I would like to dedicate this weekend to Harry.On Saturday we ventured out to watch the new sequel to the Potter series-"The Order of Phoenix". I haven't thumbed through every one of the four Potter books so far. I have scrambled through some pages of the first volumes and the only one I have read through is the "Prisoner of Azkaban".
The narrative is delightful. It has that old world charm of an enticing story which makes you turn the pages as fast as you can. The imagination is rich,vivid and breathtaking. I must say JK Rowling has made reading in vogue again specially amongst the children.Coming back to the movie,we had the tickets to the IMAX/3D experience. I have watched a couple of those now with "Return of Superman" and "Spiderman 3" recently. The screen is gigantic and the sound system they employ is a bewildering 12000 watts surround. Of course the whole movie is not in 3D. As with the earlier ones I had watched,there are short action sequences within the movie which are in 3D. So when you see the blinking glasses sign at the bottom of the screen, you know its time to put on the fancy 3D glasses they hand out at the start of the show. Its fun for sure. You almost feel like a kid in a candy store waiting impatiently for the 3D sign to appear. The excitement of the children is infectious.Its amusing to see the little ones walk into the theater sporting big smiles and the 3D glasses on the whole time. The best part was when Harry's kissing scene came along. A kid in the row behind us quipped "Are'nt they gonna kiss in 3D?".His parents went "ssh....".
The movie was excellent. Even though I haven't read the book, I know the characters and the general storyline quite well.The end 20 minute fight sequence featuring Harry,Dumbledore and the dark lord was breathtaking in 3D IMAX. I almost felt like I was in the middle of it all with lightning and fire blazing. That scene itself was moneys worth. The story was so captivating that I felt it ended all too soon. Little did I realize how fast the 2 hours flew by.There was a mild hiccup before the show though. I had purchased our tickets through the online system where you get to choose the seat. Now when we walked into the theater, we found out that one of the seats we booked online didn't even exist physically. With the show being sold out I thought I was going to give the guest services a dressing down but the Manager ushered us into two great seats normally reserved for the Press. Since there were no print folks expected today,it was a neat way out of the mess. So much for online seat selection.
The other day I saw Larry King interview Daniel Radcliffe. Not even 18, the fella is already worth millions.You don't need that magic wand, do you Harry? Not to mention that JK Rowling is the first literary billionaire.There is frenzied excitement over the next Potter book coming out in a week's time with midnight launch parties planned in book stores across continents. When was the last time buying a book sounded so exciting?
So for ordinary muggles like me, what do I say? Perhaps "Expecto Patronum"....there you go.
The narrative is delightful. It has that old world charm of an enticing story which makes you turn the pages as fast as you can. The imagination is rich,vivid and breathtaking. I must say JK Rowling has made reading in vogue again specially amongst the children.Coming back to the movie,we had the tickets to the IMAX/3D experience. I have watched a couple of those now with "Return of Superman" and "Spiderman 3" recently. The screen is gigantic and the sound system they employ is a bewildering 12000 watts surround. Of course the whole movie is not in 3D. As with the earlier ones I had watched,there are short action sequences within the movie which are in 3D. So when you see the blinking glasses sign at the bottom of the screen, you know its time to put on the fancy 3D glasses they hand out at the start of the show. Its fun for sure. You almost feel like a kid in a candy store waiting impatiently for the 3D sign to appear. The excitement of the children is infectious.Its amusing to see the little ones walk into the theater sporting big smiles and the 3D glasses on the whole time. The best part was when Harry's kissing scene came along. A kid in the row behind us quipped "Are'nt they gonna kiss in 3D?".His parents went "ssh....".
The movie was excellent. Even though I haven't read the book, I know the characters and the general storyline quite well.The end 20 minute fight sequence featuring Harry,Dumbledore and the dark lord was breathtaking in 3D IMAX. I almost felt like I was in the middle of it all with lightning and fire blazing. That scene itself was moneys worth. The story was so captivating that I felt it ended all too soon. Little did I realize how fast the 2 hours flew by.There was a mild hiccup before the show though. I had purchased our tickets through the online system where you get to choose the seat. Now when we walked into the theater, we found out that one of the seats we booked online didn't even exist physically. With the show being sold out I thought I was going to give the guest services a dressing down but the Manager ushered us into two great seats normally reserved for the Press. Since there were no print folks expected today,it was a neat way out of the mess. So much for online seat selection.
The other day I saw Larry King interview Daniel Radcliffe. Not even 18, the fella is already worth millions.You don't need that magic wand, do you Harry? Not to mention that JK Rowling is the first literary billionaire.There is frenzied excitement over the next Potter book coming out in a week's time with midnight launch parties planned in book stores across continents. When was the last time buying a book sounded so exciting?
So for ordinary muggles like me, what do I say? Perhaps "Expecto Patronum"....there you go.
