Okay, that's enough

Tuesday night I went to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I got to the theater an hour early, found the parking lot nearly full, and began to wish I could exchange my ticket.

Every theater (maybe one or two weren't) was already about 75-90% full, and I was lucky enough to find one of the emptier ones, and even luckier to sit alone (read: empty seat on my left, aisle on my right). I also had the foresight to bring along my DS Lite so I wouldn't be bored out of my mind or tempted to start calling/texting people who were smart enough to be in bed. I was a little worried that people might talk during the movie, but thankfully that didn't happen.

Anyway, the movie was pretty damn good. It was edited together like Order of the Phoenix, but a hell of a lot smoother and with more sincere acting. A lot was left out, and that's understandable, because expecting everything to be covered is silly. I felt the movie did a good job picking out some of the really important parts and doing them justice on screen. As with all the movies after Chamber of Secrets, some things were changed and/or merged together (finding Harry on the train for instance), and some things that weren't in the book at all were tossed in for... no reason? Yeah, that sounds right.

The movie isn't exactly what this post is about though. More like movies in general. Midnight premieres in particular. In short, the 'magic' of going to them has worn off for me. It's not so much me growing old (yes, I can see that comment coming a mile away :P), as it is me growing up. I mean, it's great to go and be around people that are just as excited as I am to be one of the first to see an awesome new movie (forgetting we live on the west coast for just a moment), but the headache that comes along with it has finally gotten too much to bear.

I stayed until the end of the credits and even after that, when I went outside people were still pouring out of the parking lot. I didn't get home until around 3:30, and the movie is only 2 hours and 37 minutes long. I'm happy that what is potentially my last midnight premiere was Harry Potter though, and one of the better Harry Potter movies to boot.

From now on I'll just risk going to the early morning showings instead. The risk being that parents and their noisy kids might be there. I guess I'll find out next time.