CREDIT: ALISON MCGEE GEEKS OUT FOR HARRY POTTER FILMS.
warner bros.

Recently, I discovered that a friend of mine who is in his early 30s hadn't seen the final Harry Potter flick. Actually, he hadn't seen any of them past The Goblet of Fire, and he hadn't read the books either. To me, this was shocking — it was a travesty! How could you watch the first four movies and then have no interest in seeing how it all ends?

So we started the grand endeavour of watching The Order of the Phoenix, The Half-Blood Prince and The Deathly Hallows parts one and two. Why is this important? Because I let my geek flag fly in a big way while watching him watch how it ended. When Hedwig, Moody and Dobby died, I got a little misty-eyed. When McGonagall brought the statues to life and all the teachers started casting the protection spell over Hogwarts, I got goosebumps. When Harry and Voldemort were locked in battle, wand to wand and you didn't know who was going to come out of it alive, I watched with bated breath.

My friend called me a dork.

The point of this story is that a big part of the fun when watching movies like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games or even Twilight is that for those few hours, in the darkness of the theatre or the privacy of your own home, you get to be your true geeky self. You can give in completely to the idea that you do in fact care whether a 17- year-old, completely fictional wizard lives or dies. You care a lot.

You can watch with complete and utter joy when Harry jumps out of Hagrid's arms, not dead at all, and then again when Neville finally finds his strength and courage and kills the snake, destroying the final horcrux. You can celebrate when Bella finally awakens from her near-death sleep with fierce red eyes. You can feel the bittersweetness of Katniss and Peeta returning to District 12, together and alive.

What I'm saying is, that in honour of the Interrobang's annual Geek Pride issue, let your geek flag fly every once in a while. It's easy to geek out for movies — heck, that's a big part of the fun of a lot of flicks nowadays — and what better medium to let yourself get swept away by?

So don't play it cool — instead, let yourself care. Care about Harry, about Edward and Bella, about Katniss and Peeta, even maybe a little still for Luke Skywalker. Whatever you do, let your geek flag fly... at least at the movies.