More on the Half-Blood Prince
One good thing that came out of seeing the movie is that it caused me to reread Half-Blood Prince, which I haven’t done since… well, since it came out five years ago.
I kinda liked it this time.
I mean, there were still some godawful bits to it, but the horribly romance spin didn’t annoy me as much this time. Probably for the same reasons it didn’t annoy me as much in the film--I was misremembering the concentration, so when there was less than I feared, I was happy.
Having said that, there was way too much romance in the film and not enough plot. They really should have played up the mystery of what Draco was doing more. Make it more compelling. Of course, they should have done the same in the books, where I found the attacks on Katie Bell and Ron were downplayed in a way that they never should have been--or would have been, in other books. I mean, C’MON! Students were being attacked at Hogwarts! No one was sure who the real target was. How is that not an interesting mystery?
By the way, that shot of Katie Bell being cursed? Creepy!
I think the fact that the movie managed to have even less of a plot than the book (which is quite the feat) explains why a) I kept singing random nursery rhymes in my head during the movie; b) that I kept squirming and looking around the theatre; c) I spent a large portion considering Dumbledore’s character in relation to what we learn (or what I remember we learned) in DH. All rather than watch the movie itself.
Back to the book.
The Chosen One thing did annoy me. I think that soured me to it the first run through. Not that others would call him that (actually, yes that others would call him that) but that scene where Harry refers to himself as the Chosen One to get Slughorn to reveal the proper memory about Horcruxes? I am glad beyond belief that they changed the dialogue in the movie--and still, it struck me as being too heavy-handed.
Much like Chamber of Secrets, I think this book worked better when taken as part of a seven-book series (though CoS was very largely self-contained) with all the revelations about characters, etc. Again, if JKR had remembered to play up the mystery, this could have all been avoided.
I’m also still sore that there were so few things revealed about James, Lily, Sirius and Co., especially Lily considering how close she was to Slughorn. But that’s just my personal preference. I love MWPP+L.
Looking over my previous reactions to HBP, I think this reread was also largely helped by the fact I haven’t read any Harry Potter in… a year? That sounds about right. I tried to reread the entire series in order at the beginning of last summer, but I kept on getting distracted by vacations, etc. I have no intention of ever bringing these books anywhere in a suitcase ever again. They are too heavy. And then, I got distracted by the fact that I didn’t particularly care what happened in the early books and wanted to skip ahead, but had some Lofty Ideas about reading the entire thing in order for once.
I kinda liked it this time.
I mean, there were still some godawful bits to it, but the horribly romance spin didn’t annoy me as much this time. Probably for the same reasons it didn’t annoy me as much in the film--I was misremembering the concentration, so when there was less than I feared, I was happy.
Having said that, there was way too much romance in the film and not enough plot. They really should have played up the mystery of what Draco was doing more. Make it more compelling. Of course, they should have done the same in the books, where I found the attacks on Katie Bell and Ron were downplayed in a way that they never should have been--or would have been, in other books. I mean, C’MON! Students were being attacked at Hogwarts! No one was sure who the real target was. How is that not an interesting mystery?
By the way, that shot of Katie Bell being cursed? Creepy!
I think the fact that the movie managed to have even less of a plot than the book (which is quite the feat) explains why a) I kept singing random nursery rhymes in my head during the movie; b) that I kept squirming and looking around the theatre; c) I spent a large portion considering Dumbledore’s character in relation to what we learn (or what I remember we learned) in DH. All rather than watch the movie itself.
Back to the book.
The Chosen One thing did annoy me. I think that soured me to it the first run through. Not that others would call him that (actually, yes that others would call him that) but that scene where Harry refers to himself as the Chosen One to get Slughorn to reveal the proper memory about Horcruxes? I am glad beyond belief that they changed the dialogue in the movie--and still, it struck me as being too heavy-handed.
Much like Chamber of Secrets, I think this book worked better when taken as part of a seven-book series (though CoS was very largely self-contained) with all the revelations about characters, etc. Again, if JKR had remembered to play up the mystery, this could have all been avoided.
I’m also still sore that there were so few things revealed about James, Lily, Sirius and Co., especially Lily considering how close she was to Slughorn. But that’s just my personal preference. I love MWPP+L.
Looking over my previous reactions to HBP, I think this reread was also largely helped by the fact I haven’t read any Harry Potter in… a year? That sounds about right. I tried to reread the entire series in order at the beginning of last summer, but I kept on getting distracted by vacations, etc. I have no intention of ever bringing these books anywhere in a suitcase ever again. They are too heavy. And then, I got distracted by the fact that I didn’t particularly care what happened in the early books and wanted to skip ahead, but had some Lofty Ideas about reading the entire thing in order for once.