(no subject)
I had a couple icons I could use for the obligatory post-HP viewing but I decided to show some house pride. Because did you all notice that there was not one Hufflepuff student shown in the movie? My people are chronically under-represented and belittled! Cedric Diggory was not an anomaly! Ours is an awesome house and is in no way the waste bin for all of the kids that the other houses rejected!
So there. *sticks out tongue* [Plz to note that the preceding rant was made with tongue very firmly in cheek and should not be taken entirely seriously.] Hufflepuffs RULE!
With that said, let's get on to specifically discussing Half-Blood Prince. I saw it twice, once on Friday with the Baylors and once on Saturday with the Da. It's not that I loved it enough to see it twice but I went into this weekend knowing that I'd be seeing it twice so there you go. My biggest complaint with the movie is that it was all over the place. It kind of skipped from scene to scene without a common theme to bring it all together. I felt like I was watching a season of television on fast forward which isn't exactly what I'm looking for when I go to see a movie. There were a lot of good, entertaining moments but there was also dead space where it felt like nothing much was happening. So much so that the first time I saw it I almost fell asleep.
My theory on products such as this is that all of the actions should mirror or reveal something about the theme of the movie or the central POV character. Harry felt like a cipher in his own movie. Harry's involvement with the Half-Blood Prince was supposed to be the central emotional story of the movie and instead of being shown it we were told about it and, in the end, told that it was bad. And then Harry didn't seem to learn anything from the experience at all.
It was just frustrating. Personally, I blame Steve Kloves. The only truly effective screenplay he's written was the one for Prisoner of Azkabahn and the that's probably only because that book has the most easily-defined theme of all of Rowling's works.
However, beside my frustration with the script there was a lot of stuff I really enjoyed. I loved Jim Broadbent. He made everything with Slughorn so real and interesting. I felt genuine empathy for the guy and was kind of skeeved out over how Harry and Dumbledore were manipulating him.
I also LOVED the entire bit when Ron ate the love potioned candies. It was hilarious and adorable. I <3 Rupert.
Alan Rickman did a tremendous job. This was his first chance to really dig into Snape's humanity and he was, well, he was Alan fucking Rickman. Plus he got to fling his robes around and be awesome.
I also <3 Luna. Everytime she showed up on screen she was just perfect, and she always said the perfect crazy thing to put everything back into perspective. <3<3<3
Visually the movie was beautiful. That shot at the beginning where the Death Eaters were apparating through London made me want to go back there something fierce. Every scene was a delight to look at.
In sum: Half-Blood Prince makes for an enjoyable trip to the movies whether you love the books or not and British actors are made of win. But it could definitely use a couple more Hufflepuffs, plz&thnx.
While watching the movie last night this idea for a character/story popped into my head. So we know how Ollivander was taken away by the Death Eaters but what happens to his shop afterwards? Suddenly I saw this woman who was from a wizarding family and had attended Hogwarts but spends more time in the Muggle world than her own. She apprenticed with Ollivander for a little while after Hogwarts but her heart wasn't in it so she left and opened a bakery in the Muggle World. After Ollivander is kidnapped she realizes that she has to go back and reopen Ollivander's shop even though things are dangerous and she's already received threats. So after Dumbledore's death she reopens the shop both as a memorial to her teacher and as a way to take a stand against the dark.
And, yeah, she's definitely a Hufflepuff. ;-)
There you go. There's all of the stuff HP6 shoved into my brain. Now hopefully I can finish that damn Jo-Kat story that I promised myself I'd write this weekend. Come on brain, don't fail me now.
So there. *sticks out tongue* [Plz to note that the preceding rant was made with tongue very firmly in cheek and should not be taken entirely seriously.] Hufflepuffs RULE!
With that said, let's get on to specifically discussing Half-Blood Prince. I saw it twice, once on Friday with the Baylors and once on Saturday with the Da. It's not that I loved it enough to see it twice but I went into this weekend knowing that I'd be seeing it twice so there you go. My biggest complaint with the movie is that it was all over the place. It kind of skipped from scene to scene without a common theme to bring it all together. I felt like I was watching a season of television on fast forward which isn't exactly what I'm looking for when I go to see a movie. There were a lot of good, entertaining moments but there was also dead space where it felt like nothing much was happening. So much so that the first time I saw it I almost fell asleep.
My theory on products such as this is that all of the actions should mirror or reveal something about the theme of the movie or the central POV character. Harry felt like a cipher in his own movie. Harry's involvement with the Half-Blood Prince was supposed to be the central emotional story of the movie and instead of being shown it we were told about it and, in the end, told that it was bad. And then Harry didn't seem to learn anything from the experience at all.
It was just frustrating. Personally, I blame Steve Kloves. The only truly effective screenplay he's written was the one for Prisoner of Azkabahn and the that's probably only because that book has the most easily-defined theme of all of Rowling's works.
However, beside my frustration with the script there was a lot of stuff I really enjoyed. I loved Jim Broadbent. He made everything with Slughorn so real and interesting. I felt genuine empathy for the guy and was kind of skeeved out over how Harry and Dumbledore were manipulating him.
I also LOVED the entire bit when Ron ate the love potioned candies. It was hilarious and adorable. I <3 Rupert.
Alan Rickman did a tremendous job. This was his first chance to really dig into Snape's humanity and he was, well, he was Alan fucking Rickman. Plus he got to fling his robes around and be awesome.
I also <3 Luna. Everytime she showed up on screen she was just perfect, and she always said the perfect crazy thing to put everything back into perspective. <3<3<3
Visually the movie was beautiful. That shot at the beginning where the Death Eaters were apparating through London made me want to go back there something fierce. Every scene was a delight to look at.
In sum: Half-Blood Prince makes for an enjoyable trip to the movies whether you love the books or not and British actors are made of win. But it could definitely use a couple more Hufflepuffs, plz&thnx.
While watching the movie last night this idea for a character/story popped into my head. So we know how Ollivander was taken away by the Death Eaters but what happens to his shop afterwards? Suddenly I saw this woman who was from a wizarding family and had attended Hogwarts but spends more time in the Muggle world than her own. She apprenticed with Ollivander for a little while after Hogwarts but her heart wasn't in it so she left and opened a bakery in the Muggle World. After Ollivander is kidnapped she realizes that she has to go back and reopen Ollivander's shop even though things are dangerous and she's already received threats. So after Dumbledore's death she reopens the shop both as a memorial to her teacher and as a way to take a stand against the dark.
And, yeah, she's definitely a Hufflepuff. ;-)
There you go. There's all of the stuff HP6 shoved into my brain. Now hopefully I can finish that damn Jo-Kat story that I promised myself I'd write this weekend. Come on brain, don't fail me now.