My oldest started, and finished, Harry Potter this summer. He read the first book in a day and half. Although he slowed down a bit as they got longer, it still took only about seven weeks to read seven books.

So we rewarded him by taking him to see all eight films for the 25th Anniversary re-release in cinema. I had seem them all on DVD/Blu-Ray with my wife about 12 years ago, but not since. (A few we watched after he finished the first couple of books, then we stopped once we knew were going to take him.)

Some random, loosely connected thoughts, on seeing them in theaters.

  1. The big screen really does make a difference. There are so many subtle details in the backgrounds of many scenes.
  2. Chris Columbus is a master of blocking.
  3. All these years I’ve been watching the extended versions. The first time I watched HP was with my wife. I never read the books (except for the first one with a friend in college). I was a bit too old for the first one when it came out and was in the military, deployed after 9/11 and all that when the movies started releasing. So it wasn’t an objection to the films but was just doing different stuff.
  4. Basilisk is much more terrifying on a large screen.
  5. I can’t handle when Amos Diggory “my boy!"—it’s too close. I understand that pain and no one ever wants to feel like that, and I wouldn’t wish that pain on my worse enemy.
  6. Goblet of Fire might be the most interesting of the films because it marks the shift from idilic school boys stories to serious literature
  7. Was Harry looking at Ginny or someone else when Patel said “she’s beautiful” (but was looking at Hermione in the other direction)?
  8. Dobbie’s death might be the most heartbreaking loss in the whole series. He was a free elf.
  9. Speaking of free elf, I missed it the first time but Dobbie has shoes, like sneakers or something, when he’s at Malfoy manner. Loved that detail.
  10. The Christ allusions are so much more obvious after all these years; and though JKR has been open about that intentionality, and her own doubts, I couldn’t help but chuckle at all the concern from Christians circa 1999–2007 when the books were coming out.
  11. Fred Weasley’s death hit my son too hard (see #5 above). My kiddo held my hand and got choked up. We talked about Paco a bit in the theater and on the way home. Much as we loved that boy, we agreed, he would have been a Slytherin—what an ambitious troublemaker Paco was.

Watched (popcorn emoji for the days we ordered concessions):