Last night I attended the midnight showing of Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix. It was a good movie. I can’t say it was my favorite of the Potter flicks, as I enjoyed films such as “Goblet of Fire” more. But, overall, it was still a good film. However, I’m not here to talk about the film. I’m here to talk about the crowd that was there to see it.
This summer has been full of huge, box office hits. I’ve been to so many midnight showings already, more than I think I have ever been to in one summer. Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Live Free of Die Hard, and Transformers…so many big ones this year! This is one summer that has made many nerds have to constantly clean their shorts.
So what was so different about the Harry Potter opening that has sparked writing out of me? Well, to be honest, not much really. At least, as far as what I was expecting goes. A lot of these big movies have a fan following. Being the huge Star Wars fan that I am, it’s not abnormal for me to see swarms of people dressed in costume while waiting hours in line to see the newest installment of their favorite franchise. But there’s something about the Potter fans that seemed different to me. Maybe it’s the age barrier. I’m not sure. After all, Harry Potter does have a bit of a younger fan following. Transformers and Star Wars are of my generation. Harry Potter, not so much.
I do enjoy these movies quite a bit, and being a nerd myself, I cannot really judge when I see Potter fanatics at openings like last night. But during that movie, they acted slightly different than I expected them too. There was clapping at the opening, the ending, and at key scenes. But that sort of thing happened when I saw movies like Star Wars and Transformers. And I gladly participated in it. But I was so confused last night when a majority of the audience laughed throughout the movie.
Yes, there are funny moments in HP: OotP. Every good movie should include some comedy. But these people were laughing at very un-funny scenes. For example, every time Luna Lovegood said anything, the audience would chuckle. Granted, the character was a little odd. But she didn’t always say things that should warrant a giggle or laugh. She would say something completely serious, and the audience would be laughing. I felt as though there was some kind of huge joke that I wasn’t getting.
Then, the scene that really got me was towards the end. Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say that there is a scene during the end battle where Harry is going through some torture. It’s a very serious scene…yet there go those Potter fans, laughing away again. What did I miss? This is the part of the movie that is supposed to be the epic battle. The part that is suppose to have us all wrapped up, wondering if the good guys are going to make it through. But are we all on the edge of our seat wondering what’s going to happen? Nope. We’re giggling like we just read a humorous joke.
It was quite confusing, and a bit annoying to be truthful. And the more I think about it, the more my brain hurts. The only thing I can think of is that age difference between fan bases. Perhaps those Potter fans just see something that I don’t. Maybe it has something to do with reading the books. Or maybe Potter fans are just bat shit crazy. Who knows?
Either way, it was a good movie, despite the fact that I didn’t seem to get the big joke.
If you had a similar experience…or maybe if you know what was so funny…leave me a comment!
The blog of toy enthusiast Pixel Dan of www.popculturenetwork.com
4 comments:
My gut reaction is say that they probably didn't quite understand what was going on. I've found that as much as people say that Harry Potter is for kids, there are probably more adults reading the books and buying the DVDs.
As far as on opening night crowd goes, was this is midnight showing? Why aren't these kids in bed?
And as long as they weren't having conversations in the middle of the film, who cares? :)
I haven't seen the movie yet as we know but I wouldn't say it is an age difference basis.... the reason I say that is because one of the biggest misconceptions on the Harry Potter books is that they are still children's books.... I have said this for years the first 2 1/2 books in this series are kids books the other 3 1/2 books in this series are far from kids books. The 5th book is actually very very dark and there no way I would let Grace (my daughter) read it at 11 or 12.... You also have to think that when the first one came out in 1999 the average age of the person that was reading it was around 12 or 13.... that same person is now 20 or 21 years old. Combine that with the fact that teenagers and people in their 20's have now been reading these books for years I would actually put the avg fan of Harry Potter somewhere in their mid 20's.
Now with that being said as you are not a fan of the books you don't understand who Luna really is. I'm sure the movie did a good job with Luna but probably did not do her justice in the movie. You have to read the books to really understand Luna and enjoy her completely and its that connection that probably caused giggles and laughs.... the one thing that I have constantly read today as an anti-response to this movie is if you haven't read the books you are not going to understand things.
I promise you I will get back to you after I see them movie
I must say that I agree with LPC316. ther eis a lot of things that people miss in the movie because they don't read the books. So some people just understand why the readers take somethings in the movie differently from the way that non-readers do.
Yeah, and that's one of the things I listed. Maybe that's all it was. The fact that I have never read a Harry Potter book. I just didn't find some of those scenes as humorous as everyone else seemed to.
I did like Luna a lot, though. I think she's cooler than Cho. Luna and Harry should mate.
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