Richard Harris is the best thing in any of the films. I love his Dumbledore.
Although Oldman was great too.
I have to say, HBP is one of my favourite books, but as others have said before, there’s too much focus on romance and not enough on the Prince’s story, and I think Snape is one of the best characters in the series. I felt that the whole thing was about little romance plots until the very end, it was too slow in the beggining and the climax was too fast and happened abruptly. Still enjoyed it though.
Related to romance: there’s an easy sex joke here somewhere.
Richard Harris was fantastic.
I thought it was pretty good, but probably one of the weaker films of the series. It’s been a while since I read the book, but it struck me that they removed a ton of the book from this film. Ah well, I guess they’re saving the really big fights for the last couple.
It might be hard to believe, but it wasn’t intentional :).
That’s what she said.
Saw it tonight. I had some issues (like the marginalization of the HBP mystery and the cutting of the big fight at the end) but I enjoyed the movie immensely. I think it’s tied with #3 (Azkaban) as my favorite HP movie to date. Big thumbs up from me.
I just got back from seeing it tonight, as well. I have to say I’m rather disappointed in this installment. I think part of that has to do with how well I thought Order of the Pheonix turned out. They did such a good job hitting the right moments in an incredibly long book. But the deviations from the source made in adapting Half Blood Prince were often pretty poor choices.
I’ll say this first, I enjoyed the movie pretty well. I liked how the romances were handled. I thought the Quiddich was good. I thought the stuff with Slughorn after Aragog’s funeral was amazingly well done. I think the look Yates has been using is brilliantly effective. The effects and the design and the lighting are all first rate and beautiful. But…
I was bothered by the cutting of the Dursley’s It makes me worried they’ll be omitted from the final films as well, robbing us of Dudley’s redemptive moment. Also, Harry being safe in their home is kinda a key point at the beginning of the next book. I’m a bit concerned they never addressed Harry’s inheritance of Grimald Place because that will be key soon as well. I was bothered by the cutting of the Bill/Fleur story. I think they’ll probably substitute Lupin and Tonks for their roles in the final two films, but I thought Bill’s injury at the end of HBP was a big deal. I’m bothered by the insertion of the attack on the Burrow which added basically nothing to the narrative. I think they just thought they needed an action scene in the middle of the movie, but it plays as absurd because Harry’s not that stupid and they never deal with the loss of the Weasley’s homestead. I wish they hadn’t played down the violence of the sectum sempra scene. That should have been more horrifying. It’s shocking in the book and it should have been shocking in the movie. The scenes that follow with Harry ditching the book ring false because it doesn’t seem earned. I think my biggest disappointment was the omission of the battle in the castle when the Death Eaters invade Hogwarts. If they wanted more action, this was the place. I loved that scene in the book with the chaos all around as Harry chases after Snape while the Aurors, Teachers and Dumbledore’s Army battle Voldemort’s minions. It bums me out, also, because I think Neville gets short-changed in this movie and I don’t want him to get short-changed in the final movies as well. I’m not too concerned about Dumbledore’s funeral not being there as I’m half convinced it will be used in place of the Bill/Fleur wedding as the event interrupted when the Ministry falls at the start of the next movie.
It’s just that when I watched Order of the Phoenix I could see them laying down the ground work in a really exciting fashion for the chapter yet to come. In this movie it was like they went out of their way to dig pitfalls.
Can’t believe they cut out Harry trying to Crucio Snape.
Surprised at the love for Azkaban. In my mind it’s easily the worst of the movies, being far worse than even the two uninspired Columbus entries in the series.
I give the movie a solid B+ for the first part, a C for the middle bit and an F-- for the end. I realize that its impossible to get everything into the movies that is in the book, the books are just so goddam long, but they keep leaving out key scenes or snippets of dialogue that make other parts of the movie, or things in upcoming movies, make sense.
That’s a low C average, bahimiron. If the Harry Potter movies are underachievers (like I was in high school), they may very well be satisfied with this grade.
Agreed. I simply do not understand the love for the third movie. I get that it’s a more stylish and well-made film, but as an adaptation it’s an abject failure on every level.
Just saw it. Interesting in how they practically left out the two of the most important parts from the book:
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More time needed to be given the the Potion Book and the Half-Blood Prince reveal. The scene where Harry discoversand uses the “powerful-icky-toture-spell-and-I-can’t-remember-the-name-of-it” was too downplayed. As was already mentioned here, that needed to be a lot bigger. All that HBP stuff really helps define Snape’s character.
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What happened to all the Tom Riddle memories? I recall there were a lot more in the book. They help to flesh-out Voldemort, and show how Dumbledore kind of fucked things up.
I thought the romance stuff was done well enough, but they could have cut a good portion of that out to give more time to what I feel are the main points of the book.
Also agree that the battle at the end, and to a lesser extent the scene with the Horcrux, needed to be bigger.
Oh, and Matt, why do you think #3 is a failure? Haven’t seen it (or read it) in a while, but I remember liking it well enough.
I’m pretty much in with Brad on this, having seen it the other week. I have read all the books, and my girlfriend is a huge fan. Some of the choices are really puzzling, especially given how adroit an adaptation the fifth film was.
Key points have already been done in detail here, really. The scene in the middle was needless on every level. Completely changing a number of important details at the end, from the relatively minor (Harry hiding rather than knocked out, or whatever) to the major (I spent the whole film looking forward to the fight, and all they do is break some fucking windows?), was pretty baffling. They made Fenrir Greyback look really cool and menacing, then have him do basically nothing. Romance stuff competent, but way too much Lavender Brown. Nowhere near enough development of the HPB stuff. Not enough detail on Horcruxes.
So I’m being a negative nelly. The cinematography and staging were good, the direction was average, the performances generally strong. It passed the time. If we’d cut all the over-lingering shots and that middle scene, we’d have had enough room and effects budget to do the ending justice. It felt needlessly and weirdly cut out - a good opportunity kind of wasted.
He gets shortchanged in the final fight of the books as well IMO, so Rowling and Co. apparently put less importance on him than the fans do.
Azkaban leaves more important scenes on the cutting room floor than any of the other movies. Hell, all of the other movies put together.
I thought he did pretty well in the book, what with the sword and the snake and all.
Well, he is a complete BAMF in the last book, so hopefully they leave that in.
I’ve never read the books, only seen the movies. Azkaban was fantastic, and the best of the series. Top to bottom, a really enjoyable film. I talked to someone who had read the books and she hated 3 because it deviated so much (apparently) so I understand the concept of the disappointment of you readers but don’t grok it in practice.
For the record, the first one bored me to tears because watching it was like reading a book, and the perfect example of why you make changes to a novel when putting it on screen. Two was better, but still fairly dull, three was, as above, fantastic. Four (the one with the wizard olympics, I think?) but suffered from putting too much in without sufficient time to explain what’s going on (I saw that with a friend who also only watches the movies, and while I deduced the critical plot point of the Polymorph potion because I played D&D, she is not a geek and didn’t know what the hell was going on because they only mentioned the name once at the beginning of the movie), and I think five was the second best of the films. Harry and crew were pretty great as moody, know-better-than-you-cuz-you’re-old teenagers, the tone went a bit darker as a dramatic series should leading up to the big finish, and I could follow the story.
Half-Blood was long and boring. I went out and read some synopses of the book, and agree that they should’ve left in the battle at the end (for some friggin’ action, and also to give some small victories to the rest of the crew and call back to the Dumbledore’s Army last movie) and they totally blew the build up of the Prince reveal. As stated above, the line was delivered like it was a major blow to Harry, but there’s no reason for it in the movie. Also, while I was able to piece together that Harry blew the shit out of Draco using the spell from the book, one of my companions didn’t due to heavy sound effects on Harry’s voice when saying the spell and insufficient buildup to that moment through the film. Honestly, trim the romance a bit and spend more time on the actual plot points. I shouldn’t have to fill in the blanks with knowledge from the books.