arthoniel | Tuesday evening, on cloud 10

Yeah, so I'm happy. I had almost a perfect day... it would have been perfect if it hadn't been so hot and all, but it was still really good. In theater we finished blocking the show, and now we can start running it. Our assembly today was awesome. We had a pianist, Alpin Hong come in, and he did an Italian thing and some old piece because he had to, but he ended with Rhapsody in Blue, which is one of my favorite pieces for the piano ever, and the best thing was when he started off with the classics- the theme to the Legend of Zelda, the theme to Mario Bros. and the Darth Vader theme. He was so cool. Then, chorus was... well, chorus. But swim was mostly pretty cool, we just sat, talked, listened to music, etc., which was cool. Plus, going up to swim I saw Jackie and Coral, and since it's Coral's birthday today (happy birthday Coral!) they had chocolate chip cookies, and they gave me one. It was actually pretty good.
But the best part of today was after I came home, I changed, and then I went out to see a SCREENING OF HARRY POTTER 5!!! I know I'm bragging and all, but still. It was really good. It was really different from the book, they changed a lot and had differnet characters do different things, but in a 500+ page book turned into a movie, you kind of expect that. I just have to say though, if you haven't read the book, the movie is going to be very confusing.

I loved the girl who played Luna Lovegood, she was fantastic. And I liked the way they had her explain the thestrals to Harry, since they obviously couldn't have the Care of Magical Creatures lesson with Hagrid. I was kind of dissapointed that they cut Ron's quiddich playing out of the movie, but it was kind of an obvious thing to cut, since it's not essential to the story or anything. But my favorite part was the end in the Ministry of Magic, they did some really good things there. They did a really good job with the arch with the veil, and Sirius's death, the way he just kind of melted into the veil. I also liked the touch they put in where Sirius calls Harry James while they're fighting the death eaters, just before he's killed. I also liked how while the Death Eaters and the members of the Order of the Pheonix were flying at each other, the Death Eaters were black, while the members of the Order of the Pheonix were white. I know it's an obvious thing to do and all, but it's still a nice touch. I loved the part where Harry is being possessed by Voldemort, they just did that so well. With the images just flashing and all, it was fantastic. I was kind of dissapointed that they cut the scene where Harry and Dumbledore are... talking in his office, because I think that would have looked really good on film. I was also dissapointed at how the Weasley twins left. The fireworks were great, but I think they should have done the thing with the swamp, and have them "talk" to Umbrige, it would have been so much more dramatic. On the other hand, I can see why they did it with the fireworks and Harry nearly fainting and all, it moves the story along more, but they could have done so much with the twins's leaving of the school. I do think that they did Harry and Cho's romance very well though. And the fact that they had her tell about the DA was a very nice touch, it cleanly breaks them up, and it moves the story along well, although I do feel sorry for Cho, the character, because she was under Veritaserum (sorry about the spelling...) when she told.
One thing that came to me again and again was how much this movie was like LOTR. Seriously, they have Kreacher who's just like Gollum, and at the end Harry has the line "We have something he does not." and then Hermione says "What's that Harry?" and I so expected him to say "That there's some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for." Also, this happens in most of these kinds of books, but in HP they keep referring to Voldemort as "the Dark Lord" and I was just waiting for one of them to say "the Dark Lord Sauron".

So, yeah, life is good.