No more movies

I'm probably overstating that, but am rather pissed at the moment! Usually only see one or two movies a month in the theatre, less this season as nothings grabbed my interest.

Today was a toss-up between King Kong or Harry Potter, finally tossing a proverbial coin for the latter.

What a friggin disappointment, though my judgement of the movie is likely just as influenced by the ticket price as it is the movie itself. $9.50 for an afternoon matinee!! It's not such a recent movie anymore to demand top price. I was more pissed at THAT than anything seen on screen!

There was a teaser which said nothing (as teasers should, it wasn't a trailer) for the new Superman movie, glad for that. But onto Mr. Potter...

The settings were much more grim, darker than anything in the previous three movies, though it made Hogswart appear dusty & decrepit. Not the place of wonder & enchantment seen in the first three films.

Whether the fault of Rowling or the director, I knew who Hogswarts 'evil-pretending-to-be-good' reveal was gonna be long before the end of the second act. Ya'know, when motives & gobs of exposition is given near the end of 3rd reel? Last time around it was Black being a good guy & Ron's pet rat being a bad guy. That cliche is getting stale, although thankfully there was a suprising lack of that end-exposition given this time around, the evil character was no suprise at all.

In all, it felt like a bare-bones shell of the earlier Potter movies. Heard from those who've read the book pretty much the same thing. And for a movie which runs about 2:35, it felt really rushed to pack it all in. Prisoner of Azkaban was a lot more entertaining to watch.