I won't take up space in this post talking about the film itself (which was pretty good if a bit scattered at times) - what really pumps me up is that this is the first time, ever, that I have been able to go to a film during its opening weekend. That bears repeating: the first time EVER. For someone who has so often felt frustrated and left out of pop culture because of lack of accessibility, this is huge. At home in the US, it takes seemingly forever for the captioned version of a film to hit the theaters, and then by that time most of the buzz has died out. There's still a big buzz about Harry Potter (so much so that, walking out of the theater, I bumped into a group of other Stanford students on their way in to see it), and, for once, I am part of that buzz. For once, I have seen a movie at the same time as everybody else, and even before. I don't know what makes the accessibility options so much better in the UK, but they are, hands down. YESSSSSSSS.
That said, seeing Harry Potter while studying abroad in England was especially fun, because I recognized some of the English-type scenery in the film - plus of course London. One of the London streets featured early on in the storyline, I'm pretty sure I saw just last weekend. And the actors' curiously British mannerisms? Yep, I recognize those too.
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| One of the many Harry Potter ads all over London - this one from a bus stop near Marble Arch. Hey there, Tower Bridge in the background! I know you! |
