End Of An Era-Harry Potter

       So the The Lady and I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows conclusion today and let me tell you it was fantastic to watch!  If you haven't seen it, don't worry I won't give away any spoilers but if you want to have an in-depth discussion about the movie please email me and I'll be happy to go through it point by point. 

       I do want to talk about how this movie is the end of an era for many of us and how I felt about watching it in Korea.  For people around my age the Harry Potter franchise is something that we've read and watched as we grew up.  I can remember I first heard about Harry Potter when I was 14 and I wasn't impressed.  I didn't think it sounded all that cool and I really didn't want to read another British take on how a magical world should be.  However I did finally read the first book and was instantly hooked, devouring it and the second in mere weeks.  When the first movie came out I was eager to see how it was, carefully checking to see what was omitted from the books and if I still enjoyed it, and I definitely wasn't disappointed.  

        Moreover, Harry Potter was more than a movie adaptation for me because it was the first thing that my mother, brother and I could all actively talk to one another about, while having fantastically spirited discussions about what each character's role was, what J.K. Rowling was planning for the next book and if Harry and Ginny or Harry and Hermione ended up together.  For example I can remember coming home late one summer during college and seeing my mother's bedroom light on, knowing that she was finishing the newest book, and waiting until she had her coffee the next morning before asking in-depth on her opinion.

       The only comparison that I can think of that created the same buzz and excitement was Star Wars and Indiana Jones.  They were incredible trilogies but neither were books first and their unity is that Harrison Ford starred in both of them and George Lucas produced them.  Whereas the Harry Potter films maintained their unity in all of the major and minor characters and I was able to read the newest book before the next movie came out.

        But I'll finish how I started and share with you my experience of watching the last Harry Potter movie here in Korea.  We get to the theater and there wasn't anyone dressed up like they were going to Hogwarts, and as I watched the movie TL and I were the only ones getting pumped when the characters, major and minor, finally had their shining moments.  There wasn't any spontaneous applause, laughter or loud sobbing and I left the theater feeling cheated.  Cheated that all those years of enjoying every Harry Potter movie and the last one I watched was the one I wanted to enjoy with everyone else in the theater and instead it felt like I watched it on my living room couch. 

       I'm going to go back to the theater and I'm going on a Friday or Saturday night just to make sure that I got the authentic Korean experience and I hope that my first impression is the wrong one.