Tag harry potter

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO WARNER BROS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON THOSE I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at Warner Bros (their home page is here) had sent me codes to some of their movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on them with you. For the first part of this series we talked about Scoob, Birds of Prey, The Way Back, Goonies 4K, Beetlejuice 4K, Full Metal Jacket, Sherlock Holmes 4K and Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows 4K. Part 2 ‘twas massive and discussed V for Vendetta 4K, 300 4K, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy 4K, The Hobbit Trilogy 4K, Blade 4K, Bill and Ted Face the Music, Tenet and The Wolf of Snow Hollow. Part 3 talked about Wonder Woman 1984, The Little Things and Judas and the Black Messiah. Part 4 discussed Tom and Jerry the Movie and Godzilla Vs Kong. Part 5 was all about Wrath of Man, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Space Jam. Part 6 had discussed Mortal Kombat and Those Who Wish Me Dead. We have returned for Part 7 to discuss In the Heights, The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It, Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 20 Years of Movie Magic edition!

In the Heights

This film follows Usnavi as he tells a group of local kids the story of his dream and how everyone has their own dreams while living in Washington Heights. I went into this film having never seen the play or listened to the music. My family are huge fans of Hamilton though and I went into this hoping to hear more amazing music in a similar style, but only a couple songs reminded me of others from Hamilton and not the ones I loved. Visually the film was stunning and the acting was fantastic but the story was slow and felt more like a week in the life of Usnavi and was not as interesting as I hoped it would be.

The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It

This was the first of the Conjuring films I’ve seen with Conjuring actually in the name. The film begins with with the usual duo of, I guess you can call them demon hunters, as they work to exercise a demon from a young boy. I was expecting a campy horror film with too many jump scares but was surprised to find a well written film with the right mixture of tone and suspense.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League

This is essentially the director’s cut of Justice League as Snyder originally intended it. Like more director’s cut scenes were added to the original release but this time almost doubling the length of the film. This telling of the story was much more coherent and we ended with a much better telling of the story. It was a good film that was made better and overall a much more enjoyable experience.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 20 Years of Movie Magic

This edition of the film include the Magical Movie Mode which gives viewers the ability to see deleted scenes (many of which have been released previously in other formats) and various commentary from director Chris Columbus. Seeing the deleted scenes was a treat but personally I have never been a fan of live commentary while watching a film, unless of course it is my family doing it similar to the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Overall this is STILL a fantastic film and the added features make the experience fresh but not enough to make it feel like a new film.

SO WHICH WARNER BROS FILMS DID YOU SEE? WHICH DID YOU ENJOY?

Players take the role of their favorite Hogwarts heroes in the Hogwarts Battle Cooperative Deck Building Game from USAopoly!

In Hogwarts Battle players work together fighting against increasing odds but with the help of your expanding decks of spells you will be able to fight and eventually defeat them. The fine folks at USAopoly supplies us with our review copy of this game (along with others) and we let our son choose which we played first. So one thing became apparent early on in the game- the more players you have the easier the fight will be. Makes sense because anytime you have a set number of enemies and increase the number of people fighting them you usually will have an easier time of it.

We went around the table adding cards to our individual pools of magic spells in order to quickly get an upper hand against Draco Malfoy, Crabbe & Goyle and eventually Professor Quirrell.

I’m notorious for misreading rules the first few times I go over them so to save time I asked my wife to give them a quick read and we were able to jump right into the game within only a couple minutes. The rule book is full color and well written and you’d have to be a fool to misunderstand them. Somehow I did and she straightened it out quickly.

The first stage of the game took about forty five minutes total, including multiple readings of the rules and even a check of them again later on. In our house the toughest critics are the kids and after completing the first stage Merrick immediately asked if we could do the second stage tomorrow. This game is a definite keeper and I think this image says all you need to know about whether or not you should get this for the Harry Potter fan in your life.

HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD IS THE STORY OF WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IN THE LIFE OF HARRY POTTER BUT IS CENTERED AROUND HIS SON ALBUS.

The folks at the Curran Theater invited us to attend the opening night showing of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. With showings in only four cities we knew this was our only chance to attend in the near future. Taking the long drive we arrived and were excited for the show. Entering the theater we made two immediate observations. The first was that the theater was gorgeous. The design speaks to years of history. The second observation was that the carpets and walls were adorned with the letter H. Speaking with my contact at the theater I was able to confirm that this H was for Hogwarts and was part of the transformation the theater underwent for the play.

The Cursed Child follows as Albus, Harry’s son, decides to try to go back in time to save Cedric Diggory, believing that his death was needless.  The book is written as a full script which was intended to see stage instead of a screen.

The play was not only performed by a fantastic cast but it featured effects that made magic come to life on the stage. During the moments of time travel the effects team performed some lighting tricks that made the physical set appear to become liquid. Every time this happened I tried to figure out how it was done and could not.

The play was a stunning masterpiece that should be required viewing for all fans of the Harry Potter films or books. It is divided into two parts, each about two and a half hours long including intermission and as the world is changed by the actions of Albus the staff and decorations have shifted to a Voldemort theme and we’re greeted with “Happy Voldemort Day”. It’s touches like this that made the experience even better.