Gainesville's just wild about Harry

Harry Potter is back on the big screen.

People across the nation flocked to movie theaters Wednesday for the opening of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," based on the fifth novel in the popular series by J.K. Rowling.

Many theaters offered midnight showings of the film on Tuesday, where people turned out in droves, many in costume, to see Harry and his friends fight the evil forces of Lord Voldemort.

Valerie Fambrough, a student at North Georgia College & State University in Dahlonega, went to one such screening at the Mall of Georgia's IMAX theater, which featured the last 20 minutes of the movie in 3-D.

"I thought it was fantastic," she said. "It's now my favorite of all the movies, easily."

Fambrough went with about 40 classmates and Brian Corrigan, who is teaching a Harry Potter literature course at NGCSU this summer.

The class has been divided into the four houses of Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, the same names used for the houses at Potter's wizardry school, Hogwarts. They wore their brightly colored polo shirts depicting which house they were from. Some also wore their house scarves.

"You couldn't miss us," Fambrough said with a laugh.

Other area residents opted to watch the film during daylight hours.

Mark Price and his family came to the movie theater to avoid the rain.

Price's daughter, 16-year-old Amanda Price, is the family's resident expert on all things Harry Potter.

She read the first book in a class at her high school and has just finished the fifth.

"Ever since then I've been hooked on them," she said.

Price said while the movies aren't as detailed as the books, they have good plots.

Though he hasn't read the books, Mark Price always accompanies his daughter to the movies.

"I enjoy the action and adventure," he said.

Sisters Mayra Lopez, 17, and Maricela Lopez, 16, saw the first Harry Potter movie and liked it so much they decided to read the books.

They came to the movie theater in Gainesville on Wednesday to see a 1 p.m. showing of the film with friend Berenice Magana, 13.

Magana said her favorite part about the Harry Potter movies was how the characters use magic.

"I like how Hermione and Ron (Harry's best friends) are always fighting," Maricela Lopez said.

The film condenses an 870-page book into two hours and 20 minutes.

"They did a really good job of incorporating a lot of things (from the book)," Fambrough said. "I was surprised to see how much detail the movie had."

Fambrough said the film stays mostly true to the plot line of the book, although it was frightening at times.

"It was much darker (than previous movies)," she said.

Though it was slightly scary, the characters were still enjoyable.

Fambrough said Evanna Lynch, who played Luna Lovegood, "was perfect."

Imelda Staunton, who portrayed Professor Dolores Umbridge, was "just delightfully evil," she said.

The magic, spells and twists and turns are only some of the reasons why so many people love Harry Potter.

"It was just a fantastic movie," Fambrough said, "and very enjoyable."