'Hallows' be the name of a magical movie

MANILA, Philippines – In various countries worldwide, midnight premieres for

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I

were held beginning Nov. 18. In a similar endeavor to raise Potter spirit to new heights in our country, Warner Brothers held a special red carpet screening to coincide with the movie’s simultaneous opening across several continents.

Last Wednesday evening, special guests of all ages and varying degrees of HP obsession gathered in the IMAX theater lounge at 6:30 p.m. for cocktails. Ticketholders lined up before the buffet table and mingled while waiting for the movie to begin.

Cries of glee erupted now and then as fellow fans recognized one another and shared cocktail tables in friendship. Among those invited were entire families, couples treating it as the next big romantic date, self-confessed Potter-addicted barkadas and even Harry Potter fan club members dressed in recognizable Hogwarts garb.

Dumbledore makes a surprising appearance, joining the red carpet and the theater audience later on.

Much wand-waving and photographing ensued, before muggles and self-proclaimed magic folk alike abandoned their meals and hit the red carpet, which led into the IMAX theater itself. Out of sheer excitement, a winding line consisting of wild enthusiasts had already formed by 7 p.m. The showing was to start an entire hour later.

Happily, by 7:30 p.m., everyone converged in the spacious IMAX theater. As soon as the familiar Warner Brothers logo appeared on the gargantuan screen, the audience, loudly chattering a second earlier, fell silent.

Posters of the movie have been plastered in practically every cineplex board in the country. One of the more popular ones shows Harry, Ron and Hermione dressed in civvies and running through a forest. That alone is indicative of the even darker turn the franchise has taken since the already macabre motif of The Half-Blood Prince more than a year ago.

This time, the heroes have left Hogwarts for good and are searching for a means to destroy Voldemort, while simultaneously avoiding the Death Eaters that are always in hot pursuit. As one of the taglines reads, “Nowhere is safe.” The battle for survival is a long and treacherous one it is perhaps why, armed with this knowledge, Warner Brothers chose to split the seventh book into two movies.

As a result, Potter fans will be pleasantly surprised by the accuracy of this movie’s adaptation. As always, there are still some favorite parts that have been cut, and certain characters ejected, while others get a bit more screen time than expected.

Because the movie now has the time and opportunity to depict the goings-on in the wizarding world war, tensions are constantly high throughout the film, even among the golden trio. What might have been a seventh and final film packed tightly with as many plot points as the director can manage to insert has become a grand production with a sufficient amount of breathing room for everyone involved.

Nevertheless, the stream of information is a steady one. Potter fans will be delighted by the sheer number of details and references drawn from the seventh book and its predecessors, while less knowledgeable moviegoers are still likely to be left baffled at some point, especially since the previous films neglected to provide explanations when they were supposed to.

That Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I is a character-driven movie is something worth celebrating it is rewarding to finally see the more internal battles portrayed in the book bubble up onscreen. Thus, the lack of a 3D version, which was a big decision for WB, isn’t something to mourn, after all.

Complete with great acting, intense effects, and cinematography taken several notches higher, Part I has proven that 3D isn’t necessary for the first half of a grand adventure that fans worldwide have been looking forward to for years.

As the movie drew to a chilling close and the excited buzz started once more, practically everyone in the audience openly expressed the absolute need for July 2011 the premiere month for Part II  to come around as fast as possible.