the film are very cheer worthy and it is the last Harry Potter film so it didn't disrupt the viewing. Dialogue wasn't really cheered over so it was all good)
The deaths were sad. I didn't cry, but I'm sure other people did. Another interesting thing about it was that it was a bit bloodier than I'd have expected. There is blood in this film. There is a lot of blood in this film (for a Harry Potter film, not for a horror film. Let's be relative here). I don't want to spoil it by saying what parts have blood, but the film is definitely a lot darker than the series humble beginnings. It fits with the tone of the book. It's a great film and shame on those who gave up after #4 or 5 of the film franchise (you quit just before it got good).
Go see it! Go, go! It was awesome!
