The whole Harry Potter thing is a bit like Apple iPhone--the more people encourage me to read/see/use it, the more I resist. And it's got nothing whatsoever to do with what i think of the product. I'm just a grumpy old man and a contrary bastard to boot.
agreed about the popularity/pressure, though there's none on me because I don't have any IRL friends. I thought the movie was as bad as the book - as the series progressed, the books got longer and more boring to the extent that I read the last two in the bookstore rather than waste money on them.
On the other hand, I like going to movies with my partner, and it's even better when we don't have to wait in line or until midnight, and we don't have to pay for tickets. Her job has gotten us in to see 3 Harry Potter movies and into Universal Studios theme park. All we paid for was the food.
btw, the first half of Deathly Hallows was fairly good - worth seeing on one of the pirate sites.