Butterbeer is a real drink, and it is mildly alcoholic. Probably not entirely the same thing as what Rowling has in mind, considering she has described her version as tasting like butterscotch.
There was also a line in one of the books where Ron was concerned about Hermione doing something “under the influence of butterbeer.” Maybe in reference to Slughorn’s party, which might explain where the idea for her to be a bit tipsy in that post-Hogsmeade scene came from.
Yeah, but he could just as well have been joking. I’ve heard similar lines before, from “He’s under the influence of Red Bull” to “I was under the influence of Swedish Fish!”
It’s a good film though. Arguing that its not as good a clip show as the rest of the movies kind of drives home the point.
Ultimately the series suffers from coming out with the books, but its an impressive achievement, even if it’s going to end up being a bit patchwork.
No one is demanding a clip show. The movie just needs to make sense in and of itself. In many of the movies, losing certain scenes make other scenes make less sense or have less importance. Without some of the background information in the third movie, for instance, the existence of the Marauder’s Map, Lupin’s willingness to give it back to Harry and Harry’s patronus all seem like random (and in some cases, nonsensical) occurances rather than something that’s tied together in a very neat way.
Here, in the book…
SPOILER FOR THE BOOK, BUT COME ON, REALLY?
…rather than it happening the way it happens in the movie, Dumbledore freezes Harry with a charm and throws his invisibility cloak over him the moment he realizes what’s going to happen. The rest of the Order of the Phoenix is busy fighting off the Deatheater attack (why they even included Fenrir Grayback in the movie when they told us nothing about him is bizarre) so it’s easy for Draco to corner Dumbledore. Harry’s only freed when Dumbledore dies. See, Dumbledore knew that Harry would try to interfere and he made it so Harry couldn’t. I guess that’s not a concern in the movie, where Harry’s a big ol’ coward.
I missed the Dursleys and some of the other appearances in the book, but it would do the filmmakers good to worry less about making certain they cram as many cameos in as possible and worry more about telling the parts of the story that are actually important.
Which is why I can give the first couple of movies a pass, despite being somewhat lifeless. At least they didn’t cut the important bits. Admittedly, they’re based on much, much thinner books. And even with Chamber of Secrets, the movie itself is considrably improved by watching the deleted scenes. I’ll always wish that the HP crew had followed Peter Jackson’s lead with the DVD releases of Lord of the Rings. Give Harry Potter fans a 3 hour director’s cut DVD. Hell, double dip. We won’t mind, so long as the movies we get are better interpretations of the books.
One good thing about the movies is that you pretty much know what you’re getting, because you’ve already read the books. The chances that you’ll go into the theater and find someone has slipped a Jar Jar Binks character in there are slim to none.
Like this?
One good thing about the movies is that you pretty much know what you’re getting, because you’ve already read the books
Are you addressing that specifically to him? Because I know LOTS of people that have seen the movies but not read the books…
Yeah, it’s not like reading the books is a requirement.
Never read the books. Have enjoyed all the films, including this one. I don’t feel like things are left out, either.
I hadn’t read the book in quite some time, so I didn’t miss a lot of the things people did. I felt like while it may focus overheavily on the wrong things and cut things that are key to the overall plot, it’s at least an internally consistent story, unlike movie 5, which was a disjointed mess that only made sense to me because I knew what was going on from the books. I also really liked the artistic direction - the style of the movie is very well done.
Not that I don’t have complaints - the HBP reveal, not even knowing who some of the characters were… (I couldn’t identify Lavender until almost the end of that subplot because I didn’t remember the book well enough and nobody’d bothered to actually mention her name before then.) The big one, though, is that while I did actually rather enjoy the romance subplots (I seem to recall being irritated by them in the books), they spend all that time on them and then they don’t actually resolve to any meaningful degree. Again, haven’t read the book in a while so it may be that that’s because that’s how it was in the book, but…it does rather make that screen time wasted, imho.
The Harry/Ginny thing was definitely resolved more in the book. However they pulled the whole lame Spiderman “I can’t be with you because everyone I care about is in danger” so perhaps it’s better that the movie didn’t have that resolution.
The Ron/Hermione stuff is pretty much the same in the book and doesn’t get a resolution until the next film(s).
I saw this today at a mommy matinee. Since I was pretty distracted with the kid and haven’t read the book since it came out, I didn’t notice too much that bothered me. I actually liked the scene after Dumbledore’s death where the teachers and students light their wands to banish the Dark Mark from the sky way more than the grief-porn we got in the book. AND THEN THE MERMAIDS CRIED FOR HIM AND THEN THE BLAHDY BLAHS DID A SAD DANCE AND ZOOM GOES FAWKES forever and ever and ever.
I saw it today as well and I liked it. I was thrown off by the lack of explanation for Snape being the Half-Blood Prince.
The thing that stood out to me was how lovely the movie looked. There were a couple scenes of Hogwarts, the characters with the dark sky behind them, etc. that were gorgeous.
Wife and I paid the sitter and went to see this at an IMAX yesterday. Overall we both really enjoyed it. The cinematography really set the dark that is coming over the end of these stories. My wife has not read the books and walked out very satisfied. I thought they played the romances part reasonably well. Its been a while since I read the book and the only complaint I had was I recall there being a lot more Riddle memories played back in the book.
The end was a bit abrupt in how it handled the fight and Dumbledore’s actions I agree but overall it did not detract much for me.
It’s frustrating because the movie really could’ve been excellent with just a few changes here and there. Definitely could have used 1) a climactic fight scene at the end with the students, teachers and deatheaters and 2) an improved tie-in with Snape’s reveal as the HBP. The lead up and delivery of the title’s announcement should have been much more dramatic then it was. Those are my only big complaints.
I stopped reading after the fourth book. I liked the third more than anything before it, but then the fourth just felt like a cookie cutter kind of repetition of the first two. I saw the third and fourth films a few years ago, and I watched the fifth just last week, the new one two days ago in an Imax theater.
I still feel like Harry has the weakest of any of the actors, but even he wasn’t too terrible this time. I enjoyed Hermione & the professors more than usual. Being used to the films leaving things out, I had no problems inferring things which were obviously left out, though I’m abnormally content to do that in films. Hermione’s heartbroken scene struck a chord with me (possibly more out of identification than filmmaking), and I did drop a couple tears not when Dumbledore died, but with the Snape confrontation that followed. (but I tend to cry in movies–this one may have been a more abstract personal thing)
More to the point, this is the only one of the films that I could even attempt to take seriously. I quite enjoyed myself, and I got a bit of an emotional stir, even if more from within than from the film. It did feel a bit stitched together, but not knowing what I was missing out on (except for the ‘No need to call me sir, professor’ line, which was shown to me beforehand) I had no reason to feel deprived. Fun flick, would see again. It’s easily the best of the films. It nearly makes me want to read the books with aim to finish this time.
EDIT: And it was beautiful to look at.
If you haven’t read the books I’m curious: Does Snape’s true motives seem clear to you (whether good or evil)? I remember there was great speculation after reading the HBP book. I think the movie may tip its hand too much but then I’m looking at it in hindsight.
This book was a cliffhanger. It was so well written that even after he offs Dumbledore you still are not sure he is a bad guy. There are hints that Dumbledore knew exactly what Snape had committed to and he was fully supportive that Snape take the honus of the kill from Malfoy.
Given that the unbreakable promise bit came near the beginning, and that Dumbledore specifically told Harry to find Snape, to trust him, and also seemed to know Malfoy had already been attempting to kill him…
It felt like an underplayed “Oh HO! NOW we’ve got you fooled!” attempt. That is, the film definitely made me feel like Snape is a bad guy, but it had enough of a blundered attempt at the contrary that I suspected some twist of bad writing at the opening of the next film.
I’m almost sure someone told me which side he really ends up on (I suspect he really is evil, and the “subtleties” were just a confused Dumbledore & some writing in need of revision), but I cannot remember which it was!
I watched the first half of this yesterday.
So far I’m loving the tone. Even though I hated this book, and I know what’s coming, it’s a little easier to swallow in the movie because of the way they set it up, showing you the unbreakable promise by Snape to help Lucius Malfoy.
I like the unique look of the movie, with the cepia colored tones, with most color sapped out of the movie. Blue and red and other colors are still there, they’re just really muted. The music and editing has been appropriately ominous so far.