My hubby’s company reserved an entire theater auditorium for the premier, and we won tickets in the office drawing. I’m very stoked!
Redwolf
I expect full details upon your arrival home tonight. Don’t even think of going to bed before delivering your report. 
djm
Ooooh! This is worth staying up for!
Deej, we’ll have to find something entertaining to keep us busy until she posts her report!
My suggestion:
Canasta.
I was thinking more along the lines of popcorn and a massage.
Well, as you might expect, it was quite excellent (though LONG at 2 1/2 hours!).
The text below may contain some spoilers. If you don’t want to read it, please don’t. If you do want to read it, just highlight the text in the quote box.
As you might suppose, with such a long book, they had to cut it significantly. There’s very little of the Quiddich World Cup, for example, and they don’t get into the fact that Fleur is part Veela (or into Veelas at all) or that the headmistress of Beaux Batons is part giant (in fact, she and Hagrid are quite lovey-dovey right from the start). Saddest for me, though, is there’s no Winkey, nor does Dobby make a reappearance!
I thought the editing of the first bit was rather choppy…they could have done a better job with that. It got smoother as the film progressed.
That said, they did really well with the character development and with the intensity of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Cedric’s death was heartbreaking, even though I knew it was coming…they did a really good job of making him a truly likeable fellow. The special effects were, predictably, absolutely brilliant.
One caveat…if you have very young children, you might want to evaluate whether they are ready for this movie. A couple of kids in the audience were very frightened by Voldemort’s reappearance, which got pretty intense, and some were quite upset by the death near the end. Remember, this is the first of the really dark Potter books, and the film reflects that. You know your kids better than I, but if they’re very sensitive or easily frightened, you might want to have them give this one a miss until they’re a little older. Otherwise, I can recommend it highly. It wasn’t perfect, as I mention above, but it’s still an excellent movie. Rowling better stop making them so long, though, or they won’t be able to make movies of them at all!
Redwolf
Now you’re talkin. Love popcorn.
Lamby, you are becoming an absolutely wicked forum temptress. I put a former … er … friend through massage therapy school, and learned to give a pretty good rub-down, if I do say so myself.
Yes, I expected to see a lot chopped out of such a long story as GoF. I think I can live without the house elves, but I hope the Veela aren’t underplayed. 
Same thing happened to LOTR. I still can’t believe they cut out Tom Bombadil. 
He was central to Tolkiens’s philosophy, and Rhys-Davis is Tom Bombadil, with no need for make-up!
djm
He probably has something in his contract saying he can’t play three different characters in the same Trilogy.
Isn’t that what trilogies are for? 
djm
Yeah, the popcorn will get them every time!
I put a former … er … friend through massage therapy school, and learned to give a pretty good rub-down, if I do say so myself. >
Yes, I expected to see a lot chopped out of such a long story as GoF. I think I can live without the house elves, but I hope the Veela aren’t underplayed. >
Oh, hey! That’s good! They left out the Veela!
No, no, not Velveeta …
djm
That’s a groaner.
groan
I got to see it yesterday morning, and I was struck by how dark the movie was…I mean colorwise. It was pretty dingy throughout.
Yes, this movie is too much for young children, but it appears that some parents just don’t get it. There have been warnings all over the place, but there were little ones in the theater yesterday, and I wanted to smack the mothers upside the head. What on earth were they thinking?
Fallacy: you assume they’re thinking.
I have a couple of kids, now 13-14, in my carpool who appear to have had virtually no restrictions on choices of videogames and movies since they were, I dunno, maybe 9.
They’re flat out jaded. The one owns more DVDs than the public library and his collection includes such gems as Texas Chainsaw, Rings 1&2, House of Wax, and he’ll have Saw 2 as soon as it’s buyable.
Interesting thing is, he is pretty savvy in his analyses of the films’ merits. For example: Saw 1 was a “better movie” from a film-making, story-building perspective, but Saw 2 was more fun to watch because of all the gore and the stupid people and the stupid things they do.
I just got back from the movie. It’s gotten so 2 1/2 hours in a movie seat leaves me needing a little chiropractic help.
All in all, I think they did a great job of illuminating the story. One really needs to know all the book details, as usual, to fully appreciate it.
(oh, and btw…they used the term “taking the mickey.” First time I’ve heard that outside of C&Fers.)
The books get darker as HP gets older. I suppose JKR’s intended audience is supposed to be getting older to match HP, and able to handle it. The subjects dealt with in each book progress in age/maturity level, as well. As always, the onus is on the supervising adult to determine if their child is capable of dealing with the material.
djm