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

[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.