Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II

Last night I went to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II in 3D. I managed to find a theatre here in Budapest that was playing the movie in its original format aka in English and no Hungarian subtitles.

Going to the movies is pretty strange in Budapest. You can book your seats in advance. The theatre has assigned seating. You show up at least 30 minutes in advance and you pay for the seats that you book. Its not general seating like in Canada (apparently there is assigned seating in India and New Zealand as well according to those I went to see HP with).

I’ve been a long time Harry Potter fan and I’ve been eagerly anticipating this movie coming out. I love the books and probably have read all of them at least a couple times. In many ways, I feel like I grew up with Harry. I was 11 when I read the first book. I have many memories of waiting in anticipation for the next book to see what J.K. Rowling had installed for the threesome.

In the past, I haven’t been that impressed with the Harry Potter movies. I really did not like the first 3 movies (especially as these came in the height of the Lord of the Rings movie craze). The 4th was acceptable, but not spectacular. From there, I felt the movies got a lot better in terms of keeping true to the books and cinematography. I was fairly impressed with Part I of Deathly Hallows so I was looking forward to seeing the movie.

For the most part I was really impressed with the movie. It kept fairly true to the book and told the story well. I was careful to not read the book before going to see the movie otherwise I would have spent so much time getting upset when things weren’t completely true to the book. I was surprised at how well I remember the events taking place. I think the last time I read the book was over a year ago. I watched it in 3D, but I felt like it wasn’t really needed. For most of the movie, I forgot that I was wearing 3D glasses.

If you haven’t seen the movie or haven’t read the book, stop here! Spoiler warning!

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