The brilliance of HBP, and the beginning of the end
As I sit outside waiting to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for perhaps the 10th time, although the first in IMAX 3-D, I wonder about a pervasive feeling amongst the fandom, and casual film-goers alike, that this film is somehow anti-climactic. One film critic even likened it to STAR WARS episode 5 (The Empire Strikes Back), and in some ways I can see the parallel. They both ended leaving us on the threshold of the final adventure. Both had a “down” sort of ending-but the difference here, for book fans anyway, is that we KNOW the final outcome … and that perhaps is the source of the malaise. When it’s over, it’s over and we sit in the darkened theatre watching the credits, listening to Nicholas Hooper’s score for HBP, dreading what we know will be the final chapter (even split into two parts) of this amazing story. The story we never wanted to end.
That is, I think, the main reason, although few will admit to it, that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was so reviled by long-time book fans. Jo Rowling ended the story-and ended it HER way. So, we are experiencing a profound sense of déjà vu-and this time, we know not only that we have been here before, but that we are going someplace else, and we’ve been there before too. Sad really.
I thought the film adaptation of HBP was absolutely brilliant. As true to the source material as it could get without being bogged down in countless explanations that only the book-readers would enjoy, it is a fine piece of story-telling, beautifully photographed, and amazingly well-acted. I laughed and cried my way through the film and the final horrific scenes, just as I did with the book. And I SAW the “last sun-filled day” with the trio-it was not a let down, but a logical place to stand and look toward the twisted road leading us (and them) to the final showdown with Voldemort.
I too, dread the finality of the last 2 films, as I dreaded the arrival of the book of Deathly Hallows. Not because I am afraid of what the filmmakers will do to “my Harry”-after six fabulous films I feel the story is in good and practiced hands. No, I fear it because it truly IS the end . . . At least with the last book I knew I had 2 (now 3) films left to anticipate.
It is that same fear of THE END, I think, that has gripped the fans, and even the casual film-goers who will no longer have Harry around. What ever will we do without him?