"After all this time?" "Always."

A few warnings before I start:

WARNING: There be SPOILERS ahead.

WARNING: Naysayers and haters, LEAVE. Now.

WARNING: I'm running on about three hours of sleep right now... I'm really scatterbrained. Sorry.

What a movie. I went to the midnight showing with my sister, Kate. I went dressed as my Harry Potter persona: Slytherin fifth year Morgaine Edwin of the Marauder Era. Julia went as a Ravenclaw with elements of Luna Lovegood. The best costume that we saw was a young girl with straight, long brunette hair in a plain white dress, holding a picture frame... She was Ariana Dumbledore. It was brilliant.

I love going to midnight showings. I love dressing up (Halloween's my favorite holiday), I love figuring out everyone else's costumes, I love the excitement buzzing in the air. I love being able to really react during the movie: laughing, crying, cheering, applauding.

Some golden moments of the movie:

Neville, of course, is totally BA in this. It's impossible not to love it when he is on the bridge and the Snatchers are stopped at the protections and, of course, when he kills Nagini. I also ~loved~ the little Neville/Luna tidbit they added in there. There are two pairings that aren't canon that I love, though, I guess only one of them isn't canon anymore... Neville and Luna as well as Dumbledore and McGonagall. (Pish posh about Dumbledore being gay. Bah!)

There was another, unexpected, completely BA character in the movie: Minerva McGonagall. Of course, you have to love it when she's fighting Snape (which is also awesome to watch for Snape and what must be going through his mind... but I'll get to that later). But watching her throughout the Battle of Hogwarts... What a woman. She is easily one of my top five favorite Hogwarts professors. And when she enchanted the suits of armor and told them to protect the castle? She has this adorable grin and says "I've always wanted to try that spell" to Molly Weasley. Definitely my favorite comedic relief moment.

Aberforth was strangely wonderful. Every dead body that we recognized was another tear I had to wipe away: Fred (I mean, really, JK?), Remus and Tonks... The scene in the Room of Requirement was wonderfully done. And the fight between Molly Weasley and Bellatrix... I think that got more applause in our theatre more than when Voldemort died.

The dragon! Oh, my goodness. Okay, this is how much of a nerd/dork I am: dragons are my favorite animal. Therefore, I'm very picky about my dragons in movies. I've never been satisfied by the CGI work. Until now. That was a beautifully done dragon. Gorgeous.

Hermione as Bellatrix... So. Funny. I know Helena Bonham Carter said she just asked Emma Watson to do the scenes are she would and then Bonham Carter copied her, but still. It was grand. And, might I add, Rupert didn't look too shabby with that disguise...

I loved that we got to see more into Voldemort's head than we ever have before, both in the books and the movies. To see him and feel him so vulnerable. Ralph Fiennes did a beautiful job in this movie. Voldemort to me has always just kind of... been. I've never had much of an opinion on him. He's not like Bellatrix where I love to hate her or like Umbridge where I hate to hate her. He's just kind of... been. To be honest, I like Tom Riddle more than Voldemort as a villain. Which may not make sense... I think it might be because Tom's more human and Voldemort is so far from being human that he's hard to... "relate" isn't the right word but it's the best I can come up with right now. But in this movie, Ralph Fiennes was able to push past the inhumanity and, without making him less of a monster, made him a little more human and "relatable" and it was fascinating.

Some of the artistic choices were beautiful. My favorite scene in HP7.1 is when the trio is running from the Snatchers and there is no music in the background. It just... makes the scene more... intense and real. And the entire beginning of HP7.2 had no music. It was bone chilling.

Into The Forest Again was beautiful. I had calmed down from earlier scenes (which I will be getting to soon) by this point, but when Lily, James, Remus and Sirius showed up... I was okay, I was okay, I was okay, and then Sirius has a mini monologue and I lost it again. Sirius is my second favorite character of the series and I hate how the books he was in, he was barely ever there. And then he died. I was So. Mad. when he died.

(Sidenote: I finished reading HP5 in the wee hours of the morning and, of course, my dreams that night were Harry Potter themed. I dreamt that in the sixth book, Dumbledore died and then, in the seventh book, Harry died but it was a strange death and he wasn't upset about it. Imagine how much I freaked out after reading the sixth book. And then when I realized... I'm still weirded out by it.)

King's Cross was... there aren't words. The Voldemort creature was perfectly disgusting. The acting on Daniel and Michael's parts... And the reverence and respect you could tell both of these actors had for this scene and these characters and what Harry Potter means to the world. I was thrilled when they included one of the my favorite exchanges of the series word for words. Dumbledore is walking away and Harry calls after him:
"Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?"
Dumbledore stops and turns with a very Dumbledore smile.
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
That is a beautiful way to explain the world of an author...

And then finally. I come to my favorite character. Severus Snape.

Alan Rickman deserves an Oscar. I'll be angry if he doesn't at least get nominated for this.

First, as I previously stated, I loved the fight between him and McGonagall. To see the thoughts and emotions playing on his face, especially when one already knows his full story, was so much fun. When he whipped his cloak around himself I was afraid he wouldn't be crashing through the window, which I was disappointed about. I love that image, so I was glad that he still did. But I still love the comical take on it as shown in this fan art:

But seriously. (Or shall I say "siriusly"?) We got to his death scene and, well, clearly, I knew what was coming. I'd been okay throughout the rest of the movie and there was a part of me in the back of my mind wondering if I'd actually, possibly get through the movie without crying. HA. I think it was when Snape realized what was about to happen. And then Voldemort slashed his wand... And then we got the scene from outside where the trio was, hearing Nagini strike again and again... AHHH. And Harry goes in and Snape... Snape was crying! "You have your mother's eyes..." And I was gone. Silent hysterics.

The Prince's Tale was done beautifully. This and Snape's death... I want to go see the movie again, but I would be happy if all I could see were these two scenes. There were bits missing, of course, but that's fine. I actually have come to fully trust JK with the movies finally. And? While I love the fact that, in the book, Snape goes to Grimmauld Place and reads the letter more... In the movie, I love the fact that he goes to Godric's Hollow and finds Lily more. It was wonderfully awful.

So basically? What a beautiful movie. I can't wait to go see it again.