Movie Review: "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
Director: David Yates
Actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Dame Maggie Smith, Tom Felton, Bonnie Wright
Classification: PG
Length: 153 minutes
In Theatres: July 15, 2009
My Rating: Must See It In Theatres: Get Advance Tickets (4.5/5 stars)
I finally got around to writing this review...I did go see HP6 on opening day. I had passes to exchange for tickets, which had to be done at the box office and not online. But you can still check online to see which showtimes were sold out. The day before (7/14), only the eight o’clock evening showtime was sold out. The next morning I checked, all the evening showtimes were booked. And the theatre had multiple showtimes and auditoriums showing the movie. Needless to say, my friends and I just decided to go in the afternoon (since we were able to). We made it for the 4:20 showtime just in the nick of time. The commercials were starting to play, but not yet the trailers. The seats weren’t bad, it was in the middle; although the auditorium was pretty full with people scattered everywhere.
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, the sixth instalment of Harry Potter is the best adaption yet of all the films adapted from JKR’s popular fantasy novels following a boy wizard orphan. Harry returns to Hogwarts School of Witch Craft and Wizardry for his sixth year and centres around finding out Voldemort’s past and his trust in a potions text that was once owned by the “Half-Blood Prince”.
Not once did I look to check if the movie was over yet. (That’s a good thing since last time I saw a movie where I kept checking the time, “The Soloist”-I think I checked my phone for the time at least seven times.)
The translation of HBP from book to screen was perfect. It was able to touch on all the right tones and leave the spirit and all of the most important parts intact. Obviously, filmmakers can’t translate every single detail and some things will have to be cut out. As long as they capture the arc of the story, then it is fine. In this case, HBP choose to explain Voldemort’s past, which is the key ingredient towards explaining his survival and rise again. It also holds the key towards defeating him.
I most enjoyed the opening sequence of HBP, which jumped right into the ending of OP. The slow motion was awesome. The Unbreakable Vow was just how I imagined it (except for the magic part). I didn’t imagine the magic to be visible, but rather thought it was felt. But oh, well - I guess that would make sense to make it visual. Helen McCrory did an okay job as Narcissa. I wasn’t a fan of her hair or wardrobe to begin with, so when she didn’t go sobbing like I expected her to…well, my expectations weren’t met.
Everyone has grown up-the actors along with the characters, and it just shows. Their appearance and performances as actors have matured, most noticeably Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Rupert Grint (Ronald Weasley), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood).
The light-hearted moments of the film were filled with romance, heartaches, and jealousy. It’s very relatable to everyone (well, except maybe young children who haven’t experienced romance yet). I didn’t really like the scene with the waitress, but hey, I got the feeling either you liked it or didn’t. I thought it was unnecessary and well, stupid. Wouldn’t Harry almost be breaking the secrecy laws by reading The Daily Prophet at a Muggle diner…and the waitress thought she saw the photos move??
I loved Hagrid and Slughorn’s drunkenness…and then pan to Harry just sitting there with a huge grin on his face. That was hilarious!! The “liquid luck” was great. It was really funny to see Harry being so hyper and energized. His offhand comment about going to visit Hagrid because he just has a feeling (instead of supposedly going to catch Slughorn) was hilarious.
Ron consumption of a love potion was hilarious. It was just funny; after all, it was accidental. Now, this is the part where I think a lot of people got confused with (those who haven’t read the books): Ron also gets poisoned by drinking the poisoned mead (that was supposed to be for Dumbledore) right after. My local paper’s review listed that, as “lethal poisons are part of the curriculum”. Um, NOO!!! Ron was poisoned because the mead was poisoned. Before that, Slughorn made an anti-dote for the love potion that Ron was under the influence. He was NOT poisoning Ron!
Harry/Ginny: I’ve never been into the romance, so the minimal the better. Though for parts of Book 6, Ginny was dating Dean. So I thought the amount of screen time was appropriate with Harry and Ginny. They were building up the tension more than anything. Their kiss was a bit short, but I guess it goes in line with Harry’s storyline in the movie.
You can suddenly tell when the filmmakers want to put minor characters in, but can’t find a place to put them in. So…they make up places to put them. Neville (Matt Lewis) was all of a sudden a server at Slughorn’s Christmas Party, and Crabbe (Jamie Waylett) and Goyle (Josh Herdman) suddenly ended up in Advanced Potions (!!!).
However, I was super excited to see Blaise Zabini (Louise Cordice)! He was hot! And it was awesome to see Pansy (Scarlett Byme), though I was expecting her to be slightly more clinging on to Draco. Freddie Stroma made an excellent Cormac. He did a fantastic job at cockiness and sleaziness, and I can just feel how uncomfortable Hermione felt. The licking his pinkie finger equals shudder (in a good way). And Jesse Cave played Lavender to the tee of how I thought Lavender would be-flighty and just mad for Ron.
I also loved watching Alan Rickman play Snape. He’s got the character down pat and it’s just riveting to watch him transform into Snape. He balances Snape’s inner turmoil well.
It was absolutely fascinating and thrilling to watch Helena Bonham Carter reprise her role as Bellatrix Lestrange. Her Bellatrix is absolutely mad and beautiful, and that’s just the way we all love her.
Jim Broadbent has me convinced that he is Professor Slughorn. He captured Slughorn’s sleaziness, crafty, and deceitful ways perfectly.
And Michael Gambon returns as Professor Dumbledore, the esteemed Headmaster restored of all his titles and accomplishments, yet weaker and feebler. I have to applaud Gambon on giving such a fantastic performance. I’ve never been a fan of Gambon as Dumbledore, but he really did the character justice in HBP. I was slightly disappointed that brooms wasn’t used to go to the cave, but hey, that would have totally made the movie longer and added to the budget with the special effects. So, I understand. And I have nothing bad to say about the cave scene. It was similar to what I imagined.
However, in attempt to show more action sequences to show that the Death Eaters are attacking and wreaking havoc upon the wizarding world (and possibly add in minor characters that would have otherwise been cut - Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks), they failed at the core of what the Death Eaters are really about. It is true that in the book we hear about these attacks my newspaper articles and letters, but the attack on the Burrow utterly failed.
Death Eaters don’t just go attacking for fun. Maybe some do, but they ultimately kill. To just attack the Burrow and then leave, well, WTF was that?? Drum roll, please. The Weasleys are blood-traitors; Harry is wanted by Voldemort; and Hermione is Muggle-born. You’d think if they’re not going to kill, they would have attempted to capture Harry or one of the Weasleys or Hermione. But they just leave after burning the Burrow…
The only thing I was disappointed with Draco (which I don’t blame Tom; my blame lies more with Steve Kloves and David Yates) was that the line was altered slightly. Voldemort’s pressure and threat to his family was left out. Instead, it was just “I have to do this or he’s going to kill me.” Although I try not to compare the movie to the book, I thought this was a part most central to Draco’s character. I sympathized more with Draco when his family was under threat, but when changed to just himself, I did not.
The emphasis in the book and the movie is choices. Everyone has choices. It is the choices that make us the person who we are.
If we follow this, then although Draco made a poor choice in joining the Death Eaters, he could have still made an active choice not to kill Dumbledore. By saying “he’s going to kill me” is not enough in my eyes, but if his family were under threat then, then I would understand why his choice was constricted. By taking this away, it makes Draco’s character less sympathetic in the end.
Another problem I had with the Astronomy Tower scene was that Harry wasn’t petrified or under his Invisibility Cloak. This was even worse than the mishap of the slight change in with Draco’s line that led to a huge impact. For Harry to blindly trust Dumbledore and listen and follow Dumbledore’s orders is asking too much of Harry. Harry may have blind faith and trust in Dumbledore, but he is still very impulsive and rash. He still have a “savings people” thing going on. He wouldn’t just let Dumbledore be surrounded by Death Eaters and not attempt to help. It goes against his character!! This is what happened in OP and why he blames himself for Sirius’ death! So, Harry not being restrained is a big mistake in my view.
I’ve heard that some people complained that the Minister for Magic was excluded… I wasn’t surprised because it was recently announced (I think some time before the movie opened) that Bill Nighy was cast as Scrimgeour for “Deathly Hallows”. If he was only just cast for Deathly Hallows, then he obviously wouldn’t be in Half-Blood Prince. Neither was I surprised that the fight scene at the end was excluded. Bill Weasley and a lot of the others wasn’t cast. I figured when I heard that they added the attack on the Burrow, this would be cut. The filmmakers chose to focus on the storyline of Harry, Dumbledore, and Voldemort’s past. The fight at the end was just a derivative and probably scene as not necessary at the end of the day. (Though I would have loved to see Bill!)
Lastly, I must give a nod to WB’s Sue Kroll and her team for doing such a fantastic and brilliant job on marketing. I think with all the clips, interviews, and promotional materials that I saw before the movie was released, I was able to pace myself and figure out which parts were cut. That way, I got over my slight disappointment of the parts I perceived to be cut (instead of having a massive heart attack of a disappointment in the theatre). I usually end up hating the movie (CS, OP).
The only other thing I will say is that if you didn’t read the books, you might find Half-Blood Prince a bit hard to follow and comprehend. There were people in my screening who were like, What? It was just sooo obvious they didn’t read the books and got lost along the way in the movie.
Oh, and I believe HBP is now in IMAX 3D too…except it’s only TWELVE minutes in 3D. Why in the world would people want to pay an extra premium to go see it in 3D? Twelve minutes?? Hello!!
My Ratings:
Must See It In Theatres: Get Advance Tickets 4.5 - 5/5
See It In Theatres 3.5 - 4/5
Buy It On DVD 2.5 - 3/5
Rent It On DVD 1.5 - 2/5
Borrow It From The Library 0.5 - 1/5
Don’t See It At All 0/5