Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Saw it. It doesn’t stand alone by itself like some of the other films. The story is setting up for the finale - very much of an Empire Strikes Back ending that way. Unfortunately there’s a lot that goes on with zero explanation and way too much focus on relationships and ‘snogging’. No emo Potter though. Ah it’s entertaining. Wizards doing wizard things. Alan Rickman being awesome. To me the whole thing is more like a long mini-series then films. I’d be interested to know what someone who hasn’t read the books thinks.

I could never get into the books, but I’ve liked each movie more than the last. I’d be happy to wait for video, but my wife loves the series so we’re going Saturday.

MAJOR BOOK SPOILERS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED*******

They skipped the whole battle at the end? The desperate fight where the aurors and others, as well as Harry’s friends, are trying to break through the barricade while the Death Eaters are trying to kill D is where all the tension comes from. Them just running up there with no resistance and then fleeing to no resistance kind of defeats the purpose. Also, they skipped the entire funeral and the “This changes things forever” speech with Ginny as the one who comforts him. If I’m remembering right he doesn’t even tell his friends he’s leaving, or at most just informs them.

To me they should have glossed over all the love story/Ron and whatshername stuff and just concentrated on that end. The end is where all the emotion was. Imagine Gandalf dying in Lord of the Rings but instead of the big battle with the orcs leading up to the Balrog leading up to the sacrifice, the Balrog just tosses him over the ledge. I mean, same thing happened, but the way in which it happened is where the emotional punch comes from.

I understand the need to trim the book for movie purposes, but the ending was by far the most important part of the book and to me they really rushed it.

Started out really strong, but somewhere along the middle the movie decided to instead become a series of vignettes with barely any connecting plot or emotional buildup, until finally at the end it’s nothing more than a screensaver-style altered version of what you can read in the book.

Specific stuff

-The direction was poor when you consider the pedigree of actors, although I suppose that could have resulted from meddling by others involved with the franchise. That having been said, Alan Rickman and Tom Felton (Draco) were the standouts.

-Movie had a lot of beautifully-shot “moments”, and the score is probably tied with 3’s as my favorite of the group.

Overall: Meh. Ignoring the nerd-fights about which story is the best, I’ll just say that HBP had a chance to be a better movie than the current best (Prisoner of Azkaban), and instead ended up dull.

2 1/2 hours long and flat as a pancake

I have not read any of the books, but I read a review in the NYT that gave it 3 1/2 stars and called it an “artistic masterpiece.” I’ve seen all the movies up till now, and I can’t wait to see this one. None of the previous were really all that amazing as a whole, with the exception that the last 2 had great endings. I look forward to watching it.

SPOILER ALERT

MORE SPOILS

I cannot agree with this more… they absolutely neutered what was THE most powerful scene of the entire series… none of the others were that memorable.

I’m sorry, there should have been an epic battle going on below the tower, lightning in the sky and everything, camera pans out and circles the tower and zooms in on Malfoy, Dumbledore’s beard and hair being whipped by the wind, Snape SHOVING Draco aside and pointing his wand, and Dumbledore showing a little bit more emotion when he delivers his final line.

The rest of the movie was great, on par with the other movies, but the ending was so botched. When near the opening the ‘house repair’ scene used so many special effects, I thought “Wow, they pull out all the stops for the Harry Potter movies!”

I guess they pulled out a little more than that.

SPOILERS

Skipping the battle at the end was the only thing that really bugged me. Other than that I thought it was up there with Azkaban. I love the way they didn’t bother explaining anything - if you haven’t at least seen the other movies, why are you watching this one?

I was really worried that they were going to have Ron and Hermoine hook up here, which would completely go against everything. I liked the Lavender stuff, that was fun.

I don’t like the way they ignore all the other houses. It seemed like they were trying to imply Luna is in Gryffindor, which is ridiculous.

Please read that last paragraph in a Comic Book Guy voice.

Nice to see Zabini get a cameo.

Last thing, I swear: I kept expecting to see the Diadem when they showed the room of requirement. Shouldn’t it have been right by the cabinet? My wife got really annoyed with me trying to recruit her as a looker, but oh well.

Thumbs up over here. Really excited for the last two.

Spoilers

Yes the end battle taken out was really a damn shame. Guess they wanted to save all that pew pew stuff until the grand finale? So the Deatheaters just walk in there, watch Dumbledore die, then burn Hagrid’s house and leave? Damn they must really hate Hagrid.

Oh, and also, no Bill/Fleur storyline means they’re going to do what, exactly, for the beginning of the next one?

I would imagine just have the Bill/Fleur wedding anyway with no explanation whatsoever. It would fit the MO of the movies so far.

Or, just don’t mention Bill/Fleur in the final two movies. It’s not as if they are major characters anyway.

Edit: Oh but wait, they still need the wedding because everyone is preparing for it, etc. Hmmm, yeah, just have the wedding, who cares how a couple of minor characters got together?

Yeah, I came to that conclusion too. They could very easily just do, “Weasley kid getting married” with no further explanation.

Lets not forget they skipped the subplot that gave the book it’s title. nobody even bothered looking into who the half blood prince was. they mentioned that the book was owned by him at the beginning and who it was at the end. that was it, it felt superfluous.

Hermionie went to the library!

They also skipped entirely over the whole Rufus Scrimgouer (sp?) plot.

Spoilers

  • Ponderous, elephantine direction, cuts that lingered far too long, long unnecessary awkward pauses, and a mushy interminable sitcom drag of a middle. This was undoubtedly one of the harder books to film, but I agree there were poor decisions with content as well.

  • Daniel Radcliff was especially plastic and awkward. The pressure of his role is onerous I’m sure but even a touch of affectation would have been welcome.

  • Jim Broadbent on the other hand (the new potions master) was absolutely fantastic. He carried this movie.

  • Dumbledore still miscast! It was especially striking this time round as I was expected to muster the requisite pathos and sympathy for the death of this great patriarch and found I had none to give. The end had all the impact of a wet noodle.

Overall, this was a disappointing movie, though I still had fun. The process of transmitting each book to film is interesting enough in itself to see the whole thing through.

Nailed it.

Now, I’ve only read the books 4 months ago so I’m not what you would call an old fan, but when I started I blazed through them like so many delicious cans of pringles. Couldn’t stop myself.

I haven’t seen the movies in their entirety either, only on ABC Family while playing video games, but I really enjoyed this one. I really liked the sweeping exterior shots of the castle that started close on the balcony, it was straight out of Brian DePalma’s playbook. I mean, 20 years ago people had to use cranes and choreograph the scene perfectly and they couldn’t just splice the footage together with CGI like they do now, but I still really liked that shot. Its reminds me of the scene where Tony Montana goes to buy cocaine from the Colombian, brilliant long crane shot. How often do you get to compare Harry Potter to Scarface?

At the same time though, I agree with Spooky, absolutely neutered a lot of the best scenes. Things that were supposed to have a great deal of impact simply didn’t. They just fell flat, and I found myself supplementing the story with what happened in the book to get a complete picture. I really wanted the scene with the Muggle Prime Minister and the Minister of Magic. That scene was really dark in the book, and kind of set the tone for the whole story.

Anyone out there that hasn’t read the books and just watches the movies? I’m curious if the weakening of those scenes was felt by someone who hasn’t read the books.

Bring back Alfonson Cuaron >|

The director said, for this movie specifically, that they were no longer going to do any backstory or development, because the assumption is that if you’re on movie #6, you’ve read the books.

H.