My original plan was to see this on the Friday of the week that it opened. I am glad that I deviated from the plan, because I missed the group outing on that Friday.

So what caused me to deviate from the plan? Well, my buddy, Mark, had been telling everyone that he was going to midnight show on Tuesday night because he was excited to see it. I thought about it, but was going to pass due to being burned by Spidey 3. So I went to play poker instead. Well, fate has a way of stepping in and redirecting one’s plans. After being bounced early from the 10:00 game, I found myself driving home past the Altamonte AMC. As I got close, I knew what I must do: go see Harry Potter.

Plenty of tickets were still available. I called my friend, Heather, to see if she and her roommate had already committed to a theater. Alas, they had, so I found myself alone for the evening. Walking in the ticket-taker was beyond caring what theater people were supposed to be in. He simply said, “Just go in any of the ones marked Harry Potter.” After grabbing food, I ducked into one of the open doors.

I found a good seat on the aisle.  Actually there were 2 seats with a guy my size occupying the third. He sighed with relief when I took the aisle one, creating an empty seat between us — we both got armrests and space. Life is good.

The movie is definitely darker than the others — it also seemed to flow more quickly than the previous entries in the series. This is the point where you start to see the growing-up of Harry and the gang. He is still dealing with the death at the end of the Goblet of Fire, and is not doing a good job. He feels abandoned by Hagrid and Dumbledore, and that Ron and Hermoine are not supportive.

The climax of the movie is the darkest of all. Interestingly enough, a series of events occurs that makes me immediately flash back to the climax of The Empire Strikes Back, when Luke races to Cloud City. The filming of this movie and the way things unfolded showed that Empire had a big influence on the adapter and the director.

My advice: worth seeing in the theater. If you go to an IMAX screen, the finale is in 3-D. Parents should watch before taking young children, due to its dark nature and the harshness of death…