Analog-Theater 2.0

10 points to anyone who can name that reference.

For some reason, Robert did not think it important to share the news, so I will.  He got married over the weekend.  He seemed to be happy about it.  And the whole fiasco has strengthened my convinction not to get married.  When and if he returns from his honeymoon, I will let him talk more about it and post pictures and what not.

Now to more important matters.  When the next Harry Potter movie comes out, everyone should buy stock in movie theaters.  I went to the local Regal Cinemas on opening night.  They had 8 midnight showings.  I got there at 11pm and all 8 showings were already sold out.  They had even created some 3am showings for the people who couldn’t get tickets.  I decided to run over to the Multiplex.  They had 2 showings, one of them was not sold out, so I got a ticket.  I heard afterwards that they had created a 3rd showing.  So, the theaters are making tons of revenue off of the opening night (which was a tuesday).

Harry Potter is now the second highest grossing movie series of all time (adjusted for inflation) with $4,879,806,875 (though the latest movie is still in the theaters so that number is probably already incorrect).  It is rivaled only by James Bond for the sheer fact that James Bond has 22 movies to date.

Now, my thoughts on Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.  Boring.  Spoiler alert.  Most of the movie seemed to be about Ron and Hermonie and how they were not getting together.  It was like Harry Potter and the Teenage Soap Opera.  Ron and Hermonie are in love with each other, but neither one wants the other person to know about it, so after Ron becomes the Quidditch superstar, he hooks up with another girl that returns his attention.  Hermonie, now angry that Ron is with another girl who have the backbone to make an advance, decides to make Ron jealous by going out with some guy that Ron doesn’t like.  Nothing can go wrong with that plan.

In the last 5 minutes of the movie (probably more than that, but it felt like 5 minutes), Harry decides that saving the world would probably be better than sitting around with Ron and Hermonie.  So he and Dumbledore go to find some special item that is hidden away so that no one would ever find it.  The only way to open the magic door is to prick your finger and put blood on it, because a wound that severe will naturally weaken the person who does it.  Then they find the locket and return to the school.  There is the dramatic duel between Dumbledore and Draco Malfo (who is actually the most interesting character in this movie) where Dumbledore and Draco do absolutely nothing.  Snape shows up and kills Dumbledore and then leaves.  And Harry finds out that the locket was a fake.

Apparently there were some major changes from the book.  For instance the movie leaves out the whole deal between Snape and Harry.  Harry is using an old potions book filled with notes from the Half Blood Prince, Snape wants it, but Harry won’t give it to him.  Harry gives him a different book and then hides the real one and Snape gives him detention on the day of the Quidditch championship so that Harry can’t play.   The movie also cut the final battle in the book and the funeral, and several characters and flash backs and anything else that might have made it more interesting.

My hope is that the next two movies will be more interesting, though I doubt they will.  I read the book and it was a little boring.  On the bright side, G.I. Joe comes out in 2 weeks.