A few days ago, we braved the crowds at one of the larger malls in the area to catch the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1.From Jo: I got to the mall earlier than Mark, since we were meeting there for dinner, and picked up the tickets that I had preordered for us. There was already a good amount of people in line, camped out on blankets and in lawn chairs. Keep in mind, this was at 5 pm. :O
We had dinner then came back around 10:20 for the movie. We were going to dress up (read: I was gonna make Mark dress up with me), since we had been Harry Potter characters for Halloween.
However, that didn't quite work out since Mark had "accidentally" thrown out his costume with a bunch of boxes (he says he threw the costume on top of the boxes when he got home Halloween night, I say he didn't want to go out in public in that robe again). So he was to wear the glasses and a scar, and I my cape, and we would be a ravishing if not fully convincing pair of wizards. But that didn't happen either- when got there, he pulled out his pathology review book, I pulled out a Mid East politics book, and all was forgotten as we crept up in line, noses buried.We made it into the theater with 10 minutes to go, and so we started in on the candy stash we got earlier: Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs (I was very pleased that my first card was Dumbledore, definitely a sign), Milk Duds, and popcorn. The movie itself was pretty good in my opinion- I don't reread the books before the movies, so I thought the general plot was very well executed, with a lot less aimless wandering around in the woods. The best part of it though was the depiction of the tale of the Deathly Hallows. It was beautifully done, and was my favorite part of the entire movie. When it ended I wished they hadn't split it up into 2 movies; I would've definitely sat there another 2.5 hours to see the ending. All in all, one of the better Harry Potter movies, and I enjoyed it immensely... even if it meant I wasn't getting up till 2 pm the next day :\
From Mark: Dinner and a movie is a pretty standard date for most couple, so going to a midnight showing is a great way to mix things up.
We had dinner at a Gordon Biersch brewery in the mall and both ordered burgers. I also ordered a beer sampler since I haven't had most of their beers. Overall their beers are pretty good, but nothing to write home about. Out of all the ones they let me sample, I liked the Heff the best.
After dinner we went to a specialty candy store in the mall in hopes of finding some Harry Potter candy. They had chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, as well as some weird blue bubble gum that ostensibly turns the chewers mouth blue. I refused to try that, since I have dignity. Joanna had no problems chewing it, though. We also bought about $20 of candy we didn't need (marzipan, milk duds, etc). I'm pretty sure the store owner thought we were fatties or something.
We eneded up getting in line about an hour and a half before the movie started and the line was already very, very long. The original plan was to play a DS game together while we waited. I wasn't able to finish my work for the day, though, so I had to study in line. Eventually the theater started letting people enter and we excitedly rushed in to secure semi-decent seats.
Once the movie began the crowd did a little clapping and cheering, but was otherwise quiet for the showing. Overall, I loved the movie. I think it really says something that the movie was over two hours long, but felt very short. The movie even did a better job of the dreaded "Harry & Co. go emo in the woods" scene than the book did (mainly because the movie trimmed it down). I also liked how the acting has greatly improved in this installment. The trio, in particular, give the best performance they have one screen yet. The show stealer, however, was Dobby. Every scene he was in was excellent. The ending had Joanna tearing up and I would by lying if I said I wasn't very sad.
Once the movie was over we drearily made it back to our cars and went home. The next day was more or less a blurr powered mainly by caffeine. It was worth it, though!
