Fall 2018 Theme Park Trip-Day 14

Last day at Universal?

Today is the day for Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) event so it's going to be a long day.

Up at 6am to get ready and walk over for early entry at 7am. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is really an amazing place. Something that I noticed is there are all these little mechanical flourishes all throughout and the are all still working, at least the ones that I remember. The one possible exception was the Whomping Willow on the Forbidden Journey ride. Don't know if that has done the Everest Yeti at Disney or if it was just not working when I rode it. But all the little animations in the stores and windows were still performing routinely.

Spending time just walking around and looking at the details is always a lot of fun.  Eventually I ended up in the area where lots of characters come out you can interact with them. Most of them engage slightly, get the picture and then onto the next guest. I really need to compliment the person playing Shaggy from Scooby Doo. He was pulling people in really getting engaged with them. For me he asked where I'm from and the response, as usual, got a big reaction. We got into the discussion and we eventually parted with one last question....Pineapple on pizza? I said no. He said anything would go on a pizza!

Something I've tried to do is monitor the amount of steps/mileage that I've been doing. Unfortunately, if you don't get the numbers before the end of the day, you don't get a summary, but individual sessions broken down and I've discovered that the numbers don't add up.  But I ended up walking back and forth twice to the hotel and all the attractions. But some steps aren't recorded as the cell phone gets locked up before all of the queue walking and steps in certain attractions. The queues for the mazes were crazy long and from the best I can figure I did about 13 very sweaty miles.

For the first time on the trip which I think was because the day was so long, the chaffing started about 10 pm during the horror event. Luckily, earlier in the evening I met up with another former co-host from In the Loop and the discussions helped keep my mind off of the pain. It was great to see Will again and grateful and thankful that he took time out of his schedule to meet up in the park.

This was my second HHN and some of the same issues I had the first time occurred again. Stayed in the park in a lock down zone and even with being in the first group going to the first house before the public was let it, the Stranger Things house was still a 45 minute wait. I saw the movie Killer Clowns from Outer Space about a month ago and really loved the scare zone. Unfortunately, Bill and Ted were no longer populating the stage and I head from several people that the Academy of Villains show was OK but wouldn't be missing anything if you didn't see it.  Overall an enjoyable event.

On the way out of the event, they were asking people to take a survey. I finished and they were asking for statistical information. I got to where they asked gender, they only listed male and female. I was thanked by a manager type when I finished and pointed out that in the city of New York, they officially have 31 genders and why were they not being inclusive by including all of them in their survey. He kinda looked at me and just said thank you for the feedback.

Once I got back to my room I was glad to get the sweat soaked clothing off and start to get comfortable. When I went to write down some more notes  about the resort, I discovered that my notes had disappeared and a new note was there saying "We are very sorry we are already on track to solve your problems." The iPad in the room has a chat feature and I reported that my notes were missing, they were incomplete and that I wanted them back. Within minutes, they chatted back that someone from housekeeping would be in touch in the morning. Finally was able to hit the sack about 2am. Again, it was a long day!

Tomorrow (actually later today) is another transition day, but more importantly, it's a night to go see Yehaa Bob over at the River Roost at Port Orleans Riverside.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

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The date has finally arrived for the Harry Potter saga to come to a close. Millions of fans from around the globe has been patiently waiting the eight months to view the final epic battle that takes place at Hogwarts after watching our heroes Harry, Ron and Hermione (Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson) searching and destroying the horcruxes from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. The road movie that was Part 1 shifts focus in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 to become a war movie that for its fans gives a very satisfying pay off for the long interlude between the two sections.

Undoubtedly, this was the biggest event of the summer and I was ready for it! I used a M&M's discount code to cut my out of pocket cost for the ticket. At the snack bar I used my loyalty coupons for a free small popcorn and soda which I upgraded to large and then went even further and splurged on some white cheese powder for the popcorn. I had been waiting a long time to see how the movie would draw to a conclusion as compared to the book and wanted to make the most of it!

The story pics up right where Part 1 left off. Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennese) has claimed the Elder Wand and Harry has just finished burying Dobby the elf. No extra exposition to recap and bring people up to date if they didn't see Part 1. The trio make a stop at Gringotts Bank and then head back to Hogwarts where most of the 130 minute running time takes place. Chances are you'll see one of your favorite members of the Order of the Phoenix, Hogwarts professor or student that you might not have seen in a while making you realize how immense of a world J K Rowling had in her mind and the characters that were created to fill it.

Credit needs to be given to screen writer Steven Kloves and director David Yates and the various producers on the decision to split the film and give the climatic battle its due. One of the criticisms of the series as a whole is how much detail, sub plots and little extras have been left out as the books have been translated. The battle of Hogwarts as shown on the big screen was more than I had envisioned in my own head. The sequences of intense action violence and frightening images during the fighting scenes earned the movie a PG-13 rating. One little part that brought some laughs was Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) calling suits of armor to life to protect the castle. This seemed be be a throw back nod to Disney's 1971 feature Bedknobs and Broomsticks where Angela Landsbury's Eglantine Price casts a spell giving life to war regalia, uniforms and weapons to battle off the Nazis. The Death Eaters have been compared to Nazis so the similarities between the two seems appropriate.

Throughout the whole series the question lingers in the back ground, is Severus Snape good or bad? Alan Rickman has had to play the part balancing on an edge not knowing the true nature of his character until the seventh and final book was released. As you watch Professor Snape's back story fill in you'll garner a fuller appreciation for the wonderful portrayal of such a complex character that has done by Rickman.

One of my criticisms in the last movie was that at certain points where there should have been critical emotional high points, they fell flat. That wasn't the case in this film. At key moments when there was silence or low volume in the sound track you could hear the sniffling of people in the theater. I do believe that it was because the direction of the film pulled the tears out of the audience rather than this just being the end of the series. Speaking of the end, after the actors faces fade from the screen, you can leave the theater. Unlike the credits for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which had the interesting marauder's map as the background, there was nothing special done for this final film.

Now that the story of The Boy Who Lived has completed we'll need to keep an eye on next year's Oscars. The Potter series to date has drawn little acclaim from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with a few nominations for categories like art direction, score and costumes. With the completion of eight films comprising almost 20 hours of screen time and grossing over $6 billion in sales which makes it the highest grossing series and that's not including Part 2 will the Academy show any love to the saga either to the last two films or to the series as a whole? We'll just have to wait and see. Regardless of what the Academy does, the fans will continue to shower the series with love and hope the J K Rowling has a lot more from the wizarding world via her Pottermore web site which releases in October.

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

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To listen, press the play button on the player below


For those people who are into Harry Potter, the complete book series may be out, but with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (HP7.1) it signals the start of the end for the visual depiction of J.K. Rowling's epic saga. With the complexity of the 784 page book, Warner Brothers made the decision to split the final segment of the saga into two movies. Some will say it was greed that made the decision, but in all fairness, with all the detail that the books provided and the complexity of the plot, book seven earned the right for the approximately five hours of screen time that it will receive between the two films. It's a shame Warner Brothers couldn't have provided books four thru six the same treatment.

At the end of the last movie, Dumbledore has died, He Who Must Not Be Named is regaining complete power over the wizarding world and our trio of heroes, Harry, Ron and Hermione have been given a task to complete to try to defeat the Dark Lord. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, (Harry, Ron and Hermione) have grown up on the screen and developed their acting skills. They give us their best Harry Potter performances to date in this film.

David Yates who directed the previous two movies, Half-Blood Prince and Order of the Pheonix is at the reins once again. The editing was done differently this time really playing up the dark and sinister tone the book relays. I did have an issue with the tone that laid out via the color pallete. Overall it was extremely dark which was necessary to evoke and convey empathy for the feelings our characters are experiencing but visually it sometimes hid and obscured the detail of the finely laid out sets and costumes. This movie is far more intense and menacing than any of the previous ventures into the world of Harry Potter.

The movie moves quickly in its pacing. Each of the books is about a calendar year in length for the story line. At 146 minutes (2 hours and 26 minutes) we are taken on the journey from July just before Harry's 17th birthday until approximately February-March, the coldest part of winter and in the story, the lowest point when Lord Voldemort appears to have brought his magical powers to the strongest they could be. This is where the movie breaks for Part 2 which is expected to be released in July of 2011. Luckily for the length of this movie, my regular theater offered a coupon giving you a free small soda with a purchase of popcorn. The bad thing is that no matter what size of soda you bought, you were probably going to need to leave the theater for a few minutes to use the restroom.

Toward the latter part of the film when the tale of the name sake deathly hallows is told the film makers chose not to go live action. Instead the section from The Tales of Beedle the Bard used animation to give the origin story for the hallows with the whys and hows to great effect. The abstraction the animation provides is a wonder atmospheric backdrop for this crucial point of understanding to the entire series. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up as a separate short on the DVD/Blu-ray release.

The final set of Harry Potter movies had originally been promoted as being released in 3D. Warner Brothers announced in early October that HP7.1 would not come in 3D because they didn't have time to do the conversion process properly. It was noticeable in the film where they would have used the 3D on several points to jump out into the audience. By keeping the film 2D, I think they made a wise choice rather than upset the fan base by shifting the release date.

The movie is rated PG-13 for some sequences of intense action violence, frightening images and brief sensuality. In some ways, I don't think it was intense enough. There were a couple of scenes that I was expecting from the book that had me with tears in my eyes and yet when they played cinematically they didn't carry the same power. I had fully steeled myself ready for the waterworks even bringing extra napkins from the concession stand but they sat on the seat next to me reaming unused. Does this mean it was a bad movie? No, in fact I expect it to break box office records. At the AMC theaters at City Walk in Universal Orlando Resort, home of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in the Islands of Adventure Theme park all 20 theaters were to be used for the midnight showing of HP7.1. It was reported that on the midnight shows alone, the movie pulled in $24 million making it the 3rd highest grossing midnight opening after two of the Twilight movies. If they had the 3D surcharge, it would have been greater and maybe have taken the top spot.

The question was asked if you needed to have read the books to enjoy the movie. Based on what has been shown so far they have written the movie in such a way that no, you don't. You should have seen the previous movies to know the characters and they build on that foundation. Although there are some scenes where if you have the book knowledge you'll know more about the names of some of the characters who appear in a shot but as presented there is enough to suffice.

Some people will stay away from the movie this weekend to try to avoid the crowds and watch it later in the release week or over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Will the numbers be caused by the number of Harry Potter fans? Probably but it stands on its own as a well made and very enjoyable movie. Just make sure that you hit the restroom before the movie starts and when it is over, you might want to stay through the main portion of the credits to see a glimpse of one of the deathly hallows before you run to the restroom for a second time! Based on what was given to us in this movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 should be very exciting!

The Movie Monkey

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.