Movie Review: Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince

[jpskewedthrone]

Well, this last week has been rather busy. I'd like to say I worked the entire time on the revisions . . . but that didn't happen. I did work on the revisions though. I got a few new scenes my editor requested knocked out and read through and fixed a few more chapters, but alot of the time was spent on other life things interrupting my revision flow. Things like dental appointments and such. You don't realize how much time they take up until they start interfering with your work. But I'm hopeful that today will be the last day of heavy distractions and the rest of July will be all about knocking the last part of the book out. I've only got about 250 pages left of Well of Sorrows to get through. And I think I've gotten most of the heavy brand new scenes written. (I may have one or two more, I'll have to check my revision notes.)

In any case, I did take some time on Sunday to go see the movie HP & and the Half-Blood Prince with Patricia Bray. And I thought it was good. It wasn't spectacular though, and I had some issues.



They spent quite a bit of time on the characters and developing them, which I think is good because not many movies do that in any real depth any more. But in this movie I actually felt like they were all friends. Hermoine and Ron were great, Harry . . . not so much. Mainly I think this is because of Daniel Radcliffe. He didn't quite pull off the emotional depth required for Harry. But the emotional content in the movie was much higher and better than in many of the previous movies. I particularly thought that the actor who played Smughorn (I think that's the character's name) was spectacular. Initially I didn't like him, but by the time we get to the scene where he reveals the memory to Harry . . . that scene was hideously good.

However, they may have gone overboard with the emotional content at the expense of the plot. Now, some of the past movies were TOO plot heavy, with no look at the character, which isn't the way to go either, but this time they may have gone too light on the plot. I know that they changed some of the plot of the book, which I don't have a problem with so much, as long as the plot makes sense. But the biggest problem I have with the plot in this movie . . . is that it makes no sense. In particular the ending. I liked the scene up to the point where the Deatheaters and Snape start "fleeing" from Hogwarts. Why the hell are they fleeing? In the book they were being chased by the Aurors and such. In the movie, they're only being followed by HP and he's not much of a threat to 6 Deatheaters (well, 4 plus Snape and Malfoy). So why the hell didn't they destroy Hogwart's on their way out? They do what, hit the dining hall and Hadrid's place? That's kind of lame. And then, when they're confronted by HP, why didn't the kidnap him and deliver him with a nice bow to Voldemort? (Courtesy of PBray) He's freaking alone and helpless, as Snape demonstrates. So the ending of the movie seriously annoyed me. And there were other parts. Like the attack on the Weasley's house. They arrive, ring it in fire, lure people out to the marsh . . . and then all they do is fire the house. What was their point in the attack anyway? What were they trying to accomplish? I never got that. They also needed to clarify what was going on with the cursed necklace. They sort of did that, but it was almost an aside. They did better with the poisoned drink, and the Vanishing Cabinet, but I thought they should have done some clarification there as well.

But the movie was still good. I liked the visual aspects of the movie. They didn't spend a ton of money, etc, on magical visual effects such as having the moving staircases and moving pictures everywhere. I felt like they really showed us Hogwart's though, and HP pointing out how beautiful it was at the end was appropriate, because they showed us the beauty throughout the movie, without distracting us with magic. I was expecting a little more in hyping up Dumbledore's death though.



So, overall a good movie. Not the best of the summer so far, and not the best of the HP movies in particular. I won't be seeing it again at the theater, but of course I'll buy it on DVD.

Now, to go read book 7 . . . for the first time. *grin*

Comments

[arhyalon.livejournal.com]

Hmm...interesting points.

I quite liked the movie except for two things:
1) the clothes. Once earlier movies had established that kids wore their robes to quittich, why put them in civilian clothing? (As a film buff, I'm aware of how quickly clothes date movies and how hard it is to get people to watch movies they think of as old. Why date a Harry Potter movie unnecessarily?) Particularly annoying, because 6 is the book where Rowlings stopped to take a jab at the movies by having Snape state in no uncertain terms that Harry will be fined if he is out of his robes anywhere on Hogwart's campus.

2) The Half-Blood Prince...they just didn't set up clearly enough that Harry liked the prince, the person who wrote the book...they just set up that he liked the book. I wonder if a person who had not read the book would understand that plotline at all.

[mela-lyn.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you say... I adore the series. I think it's amazingly well written. JK drops those tiny plot hints so well. But the movies just skip some things that are so little it would only take 1 line of dialogue to clear it up and make the movies that much closer to the actual story. Oh well... the movies are NEVER as good as the books.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the series, until she (in my opinion) cocked almost everything up with the seventh book. I was hugely disappointed.

[mela-lyn.livejournal.com]

Really? 7 was my favorite. I thought it brought everything together very well. *shrug* Oh well... each to his own. :)

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I agree with both of those actually. Patricia commented on the robes. I didn't really notice. And who the Half-Blood Prince was ended up being a footnote at the end of the movie, which was disappointing. Like I said, they should have devoted some more time to the mystery of the necklace, the curses, investigating who was behind it (even though we know, the teachers should have been shown investigating things or at least questioning things more), and Harry should have spent more time trying to figure out who the HBP was.

[princejvstin.livejournal.com]

Someone who hasn't read the book isn't going to get the point of the HBP subplot. And that's a shame.

I would have thought that given the title of the book, it would have had more freight and weight in the movie than it did.

[mela-lyn.livejournal.com]

So the part at the Weasley's... doesn't happen. The conversation inside happens to a point, but the whole running through the fields? Not at all. It was stupid and pointless.

And the ending was very different in the book. There were 3 major things they did differently that, had they followed the book, would have made alot more sense.

But once you read 7, you'll understand why some of the things played out that way... though they skewed the plot to get there. But there's one MAJOR piece of the puzzle for book 7 that they missed and it ticks me off b/c it would have taken a slight change in one scene to get it done. That's it. Where Ginny & Harry hide the book... plays out COMPLETELY different in the book and you'll see why that's so important in 7 b/c it just effects the entire ending...

And despite sounding bitter about it, I actually did enjoy it. Overall I thought they did a good job. And it was nice that there were sections where they literally took dialogue straight from the book. I like it when they do things like that. I think it helps keep the story closer to what the author was actually trying to convey. But yes, definitely not the best of the series. I'm hoping with movies 7a & 7b (it's going to be in 2 parts) that it will be better.

[alabasterfalcon.livejournal.com]

I noticed the bit about the scene with Harry and Ginny too. My husband has never read the books so he doesn't understand why its so important or why I was pissed.

I wasn't too pleased with the movie, even though I loved it. It was long enough as it was, but I wish they'd stop deviating from the plot.

[mela-lyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really don't get why they have to twist it and change it when the books have it all laid out in front of them. Yes, I know they can't do everything but still...

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, HP 7 is next on my list to read. I should probably read them all over again so I get to see all of the connections.

And I think 7a (the movie) is already finished. Or so rumor has it.

[mela-lyn.livejournal.com]

I heard they were shooting both similtaneously. Seems to be the 'thing' now. :)

[atateatarin.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all counts. I've noticed that it's something of a trend through the films; they seem to imply reading the books to be a requirement with the way everything is paced. Not that it's a bad thing to have to read them ;D but it does limit the accessibility to later fans. I was still surprised in the general vicinity of 'pleasantly' that they managed to get a compelling movie out of what struck me as a 'filler' book, but if I hadn't read it beforehand, I would have been lost at some points.

Re: Radcliffe's portrayal, I think it was one of the first things to come up in the post-film discussion. Harry throughout the books develops more as a character than he seems to have been portrayed. The point that really made it jarring for me was the personality 180 right after Harry drank the felix felicis.

But one thing I've always liked about the films (and the books, but it's more apparent visually) is how much the world takes itself seriously. I'm a big fan of subtle worldbuilding; that natural sort of vibe that really does something for the suspension of disbelief. McGonagall's chastising in the hallway near to the beginning of the film came across so naturally that the 'magic is for upstairs' line seemed no more unusual than say, 'don't throw the ball in the corridor'.

I was also kinda disappointed with how the end was handled. I presume they cut things like the funeral to skimp on casting people like Rufus Scrimgeor and such but it felt like Cedric Diggory got more of an emotional response from the characters when he died than Dumbledore did :

[mela-lyn.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you read book 6, that's exactly how he reacts to drinking the Felix Felicitous (or whatever) and they used some lines directly from the book.

But I completely agree with the ending. It just fell so flat. And you didn't get to see Harry really stand up and say he was Dumbledore's man. I think that's important b/c it puts him not just against Voldemort but also partially against the Ministry. It brands him a loner extreme. Oh well...

[atateatarin.livejournal.com]

Yah that's what I mean; it almost felt like an even more unnatural contrast than it seemed it should have been because of how Harry had been portrayed through the films up to that point.

Yeah, I felt really cheated because of all that. In the book the scene reminded me in a small way of Chamber of Secrets when Dumbledore was deposed, and it seemed shallow to have that solidity of theme taken out of the film for HBP :[


Your icon makes me giggle :D

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I agree that Cedric's death seemed to be more devastating that Dumbledore's, which is weird. They needed to hype the end of movie 6 up big time.

But it is nice that the more unrealistic parts of the movie, such as the magic, are said so prosaically. That's what was good about this movie. They didn't make a spectacle of the magic. It was just there, used, and mundanely as possible. Which was a nice change of pace from some of the previous movies that seemed to focus on the "WOW!" factor of the magic and left the actual plot and character behind.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I never felt that the HP movies got the magic right. Particularly in the early ones, it was very mechanical (think the staircases) and not magical at all. I'm looking forward to this one now. Not because I liked the book, as a film experience.

[pabba.livejournal.com]

What's the point of having the powerful and scary-looking werewolf Fenrir if he's not going to attack anyone? I enjoyed the movie's humor, but the ending was just so full of...nothing. Snape didn't even react to Harry's calling of him a coward. Blaaaargh.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Totally agree.

[elfinecstasy.livejournal.com]

I just got the book Eyes Like Stars... and reading the dedications and acknowledgements, THERE YOU WERE.
You are everywhere :-) :-) :-) :-)

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, I'm everywhere now. *sigh*

*grin*

[amguynes.livejournal.com]

We went to see the movie, and while the critics may say this is the best HP movie ever....it isn't. I think Chamber of Secrets was the best, and that's my least favorite movie AND book. I liked it best of all the movies because it followed the book a lot better than any of the other movies. I was very disappointed when they screwed up HBP too. There was so much they cut out that certain events in the two-parter movie for Deathly Hallows aren't going to make sense to people who haven't read the books.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Hmm . . . my favorite is actually Prisoner of Azkaban.

[amguynes.livejournal.com]

I guess that one was fairly close to the book too. I think of all the books, Prisoner of Azkaban and Half Blood Prince were my favorites - which is probably why I had such a hard time with the movie for HBP.

[lhynard.livejournal.com]

agreed

I, like you, have not finished reading all the books. Honestly, I'm not all that impressed with her as an author. She definitely has some talents -- such as sucking a reader in; but sucking a reader in alone does not make a great writer in my opinion. Book 3 has the best plot as far as a story goes, I think.

And the director for movie 3 was also the best director.

I think many people judge the movies by how perfectly they follow the book, which is not always the best thing.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

The thing about movies is that they have their own strengths. I found the first couple of HP movies very weak _as movies_ simply *because* they were too close to the letter of the books. What they weren't was true to the *spirit* of the books.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I heard that rumor about the director not wanting to "dilute" the fights in the last movie with a big fight here . . . but seriously. Any writer worth their salt can figure out a good compromise between what we actually got in the movie and whatever big ass magic fight they're planning for movie 7. There has to be a middle ground there that would have satisfied us.

[kerinda.livejournal.com]

I agree with this completely, including the scene with Jim Broadbent as Slughorn being ridiculously good. I was disappointed in the lack of plot progression (yes, everyone's snogging, we get it...) particularly as it relates to not having the backstory on Snape and Lily Potter's history (and I seriously just typed "pooter" on accident...).

And I can't say more for fear of spoiling what we all know happens already.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they certainly left the Snape/Lily stuff out. I thought it was cool in the books when Harry starts learning more about his father and parents and Snape and that his assumptions about them were all wrong. They should have done more of that in the movies.

[kerinda.livejournal.com]

It also poses a very serious problem at the end of the next movie that they didn't go into this. Let's just say it won't make any sense at all if they don't cover that relationship in 7(a).

You haven't read the last book have you?

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Not yet. It's in my TBR pile right now. (I got all the books in paperback and it just came out.)

[kerinda.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, good. Then I'll leave it at that and let you find out why the good way. :)

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's good to have the crit marathon over. Now I can get back to your book. *grin*

[jeffsoesbe.livejournal.com]

About 2/3 the way through the movie I wondered when something was going to happen because most of the story had been "who's snogging who?". Later, I remembered that was how I felt about the book too. It was much teen relationship issues, with the side lines of "who is the Half Blood Prince" and "let's learn more about Tom Riddle". So I felt like that was a flaw of the book more than of the movie itself.

As for the end, I agree. From the book, I saw the reason for "heavy artillery" being they knew they were going to have to fight their way out of Hogwarts. In the movie, they walk out after breaking a few things in the dining room. Big disappointment. Maybe they ran out of special effects budget, having wasted on the "fire attack at the Weasleys house" where I also agree as to the question of what it was really about?

Oh well. As you said, still enjoyable to watch, I laughed at many places, I marveled at how the actors had changed. But it felt a little slight to me, even with the ending.

- yeff

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I certainly laughed, so the relationship stuff was good in that respect. I think they sacrificed the plot for that, and perhaps the hopes that the relationship stuff would capture the same fervor as the "Twilight" crowd?

[jeffsoesbe.livejournal.com]

Well, the relationship stuff was fairly straight from the book, and was a goodly chunk of the book. I think HP&HBP, the book, came out before Twilight?

So I wasn't surprised that the relationship stuff was a good chunk of the movie. But nobody stalked anyone else! You can't get the Twilight crowd without some bad-good guy stalking the female lead in an incredibly creepy manner... :-)

[elainecorvidae.livejournal.com]

I had the same problems with the movie as everyone else. By changing the ending, the entire vanishing cabinet plot made no sense whatsoever. The Deatheaters didn't actually do anything but run around; there was no sense to me that Snape and Malfoy couldn't have gotten rid of Dumbledore at any point prior without their "help." So why go to the trouble of repairing the cabinet?

And if they were worried about diluting the fight scenes, they should have cut out the ridiculous fight at the Burrow and kept the fight at the end. Gah. This is probably my least favorite of the movies so far. Let's hope they do a better job on the two book 7 movies.

[ceibhfhionn22.livejournal.com]

Book 7 for the first time?!?!?!?!?! I read it the day I got it, the day after it came out.

[ravens-shadow.livejournal.com]

I'll be repeating what people have already said, but gah! Of course let me start by saying overall I enjoyed it, and as long as it was, it didn't feel long at all.

I saw the movie ths Sunday too, but I went with two friends, one of whom had read the books, the other hadn't. I spent at least half an hour with the one who had talking about what they missed or got wrong. The fight at the end--when reading #6, it felt like that's what everything led up to, the first half/two-thirds of the book being filler, and I felt the same with the movie--too much emphasis on Lavender Brown, not enough about the HBP, the Occlumency lessons for goodness sake!, some of the other memories like the Hufflepuff woman with the goblets, hiding the book at the end...More of course, but these were some of the big ones for me.

Besides Harry's suspicion of Draco (which in the book, if memory serves, creates a much bigger rift with his friends 'cause let's face it, Harry was obsessed) and Dumbledore's death, finding out about what Horcruxes are and which ones Voldy might have used struck me as being the whole point of the book.

I heard the 7a movie doesn't come out until late 2010. I wish they'd release it sooner.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

*nods* Jim Broadbent is superb in any role - he's a wonderful actor, and his utterly stricken expression in a lot of this one is so gutwrenchingly real

re: the Deatheater's exit from Hogwarts. It, and their earlier actions, make sense if you think of it as psychological attacks - making people scared with sudden kidnapping, the bridge attack, terrorising the Weasleys, and at the end, strolling triumphant out of Hogwarts blasting various landmarks on the way out.

[jaxom92.livejournal.com]

You'll enjoy book 7 immensely. I've always found I preferred to read the books rather than watch the movies. These books are built on the details (with book 7 wrapping up not only major plot points but little details from previous books as well) and you cannot cram nearly as many in a 2 - 2.5 hour movie that you can a 700 to 800 page book. Nature of the beast in some respect. I do wonder from time to time what HP would have looked like if it were a large miniseries, capable of putting in much more details. Some books are just hard to translate.