It was a magical morning at the AMC Northpark, as thousands of people gathered to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the sixth installation in the famous J.K. Rowling series.  A few thoughts on the experience, after the jump.
It was a magical morning at the AMC Northpark, as thousands of people gathered to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the sixth installation in the famous J.K. Rowling series.  A few thoughts…

The theater: At past movies I’ve attended at midnight where big crowds were expected, AMC would sell out their tickets, open up all of their auditoriums around 11:15 and let the race for seats ensue.  It was a great system.  This time, however, they decided to make people stick to the auditorium listed on their ticket, and seat people according to when their theater was open (So if your movie was showing after Year One, you had to wait).  Thus, my theater was seated promptly at 9:30 for the midnight showing while others waited until 11:45.  The system may have worked better had people actually known that–well–there was a system.  Unfortunately, a few AMC employees were left to explain the situation to a thousand or so fanatics.

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The people: It was certainly a great place to people watch — between the guy in a potato sack with elf ears, to the people who spent hours on their hair, to people who simply wore shirts that said "Muggle", there was quite the mix.  Muttering incantations, pointing the wand and yelling "Petrificus Totalus", and exchanging Harry Potter factoids amongst friends allowed for a night that one moviegoer described as, "The only night I can act like this and have it be normal." 

The movie: From all accounts I’ve read, most people have enjoyed the movie.  I certainly liked it, but hardcore book followers may be bothered by some things.  I won’t expand, for fear of spoiling the movie for those who haven’t seen it since it opened 14 hours ago.

For those of you that didn’t make it out to this years’ midnight showing, grab a seat in the Northpark food court next year the night the 7th movie comes out, you won’t be disappointed.