Lunatics!

Yep, I'm one of them.

Two of my younger sisters, one nephew, and I left my grandma's house at 4:15 AM the morning of Thursday, July 14, 2011, and returned the exact same minute, 24 hours later.

So, what did we do? Where did we go? We went, of all places, to Ogden, Utah to the Larry H. Miller Megaplex Theatre-I hate it when Americans misspell that word-for an all day, eight movie marathon featuring Warner Brothers's Harry Potter films. The first show, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", started at 6:00 AM and subsequent films started at the end of the closing credits for each film, except for a 15 minute break between the forth and fifth films.

Except for the last two movies, which have terrible cinematography, It was awesome to see them on the big-screen.

I paid $40 for my tickets and spent another $20 online for a voucher pack that included a $20 gift card for the megaplex businesses, a voucher for unlimited all-you-can-eat-and-drink popcorn and soda, and several coupons. I guess it was worth it. Had I not bought the voucher pack, I may or may not have spent $20 on popcorn, and dinner. As it happened, I was able to have with me a large popcorn and a large Sprite-no ice-at all times, and for dinner, two double cheeseburgers with fries, and to use up the remaining gift card balance, one box of Swedish Fish, I had to fork over an additional 50 cents for that. We also got, as gifts from the theater, a leftover New Moon necklace, a Harry Potter "It all ends here" megaplex poster, and a free megaplex/Harry Potter t-shirt, which will be mailed to us.

Over-all, it was an enjoyable experience, it makes me excited for a Star Trek convention again, I've always wanted to go to one. Well, ever since I saw the movie "Trekkies" that is.

The finale Harry Potter was just as bad as I thought it would be, which is to say, it was equally as bad as the first "part". The problem was the cinematography, and the shity editing. When we Harry Potter fans first heard about the planned Harry Potter films, like 11 or 12 years ago, we were confused at the plans to make eight movies, when J.K. Rowling only planned on publishing seven books. It didn't make sense back then, and doesn't make sense today. Were I in charge, I would have edited the hell out of 'Deathly Hallows' and released it as one movie. There's a lot of wasted time in those last two releases.

And, the last movie is the only Harry Potter movie where knowledge of the books is a requirement. The movies never introduced the shard of Sirius's mirror, but it plays just as important a role in part 2 as it does in the books, so, was that bad editing again, or bad script writing? Movies need to be self contained, they should never include anything that is not explained within it. The first six adaptations did an awesome job of that, but they really dropped the ball with 'Deathly Hallows'.

Still, I'll get the 3D Blu-Ray, when it comes out. :-D