Harry Potter

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. The new Harry Potter movie doesn't open until tomorrow. But I'm special and got to see it tonight. My sister-in-law's law firm arranged a special advance screening for their staff and clients and rented out a cinema. The management told us the only other cinema screening the film in North America today is somewhere in California. Don't know if that's true or not...but if it is, that's really odd.

(I think I might indulge in a few spoilers here, so if you don't want to know what happens, look away now!)

Anyway. The film is really very good - definitely the best of the series so far. The script is a hell of a lot better than that of the previous three films. It came across as less of a kids' movie, and was considerably darker - in a good way. My favourite bits at this point probably are:

1. visual effects: the Quidditch World Cup stadium, for sheer scale; the medieval grandiosity of the Gryffindor Common Room; the general de-Disneyfication of the sets (the interiors of Hogwarts now look like they've been done up by someone from the BBC costume drama department, rather than by someone in Hollywood with a penchant for Ye Olde this and that);
2. the setting of the South Downs on the Sussex coast (near Brighton, where I used to live) for the World Cup: Harry and the Weasleys materialise on the chalk cliffs with the Seven Sisters towering behind them; later, the lighthouse at Beachy Head comes into view!
3. the fabulously OTT Miranda Richardson as Rita Skeeter, and Brendan Gleeson as Mad-Eye Moody;
4. a fleeting but fun cameo by Jarvis Cocker as the lead singer of the Weird Sisters, the band that plays the Yule Ball. *EDIT - the other guys in the band are from Radiohead, apparently*
5. *EDIT* Teenage girls everywhere will rejoice at the amount of eye candy in this film. There are two especially cute boys filling the gap left by the sadly departed Oliver Wood. Viktor Krum is menacingly 'andsome, but no question that Cedric Diggory takes the cake as the archetypal English Public Schoolboy - floppy posh-lad hair, rosy cheeks, and all:

(Jailbait! Jailbait!)

Of course, the film's not all wonderful. There were a couple of cringey aspects. It did nothing to change my opinion that Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson are not very good actors (Rupert Grint continues to be great, though). Also, there was a horrible bit at the beginning when the Irish team flew into the stadium for their World Cup match - fireworks went off which morphed into a leprechaun jigging away to horrible diddly-eye music, and a huge banner reading "Top o' the Morning" was unfurled...eurrgh (Irish people themselves refer to this sort of rubbish as 'Oirish'). And don't get me started on the entrance of the Beauxbatons girls...pah. Tellingly, none of this bad stuff was in the book.

I had fears for this film, but I was pleasantly surprised. Now I need to start worrying about The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe...