For some, 'Potter' has lost its magic

The Baltimore Sun

They came by the hundreds, despite the heat and the thunderstorm, to be among the first to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

By 3:30 a.m. yesterday, they had emerged from North Baltimore's Senator Theatre, some satisfied, some frustrated, but all talking about whether the latest movie in the series reflected the book on which it was based.

"This is the summer of Harry Potter. ... You want to be part of everything," said Penny Gerhman of Mount Washington. She, like others, are eagerly awaiting the last book in the series, due out July 21.

"J.K. Rowling turned a generation back onto reading," Gerhman said. "They've grown up with Harry Potter, and this is the end."

Outside the theater, fans lined up around the block, some costumed in witch hats or as students from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Sun asked several midnight moviegoers to e-mail their impression of the movie. Here is a sampling:

"During the show, you have people throughout the movie cheering when the hero or heroin does something great," wrote Liz Slavik, a 24-year-old chemist at a nutritional supplements company and resident of Brooklandville. "Everyone laughs when something funny happens, and they all quickly become quiet after each outburst to enjoy the movie. "It was definitely a dark movie, but with a lot of comical intervention. ... After two hours of watching the movie, and trust me it didn't seem like two hours at all, I felt as though I was missing something, as though the movie ended too soon or too quickly."

"All in all, I liked it. It was choppy, and I'm not sure it would make any sense to those who haven't read the book," wrote Rachel Ellis, 18, a Georgetown University sophomore from Pikesville who dressed as the ghost Moaning Myrtle. "My brother hasn't read the series and told me that he had no idea what was going on during the entire movie, even though he has seen the previous four.

"What really disappointed me was how much the filmmakers left out," Ellis continued. "Harry doesn't experience nearly as much grief or angst as he does in the book. The mirror that Sirius gives Harry in the novel was completely left out of the film -- that's the part that makes me cry the most when I read the series."

The newest Harry Potter movie, once again, exceeded all I could have hoped for in terms of visuals," wrote Jamie Gelo, 26, of Baltimore. "The flight through London, the thestrals, and the Hall of Prophecies in particular blew away what I had imagined from simply reading the books.

"Unfortunately, the script for Order of The Phoenix followed in the footsteps of the past movies," his e-mail continued. "Fluffing over key plot points, dumbing down important life lessons, hamming up the bad guys and struggling to give a happy ending; the whole story felt like watching a movie in fast-forward."

liz.kay@baltsun.com

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