Harry Potter VI

YP was good enough to accompany me to see the latest Harry Potter movie yesterday afternoon. We had planned to go into Boston to people-watch, but it was hot and humid and we were off to a late start, so we opted for air conditioning. She isn't into HP so much, but was very kind about agreeing to sit through it anyway.

It was better than I expected. The special effects are very good, which is unsurprising, but some of the characters are a bit flat or underused. Professor McGonagall and Hagrid are barely in this movie, which is focused on the students. Lavender Brown is annoyingly good, and Luna Lovegood is a wonderful character. Draco finally gets fleshed out beyond just being an arrogant meanie, and Professor Snape is up to something on both sides of the wizarding world. Only Dumbledore seems to have a real handle on what's going on and what's coming up and he isn't sharing much...except perhaps with Snape.

There are things the film does well. The relationships between various students is made clear. We've suspected Hermione and Ron have mutual crushes, along with Harry and Ginny, and those ties are finally established. Draco turns out to be more than a bully and we see him focusing on learning how to use a Vanishing Cabinet, not always with success. Most importantly, as a lead-in to the two-part finale, we hear about horcruxes, what they are and why they are important. While the general overview of horcruxes is fine, without having read the books or seen the other movies, you would miss that flicker of doubt from Dumbledore, who wonders if Harry might be a horcrux.

Watching the first five movies, you could get away with knowing little about the background story. However, knowing the backstory is very helpful, almost necessary, for this film. There is no exposition about who Belatrix Lestrange is, or what happened to Draco's father, and in one scene, a bedraggled Lupin appears with Tonks. Without having read the books or seen the previous movies, you would have no idea who they were or what they were doing in the Weasleys' home. And the Room of Requirement, which is important here, is left unexplained.

Fans should see it. Non-fans should either invest the time in watching the previous movies, read a synopsis (which also relies on previous knowledge), or get someone to try to catch them up. I enjoyed it. Not sure about YP, but I hope it wasn't too boring for her.

We had dinner at Olive Garden, which is always good, and lucked out with a very charming waiter, who has two parrots and wouldn't mind being reincarnated as a koi. He was fun.

It was a good way to spend the afternoon! We'll shoot for our people-watching day again next week, and hope for lower humidity.