I would like to share this one ranting post before I begin my dissertation induced hibernation.
As the end of the Harry Potter era draws near, I find myself in a queue at the midnight showing in London, the length of the basilisk in The Chamber of Secrets; like the basilisk, it looks like it stretches on forever! As I stand with my friends I look around at the people who are waiting with us. I discover we are surrounded by many different groups of people. There are the diehard Potter fans that are decked out from head to toe in some kind of wizard costume; whether it is Gryffindor, Slytherin, Dumbledore or just wearing some kind of school uniform. This group of people are the ones wearing Harry glasses (complete with tape) and sporting wands and it makes me wonder how many of them actually think those wands might work for them one day. Within this group of diehard fans was an Irish girl who looked to be about 18 and she was making her rounds along the queue to enlighten everyone as to their amazing idea: when the credits begin to roll, stand up with your wands (or just your hands for those of us muggles) and shout ‘mischief managed’. As soon as the words came out of her mouth I felt laughter bubble up inside of me and I had all I could do not to let it out while they were right in front of us. Later as the credits did in fact begin to roll I watched as these girls (sat just 3 rows ahead of us) stood up, pointed their wands and shouted the tag line. I also watched as no one else did it. I guess some of us missed the memo.
Now, Harry Potter 7 Part 2 was absolutely amazing (regardless of the fact that I had to see it in 3D)! So amazing in fact that I would totally go see it again. However, never in my life have I been in a movie theatre surrounded by more loud criers than I was this morning. I am talking full on sobs and sniffles. Now yes, I am a crier when it comes to movies and of course this one was no exception (we all loved Fred!), but there is a limit to how involved I get with a movie. Don’t get me wrong, I love Harry Potter; I own 2 different versions of and have read the series several times, own and have seen all the movies more times than I care to count and I am sad that it has come to an end. But there has to be a line between real and fantasy. These diehard fans are the ones that scream every time someone is shown on the screen that they deem worthy (FINALLY Rom and Hermione kissed!); and this is not just reserved for the actual actor, it also rings true during the credits for their names. These are the people who are ferociously snapping picture after picture of a film. Kudos to JK Rowling for creating something so amazing that it reaches the fans like that but when you walk out of a movie and you see girls hysterically sobbing gripped onto a friend you have to wonder what the hell has happened in your life that caused you to be so moved by a movie that you can’t control yourself.
I mean really, get a friggen’ grip it is, after all, just a movie!
