Harry Potter Movie

Got back a little while ago from seeing the new Harry Potter movie. We went to the Palms Casino - in Vegas most of the movie theatres are located in casinos. The Palms has fourteen screens, and HP was playing on the big Imax screen in 3D. We got to wear funky 3D glasses, but the polarized kind not the old fashioned red/blue ones.

The movie was pretty good - fast paced, didn't have to cut too much out of the 900 page book. The 3D effects were only during the last fifteen minutes - the big fight scene at the Ministry of Magic. With those glasses it was a pretty good effect. But if you go to see HP DO NOT GO TO THE 3D SHOW!!!

Here we are home for over three hours and I still am cross-eyed with a splitting headache, as is B, from the 3D stuff. I think they create the effect by alternating frames; shooting alternating frames polarized differently, then your mind puts them together. The problem is that this means the effective frame rate is only half of what it should be. Which means that when things are moving they look really jumpy and jerky. Which is really reall BAD FOR YOUR EYES. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

When people were standing still, and the slow flight sequences getting from Hogwarts, things really stood out and the 3D effect was very good. But during the fight scenes everybody was moving around so fast that it all was a blur, but a jerky disorienting blur.

So, go see the movie, but see it in a regular theatre.

Book is due out at midnight - I ordered from Amazon six months ago, or whenever they started taking advanced orders. At that time it was $17.99 or so. Clicking through I saw they were offering a $17.99 discount if ordered early. That didn't seem right, but I clicked through the order anyway. Confirmation of shipment came in an email yesterday: book $17.99, shipping $3.90, discount applied $17.99, total due $3.90. Sounds pretty good to me. But I still have a hundred or so pages in book five to read, then book six to catch up before I start on the new one. So please don't tell me who dies.