Harry Potter 6

This weekend I went on a marathon watching session of all six currently produced Harry Potter movies. Today was a bank Holiday, so it had been a long weekend and as I am pretty much cash-less and very much bored, all I could afford to do was re-watch my dvd's and then scrimp on my food budget to go to the local cinema for a five quid movie, and what better movie to see when you're starving than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?

Well, I enjoyed it as I enjoyed the rest of the films, as an exercise in escapism with some smiles, some frights and some feel-good moments. I enjoy the books more, as pretty much is always the case, but c'est la vie. It was no better or worse - although, the acting from the kids does get better each time - than any of the other films. And I do enjoy the music and seeing the realisation of my imagination on the screen.

But the movie theatre itself was more of an adventure than I bargained for. HP6 been out for a while now - I have been putting off seeing it to avoid the crowds - so I was expecting it to be shown in a smaller cinema rather than on a bigger screen, but I didn't expect the size of screen I got. It had to be the smallest theatre I've ever been in, including the one's when I was a kid on summer holidays at the caravan park in Lorne where the movies were shown in the local guide hall. This was a tiny room. The screen wasn't much bigger than a large plasma, about four feet by seven I'd estimate, and the cinema wouldn't have had more than 100 seats. The lighting was all red, and I mean blood red - I felt like I was in a bordello - and the elevation... well, there wasn't any. I could hear the film whirring in it's reel behind me and every whisper of every patron was perfectly clear.

All-in-all, I think that next time I want to see a film here, I won't wait to try to avoid the crowds. I seriously could have had a better viewing experience on my laptop.

Ah well, lesson learned and experience experienced.