Girl’s Nite

Don’t you hate it when people misspell a word just because they think it amkes the event sound more catchy?  I mean, really, what’s the purpose of spelling night, NITE?

Anyway, moving on…I had the privilege of joining my lovely neighbors for a girl’s NIGHT out last night.  I had been looking forward to this for a while and the evening did not dissapoint.

We began our evening at The Old Spagetti Factory in the valley.  I haven’t been there in years, and I’ve never been to the new one.  I forgot how good their food is.  And coupled with pleasant conversation made for a fabulous dinner.

Following our dinner, we headed to the mall where we saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

Let me tell you what I thought of the latest installment of the Harry Potter franchise.  Pull up a chair, grab a Cup of Joe – let’s have a chat.

So far I’ve been slightly disappointed in the Harry Potter movies.  Up until last night, that is.  I realize that the books are long and the storylines are complex so to make all of the movies true to the books would mean they would each be 5 hours long.  Which isn’t realistic.

However, in the first five movies, I felt like such an emphasis was put on the special effects (which were fantastic for sure) that a lot of the dialogue was missing.  In my opinion, if you’ve never read the books, they movies would seem very confusing.  The movies make the assumption that everyone’s read the books first, so they cut out key elements of the books.  (For example, little explanation was given on the prophecy concerning Harry and this was a key element I felt was missing in movie 5 – I could list a lot more examples, but I won’t bore you.

You are welcome.)

Did you like how I ended that paranthetical pause in a completely different paragraph?  My college professional writing professor would have had a small heart attack over that one.

Last night’s movie, however, I felt was the best so far – until the end when they seemed to run out of time and steam.  It followed the book pretty accurately, had great effects, and actually gave us a better insight into the characters of Harry, Ron and Hermione, which we haven’t really seen so far.

In short, I really liked it.  It was funny, sweet, exciting and well done. Alan Rickman as Snape is superb, in all of the films, really, but particularly in this one.  The the kids playing the title characters have just gotten better and cuter with age.  It was just a really good movie.

Okay, I need to sign off.  We’re headed to meet some friends this morning and I am still in my pajamas.  I have roughly 20 minutes to change, fix mine and the kids’ hair, pack a lunch and get out the door.

I think we’re going to be late…