Entertainment : In Depth: Harry Potter is back!

It’s a toss up – is my favorite Harry Potter magic the flying broomsticks or the invisibility cloak?

Harry, Hermione and Ron materialize, literally, onto the Palace big screen this Friday, December 31 through Thursday, January 6 at 7 p.m. nightly, and Monday, January 3 at 2 p.m. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One” is rated PG-13 and runs 146 minutes.

A couple of my older kids have seen the movie and said it’s probably the scariest in the series. I asked one of their good friends, Kristi, admitted Harry Potter FREAK and aficionado, to jot down her thoughts on the seventh action adventure in the eight-part film series.

“Released on November 19, 2010, Harry Potter fanatics everywhere lined up for the first look and The Deathly Hallows Part 1. (Yes, Kristi was at the midnight showing!) The bar was set high for the last installment, broken into two parts. Part one begins with Harry searching for ‘he who must not be named’ (Lord Voldemorts pieces of soul Horcruxes). We are taken along with Harry, Ron and Hermione through the challenge of finding the Horcruxes, evading the Dark Lord, and the personal and emotional struggles between each other.

The Harry Potter series began its journey on the screen in 1999 starting with Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone—and with the final installment has made much improvement. Part 1 has been the film, thus far, truest to the novel. The ‘darkness’ of the seventh book is captured brilliantly in the film. The special effects were perfected and the balance of good and evil is neck and neck—the perfect setup for part 2. In addition to the ‘darkness’ of the film, director David Yates provides a small relief of comedy. Overall this dark, artful film of the final installment of the infamous Harry Potter series is not to be missed!

P.S.I could go on forever, but hope this works for you! Drew says hello, we are just about to go cross country skiing! Hope all is well and I will see you Wednesday!! whoohooo! ~ Krisi”

Big smiles. Kristi from Dyersville, IA is coming to catch the movie one more time in Vinton.

Anyway, three talented and beloved actors, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, Harry, Hermione and Ron respectively, have gone from pre-teen to young adult both in film and real life as the series progressed throughout the past decade.

But, perhaps the movie magic I love most about Harry Potter is the plethora of amazing English classical actors employed to portray the various enchanted characters, including the now-deceased Richard Harris, Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, Richard Griffiths, John Hurt, Rhys Ifans, Jason Isaacs, Bill Nighy, Alan Rickman, Fiona Shaw, Timothy, Spall, Imelda Staunton, David Thewlis, Warwick Davis, Tom Felton, Toby Jones, Simon McBurney, Peter Mullan and Julie Walters. Wow.

We’re sporting our own bit of magic at the theatre this week, with our regular out-of-this-world ticket price ~ just $2! Whether you’re seeing it for the first time, or the fifth or sixth like Kristi, we hope you’ll thrill to “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One” at the Palace.