Harry Potter and the Opening Day Squee

I have seen HP:POA and am in celebrate mode, not analyze mode, so I will just note the things I absolutely loved and talk later about the things I only liked.

1) David Thewlis as Lupin rocks my world. I never had a really vivid mental image of the character (and I was hugely grateful when I learned that Ewan McGregor would not be playing the part, as everything from his age to his body type to his voice seemed wrong to me) and I felt like Thewlis had the soul of Remus, which is all that matters.
2) I forgot while watching Gary Oldman that he was Gary Oldman. This is a very good thing, as it allowed me really to enjoy his performance without resenting it being Gary Oldman, who has run his mouth too many times on political issues with which I passionately disagree. He wasn't in the movie for long, which is just as it should be, and I really, really hope the beard and scruff remain for future films.
3) Thewlis and Oldman together are fabulous.
4) Thewlis and Oldman together with Rickman are beyond fabulous.
5) In general, Alan Rickman is fabulous in every scene he's in, though the Boggart transformation is of course in a class by itself.
6) For the first time during a movie I did not resent Harry Potter for being Harry Potter, but felt sorry for him. I disagree with The New York Times, in which A.O. Scott said that Daniel Radcliffe didn't have the range to play Harry emotionally, as an adolescent; I thought he was quite good.
7) If I squeed over boys practically my son's age, I would squee over Ron Weasley. I also like smart-and-unembarrassed Hermione, though to my shame as a feminist, the character barely registers in my mental landscape in this universe; I think more about Lily Potter than I do about her. In general however this is true of all the under-20s; their Marauders-era counterparts interest me more.
8) I don't like Draco. I have never really liked Draco. This movie makes no attempt to turn Draco into someone likeable, and while I wish Rowling had given me a Draco I could like, at least a little, several books ago, this film has Draco very much as I see him from the books.
9) I want to fly on a hippogriff.
10) This is a very gay movie. I don't mean it's slashy, though the Remus/Sirius scenes were all I could hope for. I mean that there is no question in my mind, watching it, that being That Kind Of Nocturnal Creature is a metaphor for being gay; in his last scene, the person in question who becomes That Kind Of Nocturnal Creature does not even name what that is, but keeps saying "people like me" -- and that is what sold me on the character, the novel and the franchise when I first read the book.

Oh, and even though he does not appear in the film, someone who does appear quotes something that Lucius Malfoy supposedly said offscreen, which I could just hear Jason Isaacs saying, and that made me squee too. Oh! And Hollum on the bus! My inner M&C fangrrl was so happy to see him!

I also had an utterly lovely morning chatting with (who saved our seats in line), (my oldest friend in any fandom, and one of my oldest friends in life), (who brought us HP candy), (whom I knew ages ago in Trek fandom and have not seen literally in years) and a friend of theirs. By coincidence I also ran into one of my old friends from Voyager fandom and her sister while we were waiting to go into the theater, and it always makes me so happy when I run into people from older fandoms in newer ones, especially if we've been out of touch for too damn long, as was the case with several people here.

Four of us went to grab Thai food afterward (being minions of , we have concluded that we must always go out for Thai food if she wishes). And even though we all 'ship different pairings it was a most harmonious outing.

More coherency later, hopefully, after the annual end-of-year bash at my kids' school.