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I went to see GOF with friends on opening weekend.
In IMAX.
oooh.
Not really.
The only thing IMAX was is bigger than a regular screen. Once nice benefit of the 40-speaker sound system was that the movie was so loud that I could not hear other people in the theater munching popcorn or taking to their friends.
I despise people who talk in movie theaters. It is not your fucking living room.
The "countdown to IMAX" imagery was much cooler than seeing the film itself on the massive screen.
And yes, I was in the good seats. Second row above the walkway, center. The sweet spot.
I don't think the experience was worth $14 (including the Fandango charge ... we bought the tickets 3-4 weeks prior to opening) plus popcorn. Don't get me started on the whole cost of popcorn thing.
Oh, wait, you were asking about the movie itself, weren't you?
After the shine is off the apple, I think that more people will admit to themselves that this is the weakest of the bunch so far. The problems aren't just the huge gaping holes left in the plot! At least one of my friends suggested that it should have been cut into two movies to preserve some of those elements, and no amount of arguing would shift her ... a cliffhanging "To Be Continued" would have killed the series faster than a four hour runtime. (Her position was that Lord of the Rings was three long movies and that was successful, but of course that was a three book series ...)
I thought that the pacing was uneven, character development was nonexistent, and like so many movies that rely on action scenes, it plods along, you have a few exciting moments, and the really dramatic bits at the end get given short shrift.
I know that lotsa folks had a problem with POA, but I think that it was only poor in comparison with SS and COS ... POA was, in my estimation, better than GOF. GOF is the David Lynch's version of Dune of Harry Potter movies. They should hand you a little booklet as you go in the theater to explain the bits that got left out, and will have to produce a special not the director's cut to fill in some of the essential connective tissue when it's shown on TV. It will be narrated by a minor character (like the French Chick) and feature some production artwork to tie the scenes together.
And those hats looked totally ridiculous. Even the French wouldn't wear blue Hershey's Kisses on their heads.
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