What is that mysterious ticking noise?

It would be an extreme understatement to say that Chris and I like the movies. We could wax poetic and explain that the movies brought us together blah blah blah... but sometimes I think it's just that we like movies. And popcorn. And soda. And milk duds.
The Swiss don't have milk duds though. Nor plain m&ms. Nor Junior Mints.
Not even sour patch kids.
Not even Swedish fish...which, considering how much closer they are than us to Sweden...you would think...
But the Swiss have a movie experience that is all their own.
Well, I guess I might be lying. We have not been to the movies in any other country than America. But I digress.
Tonight, Chris and I finally got to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (or...Harry Potter und der Halbblutprinz to the locals in Barfusserplatz). I promise my opinion later.
You would think that such movie-insiders like Chris and I would be the ideal theater patrons. Cinema buffs so to speak.
We always go early.
If a movie is recent, we buy tickets early and go earlier.
We are picky about seats. And we try to avoid movie times that feature either the very young or very old.
We even sometimes clean up after ourselves. Chris swears we don't have, to having “paid our dues.”

All of our training abandoned us on this foreign soil.
We were like wee toddlers trying our first bicycle.
Like kindergarteners, trying to scribble inside the lines.
Like idiots.

The Swiss do not go to the movies early. They don't have to. Knowing 2 very important things that Chris and I did not know:
The first. Movie theaters have assigned seats.
The second. The film starts 15 minutes after the time on the ticket.

Thats right. Assigned seats. We were seats 16 and 17. Section b. And what is section b?
Balcony.
As in, we were on the second floor of the theater.
Had we asked, we could've had box seats for the film.
I think in the box seats, an usher has to fan you and feed you grapes. Already peeled. Especially when I consider how much movies tickets were just for the balcony.

There we were, bewildered. More lost than Sayid and Jack. In our assigned seats. In a brightly lit theater. Minutes after the movie was supposed to start. Wondering at the blank screen in front of us. Hoping we were in the right theater for English.
But we still had popcorn and soda.
Then, I noticed very few people had these things. They sold them in the lobby? Had I somehow committed a theater faux pas? Perhaps all the locals simply stopped at the bar....inside the theater...or purchased sparkling wine...from the theater...and did not partake in such snackery.
Oh no.
They did.
They got it at intermission.
That's right, Ladies and Gentlemen. Intermission. Right before Christmas at the Weasleys. About an hour into the two hour movie.



Now... my opinion regarding the film. THIS IS MY SPOILER ALERT.
Overall, I liked it. No one should be surprised by that. I generally like all things Harry. I thought it was funny. I thought the director did a great job revising a novel that is primarily buildup for the following novel. I thought Snape dripped with Snapey-ness and adored the prim and proper depiction of McGonagall. I was impressed with Draco. I loved Fred and George. Lavender made me laugh out loud. She was exactly as I had pictured her to be. Slughorn was perfectly cast.
And, as to be expected, I thought the main four were great.
It was only the variation in the ending that confused me. All the other changes made perfect sense. They added to the overall tension of the plot. But, the ending....after the lake scene (bravo, Dumbledore and Harry. That scene was exactly as I hoped it would be.)...
what happened?
Why did Greyback not attack?
Why did everyone run past Harry as if he was unimportant? Why could they see him in the first place?
It is hard for me to say if I loved the film or just really really liked it because of this.
Overall, I give it an A-

And in case any of you have not seen this yet...