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Michael and I saw Harry Potter Part 7 Part 1: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows of Making More Money By Splitting the Last Installment into Two Parts yesterday at the Roxy Theater.

First, I have to say that I love the Roxy. It's a tiny, independently owned movie theater on Sansom Street, where the screens seem dwarfed by my 40-inch LCD and the seat cushions have springs in them and haven't been changed since the '70s. Yes, literally. But they make real, fresh popcorn and put real, fresh butter on it and serve it in gigantic bathtub-sized buckets, just like popcorn should be served. Plus, it's only $6 apiece for the matinee. It's pretty much the perfect place to watch a movie on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Second, I have to say that I was kinda disappointed by the movie. The atmosphere was right and the characters were well-played and well-cast as always, but the plot stumbled between exposition and explosions like a drunk frat boy lurching home from the pub. I have never watched a movie based on a book and felt so powerfully the urge to go back and read the book to find out how it really happened. That's a shame, but not really a surprise. There's so much richness to Rowling's world that I never expected it to translate neatly, or at all, to the screen. But it still seems to me that the filmmakers missed quite a lot of opportunities to make the story more coherent and smooth, or at least not quite so talky. It would have been almost impossible to understand all the goings-on if one hadn't read the book, which rather obviates the need for the movie in the first place.

Oh well. Perhaps the next installment will be better. In the meantime, I'm going to curl up on the couch and do some reading.