The Half-Blood Prince Midnight Showing ~ Spoilers
Hey all ~ So sorry to be here two hours late. We got home just after three A.M. and I was ready to get online and chat, but our cable connection wasn’t working because Comcast was doing maintenance just in the area of my small town, tonight of all nights! So I tried to make good use of the time and spent about an hour typing up my first impressions.
What can I say about the movie? I was blown away by it.
We had four tickets and my oldest son wasn’t originally planning to go with us. So I thought my husband was going and then I could tell you his perspective as someone not that familiar with the books. That will have to wait for another time because my son changed his mind, and my husband ended up staying home. We should have bought five tickets to begin with, but then we would have had to take two cars, so anyway ~ I went with my three kids.
We went to a huge movieplex called The Rave and you can see how big it is. We had to park a quarter of a mile away because the parking lot was spilling over. They had five large theaters showing the movie and the lobby was completely packed with people. My daughter and younger son went in to get seats, and my older son and I stood in line for about 20 minutes to get popcorn and cokes. After a few minutes my daughter texted us that the only seats left were way down front but by then I was just happy to have seats at all. For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, I would not recommend sitting so close because some of the action shots made me dizzy. However, it was great being up so close to Dumbledore and Snape!
We didn’t dress up in costumes, which is just as well because sadly there weren’t that many people there in costumes. However, there were enough to make it interesting. I saw one boy who had on a Gryffindor-colored bathrobe, but he was wearing a batman mask, so he looked like a strange Death Eater. Then I saw quite a few Slytherin types in black robes with green neckties or socks. Lots of kids were wearing pajamas. Since my son didn’t want me to dress up, my alternate plan was just to wear all black and white. I had a black and white shirt black pants, and my daughter wore all black.
Usually my kids are very critical of the movies, so I expected a lot of nitpicking in the car on the way home. But it didn’t happen! All three of them said it was the best movie of the series. My daughter just read HBP again and she said it was the first time that the movie left her as satisfied as the book, which is high praise indeed.
And here are my thoughts mingled with some of their perceptions:
Alan Rickman ~ He was amazing and absolutely perfect. He stole every scene they gave him, and I couldn’t be happier. I was thrilled that they let him chant the reverse hex for Sectumsempra. *SQUEE* It was exactly the way I imagined it. If anyone can figure out what he was saying as a counterspell, let me know - some Latin phrase. He sounded like a monk chanting. It was awesome, as were the scenes with Draco.
Tom Felton ~ Great performance. Even his scenes alone in the Room of Requirement were fabulous. I want to see the movie again because I know I probably missed alot. He really captured the emotion of Draco under pressure.
Spinner’s End was much too short, and Narcissa didn’t weep and wail, although she was obviously worried and also trusted Snape. I wish they had filmed the banter between Snape and Bella because it’s so enjoyable, but we can’t have everything. Wormtail is there and yes, Snape zaps him and slams the door on him, which I enjoyed. The Unbreakable Vow was explained really well, and it was clear that Snape would have died if he hadn’t carried it out. They also include a short scene of Snape telling Dumbledore that he doesn’t want to do it anymore. Instead of Hagrid overhearing it, Harry hears it himself which is more effective.
I was sorry they didn’t give Snape credit for saving Katie Bell, but at least it was clear that he took a look at the necklace and knew it was a dark object.
Dumbledore’s Hand: Snape doesn’t get credit for saving Dumbledore’s hand, nor do they explain what happened with the ring-crux very well. I don’t know why they would leave that so vague - Steve Kloves thinks people are all mind-readers or something. Thumbs down on that (no pun intended about the blackened hand). There is a nifty little scene with Harry and the ring in which his scar reacts to it and seems to connect to the Dark Lord for a second, but that doesn’t make any sense if the horcrux part of it had already been destroyed. So I’m not sure what’s going on with that.
It’s stunning when Snape goes up on the Tower and says “Avada Kedavra.” You could have heard a pin drop in our theater, and there were lots of little kids in the audience, so there’s no telling what they thought was going on!
One thing I kept waiting for was the line from one of the trailers in which Snape says “It’s Over.” Maybe I missed it, but I think that line was cut from the Tower scene.
I liked the fact that after the death scene, Harry picks up the Elder Wand in Dumbledore’s office - and it has this pattern on it that looks serpentine. I was thinking that even if Harry just carried it out of the office, he couldn’t really use it because Draco was Master of the wand at that time.
I wish Minerva had said something about burying the wand since there was no funeral and I kept waiting for that, but it never came. Oh well - they do show the painting of Dumbledore and he is sleeping. The phoenix doesn’t rise from a tomb, but flies away at the end, and that’s the only place where I started to get weepy, and my daughter felt the same way.
I loved everything about the Half-Blood Prince book and Potions Class. Very enjoyable! Jim Broadbent was a perfect Slughorn, and my kids really liked him. My older son liked the scene when he is stealing plants from the greenhouse. He also tells a sweet story about a gift that Lily gave him, and we all enjoyed that immensely. The Aragog scene is hilarious, and the scene with young Tom Riddle in Slughorn’s memory is chilling.
I didn’t expect it, but my favorite scenes are the ones with Tom Riddle as a child and as a teenager. The kid who played the teenager was so creepy - just the way he smiled and spoke to Slughorn. Whether it is the acting or the directing or both, it is just perfect. I can’t wait to see that scene again. To me it captured the fact that Tom was always twisted and even a good teacher like Slughorn couldn’t save him. Also, the way they drew parallels between Harry and Tom Riddle again reminded me of Chamber of Secrets, and the dialogue worked really well.
My younger son liked the scene at the Orphanage, and said it reminded him of The Sixth Sense, because instead of saying “I see dead people,” the kid said “I talk to snakes. They find me.” I thought that was a good analogy.
We all loved the stuff about Hermione, Ron, and Lavender. I wasn’t expecting to like it at all, because the snogging bored me in the book, but I thought the actors did a great job with it and some of it was laugh-out-loud funny. Rupert Grint really won me over, and I’m not a Ron fan.
The scenes with Ginny? Not so much. Bonnie Wright is a cute girl, and Dan Rad is a cute boy. Steve Kloves has softened Ginny's character somewhat to make her more appealing. But for me, there just isn’t any chemistry between , and somehow Ginny towering over Harry in every scene almost became a joke. I kept wondering why they didn’t put Dan Rad in platform shoes. It was distracting.
I missed the Quidditch scene because I was getting a popcorn refill, but my daughter said I didn’t miss much. I forgot to ask the boys what they thought of the Quidditch, but I will tomorrow.
Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood is as adorable as ever. They've given her some cute lines that aren't in the book, and it's just sweet. She’s the one who finds Harry on the train after Draco kicks him. She sees him under the invisibility cloak because of the Spectrespecs, which was a perfect use for them. They left in the line about "almost like having friends," and that made me happy. She and Harry walk together to the Hogwarts Gate, instead of Tonks and Harry. Flitwick meets them at the gate, but Filch, Snape, and Draco are also there. Snape stares at Harry but they don’t talk.
One thing I absolutely Did Not Like was the destruction of the Burrow. I understand why they put it in there to show the danger to Harry only refuge, but all it did was play up the idea of Molly Weasley as a victim, and I didn't like the way they portrayed her as frazzled instead of Tonks, who seems so together, unlike in the book. I think they could take the whole scene out and the movie would still be just as good. Same thing with the opening bridge destruction scene, which I’m sure cost a small fortune to make. Meh - who cares?
For all the money they spent on burning down the Burrow, I would have rather had Dobby and Kreacher, or the entire Spinner’s End scene. They had Lupin and Tonks at the Burrow, which was fine, and a long chase through grassy fields with Greyback and Bellatrix, but it all comes to nothing and no one really gets hurt except the house burns down. I had the weird thought that if Greyback had actually bitten Ginny, as he bites Bill in the book, it would have made things a lot more interesting. Harry’s future wife as a wolf-girl, haha. Now there’s a plot-twist I could enjoy.
I'm sure I've left a ton of things out, and I'm dying to know what other people thought, so Spoil Away!!!