That’s pretty foolish.
Yeah, I’m not sure what the logic is behind deciding that since “everyone” has read the books your movies no longer have to follow the basic rules of narrative.
In 30-40 years someone will remake the Harry Potter movies with a more coherent and thoughtful eye toward the adaptation process. It’s going to take someone who grew up with the books and knows how to handle the material properly. Harry Potter will eventually have its Peter Jackson.
I believe the quote was “if you are on movie #6, you’ve already seen the first five movies” That’s a fair assumption, too, in my opinion.
But to take that a step farther and suggest the viewer “has read the books” is taking it all a GIANT step too far. I don’t believe that the director ever said that. You’re misquoting him here.
Thought it was a fantastic movie and loved every min of it.
Yawn, boring movie. Unispiring, no tension, no payoff. This was consensus among a 6 yr old, a 15 yr old, me and my wife. None of had read this book.
I have to admit I thought this was the last one. Shows how much I know of the Potter universe. The other movies have all had paydays, some sort of tension, anticipation. This had none of that.
Oh, it did have not one but two love stories.
Never read the books. I’m waiting until my kids are older, and plan to read the series with them.
I loved the movie and had no problem with the ending. Not quite as good as the previous film, but a lot of spirit. I can’t wait for the final two flicks.
I thought it ran a little long, but I love the Potter franchise and this is a fine addition to the series, although my favorite is still Prisoner. I thought the ending was great: everything points to the final episode.
I can’t remember another franchise that spans the childhood of so many of its main actors. I noticed how much more accomplished Rupert Gint was in this one. His comedy relief has often left me cold, but he really nailed the love potion scene. I couldn’t stop giggling as he pined for the moon. Oddly I haven’t felt the same way about Dan Radcliffe and Emma Watson. It’s not so much this movie, but more how their appearance has changed over the last few years: although they both looked exactly as I imagined their characters would have looked in 2001, now they look a little too perfect: Dan and his rugged jaw, Emma’s lovely hair. At one, point Dumbldore even says something to Harry like “hard to imagine you’re the little boy from under the stairs.” Indeed. I loved the gravity of Emma’s precocious ten-year-old Hermionie, but now her seriousness and seems really forced. There was a single scene where they seemed to act their age (she swats Harry for trying to take advantage of his reputation to get a date) instead of all the grim looks and gassy expressions. But these are all quibbles. I’m happy the characters have been played by the same team over the years. Watching them grow into and change their roles has the potential to add something to the film experience not available in the books. I think the powers that be understand this to some degree: there is one scene in Half Blood where Harry and Ron stand in the hall at school, towering over all their peers, with such looks of utter contentment and pride. There is nothing like that in the books.
Bizarrely understated and quiet movie. I am not enough of a film geek to understand why. No music maybe?
As someone who never read the books, I have to admit the yearly formula is really aggravating. The shit in town, the train ride, the wonder-of-magic scene, and the new crazy magic power part; same in every one. Half of the movie has me really interested (even some of the kid relationship stuff) and the rest has me squirming to leave. Wife said they are done with that though.
Understated and quiet, that’s exactly it.
Against all odds I really liked it, my favorite so far with Prisoner, which is still the best one imho, the other ranging from meh to mediocre.
Tons of atmosphere, great visuals, takes the time to expose the characters a little more, even if it’s not always very wisely done. Some important things are left out (Tonks is underdevelopped, no Bill/Fleur), the half-blood prince thingy is pretty useless, some other pointless stuff is shown to a great degree… Weird adaptation to say the least.
Runs a bit long, I agree, though I was never bored. I love that they finally took the time to work on the atmosphere instead of just relying on the big action scenes and SFX, although there are plenty.
A bit disappointed with the “big reveal”, though (Snape delivers it like it’s a “Luke, I’m your father” parody), and yes the fight lacks at the end, it could have given us a big finale.
And since it’s a transitional movie, I’m not surprised people think it lacks the “punchline” everyone expects. They’re quietly preparing us for what is to come, and from this point on if you haven’t read the books or seen the previous movies there’s really no point in seeing episode 7 & 7 bis.
Saw it this afternoon. It was “okay”, but not great.
My personal theory is that they will start the next movie with the funeral. Given that they are splitting the last book into two films, and given that huge chunks of the last book are either unfilmable or would make incredibly boring footage (how many camping scenes can one really tolerate?), I’m guessing they might start with the funeral, and then bookend it with the wedding (sort of Shakespearean, actually). Pad between them with Ministry stuff, with the Fleur/Weasely romance stuff as well as the Tonks/Remus baby stuff. Final scene is the Deatheaters coming out of hiding, showing their hand basically. Then the final film would begin with the Order trying to smuggle Harry, go ahead with the time in the Black house, the hunting/camping material, and end with what had better be a huge damned battle at Hogwarts.
I was disappointed with how much they took license with this book, btw. They jiggered it a lot more than the earlier ones, imo.
While I don’t think any of the Harry Potter movies are great (the first couple are awful), they seem to be getting better. I’ve actually enjoyed these last two. It’s no Hangover or Star Trek, but Half-Blood Prince isn’t bad as a summer movie.
SPOILERS
I haven’t read the books (I read the first two, thought they were really pretty bad, and quit the series) but have seen all the movies. I’ve generally thought the HP movies are okay, but not particularly good (with the exception of Azkaban, which was quite good). I went to this one with low expectations, going mostly because a couple of my friends wanted to go.
I thought it was surprisingly good. The plot meandered a bit and as someone unfamiliar with the book the Half-Blood Prince stuff seemed tacked-on and really pointless. The kid-romance stuff was focused on too much, but not absurdly so. I enjoyed about 75% of that. I liked seeing young Tom Riddle a lot, and Broadbent (the new potions professor) was great. Ron was also very good in this movie. Harry Potter was overdone, though – he’s just too grave and serious all the time, easily his best moment was the one with Hermione in the library when he goes “But I am the Chosen One” and she whacks him with a magazine.
Dumbledore’s death did nothing for me. I knew it was coming – you can’t be a geek and not have heard that he dies in this book – but the actor just never really connected with me and I never felt what I presume is supposed to be a deep father-son bond between him and Harry. I thought the Ron/Hermione romance seemed natural (continuing on from what was set up in the prior movie) but Harry’s interest in Ginny came out of nowhere for me.
Anyway, I thought the plot moved along fine, it was nicely shot (the scenes in the horcrux cave were particularly effective), had good special effects, and acting that ranged from decent to very good. The sound and music were nice, and I liked the dark and unfinished Empire Strikes Back-style ending. All in all, thumbs up for sure.
The only thing that bothers me about him is his “stunned” look, where he kind of staggers into a room or whatever. I guess he’s running out of time to work on it.
It’s funny how little this movie seemed to be about his character. He went off on his own a few times and it actually surprised me that he was even doing anything other than watching the rest of the ensemble cast run the script.
As someone who dislikes the Harry Potter films (love the books) I really enjoyed this one, maybe even as much as Azkaban (I found every other film rather pointless). I see the point you guys made about a fight being omitted but I think that film goers won’t notice. I actually think the last two movies having been split up and with all those action sequences have a chance of being better than the books (shocking).
I could have posted this word for word. My only other additional comment is that, even as someone who hasn’t read the books, I felt there was a big gaping hole with the whole “Half-Blood Prince” thing. Harry gets the book at the beginning, Snape does the reveal at the end… and it’s supposed to matter? There was pretty obviously a lot missing in the middle. The ending was enough to inspire me to try to read the books again (though I doubt I’ll get any further than the last time I tried). One of my favorite movies of the summer so far for sure; behind Up and probably Star Trek, ahead of everything else.
Yes, the half-blood prince reveal falls terribly flat. I don’t want to reveal too much for the people who have not read the book but Snape is a major character and yet it feels that he’s completely left out of the movies, like an afterthought.
Yeah, this is the one thing from the main plot that I think could have been handled better. In the book, Harry becomes sort of obsessed with the Half-Blood Prince, and comes to trust all of the advice written in the book, and even feels that he has a sort of rapport with this person that he doesn’t know and has never met. They show a little of that in the film, but probably not enough for someone not already familiar with the story. And in the book, he never abandons the book–he did hide it in the Room of Requirement after using the Sectum Sempra spell on Malfoy, but only because he was afraid that Snape would confiscate it. Both Harry and Ron continue to defend the Half-Blood Prince even after witnessing the nastiness of that spell (though you do get the impression that a seed of doubt has been planted).
So in the book, when it is finally revealed that the mysterious person that Harry has regarded with a sense of admiration and kinship for much of the story is actually Snape, it’s a big deal. Especially coming right after Dumbledore’s death.
Good call. My mom read the first 4 books to us, even when I was a bit old to be read to, it was still fun. Sitting with my younger brother in his room and listening to my mom read the books. Good times. If/when I have kids I plan on reading the series to them.
I never read the books, but have seen each movie. I thought that the Half-Blood Prince ended up being filler with a few cgi elements, and ended up being quite boring. For a series that I felt was progressively improving with each new adaptation, this movie does not hold up. At this point, Gary Oldman is the pinnacle of the the Harry Potter films.
I finally saw this yesterday. What a weird experience. This is the first of the HP movies that doesn’t even come close to standing on its own. The pacing was strange, Point A didn’t lead to Point B with any kind of coherence… I dunno. It just didn’t work for me. (I probably should have re-read the book before seeing it; I won’t make that mistake again.)
The kiddie romances also didn’t ring true, although I wanted to pat poor little Hermione on the head when she was crying over Ron. Emma Watson did a reasonable good job with her lovesick puppy routine, even if her character’s motivations were a little hard to fathom.
Here’s hoping Deathly Hallows parts 1 & 2 are better.