Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

[TordelBack]

Declaration of Interest:  I am a Potter fan, and Half Blood Prince is probably my favourite of the books.

Bottom line:  Enjoyed watching it, but  felt dissatisfied by it as a movie.

Can't trust the spoiler tags these days, so SEVERE SPOILERS FOLLOW:


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Hmmm.  An odd installment.  Most of what makes it to the screen from the book is very well done indeed, but unfortunately many of the best bits don't.  Additional scenes take up time at the expense of unfortunate omissions, and those omissions undermine the point of the rather clever plot.  

For example, the film spends a great deal of time following Malfoy in his efforts to fix the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement. However, when he finally succeeds in creating this secret access into the school, the Death Eaters just stroll on through, have a chat, break some windows and leave again by another route, making it all rather pointless.  

Similarly, chief werewolf Fenrir Grayback shows up in superbly scary makeup, hangs around in a few scenes and leaves.  Because the Bill Weasley and Fleur subplot has been jettisoned, and no mention is made of his relationship with Lupin, his presence is a complete waste - he doesn't even get to turn into a wolf, which is surely a breach of contract.   Leaving Bill and Fleur out of it not only leaves Fenrir (and Mrs. Weasely) nothing to do, it also deprives the movie of the book's much-needed bittersweet ending.  Add to that the lack of a climactic battle for Dumbledore's Army, and the omission of a gala funeral for Dumbledore himself and the end couldn't be any more downbeat.  

Other omissions were more sensible - cutting down time given to the origins of Voldemort, barely referring to Sirius' death - kept things moving.  On the other hand, when a movie has it in the title, even two seconds on why Snape calls himself 'the Half Blood Prince' would have been welcome.

I don't expect books to translate to screen without huge compromise and invention, but I do expect the key points to survive, or at least the result to make sense of what it presents.  This doesn't really manage that, and I wonder what someone who wasn't familiar with the book would make of it at all.

My other main problem with it:  aside from two scenes (the underground lake, and Fred and George's shop) there's no new visuals at all - everything looks as it did before, indeed we're almost back to dull Chamber of Secrets territory, which is shame.

There is however a lot to enjoy.  Jim Broadbent's Slughorn (while looking and sounding nothing like I imagined him) is a great creation, and he and his Slug Club gets a satisfying amount if screen time.  The treatment of Draco Malfoy is  a bit of a revelation, his actor's otherwise-incongruous maturity being used to great effect to turn him into a haggard and rather sympathetic loner.  

There's a very wise focus on the familiar boarding-school antics of Hogwarts, since this is the last time we'll see the school in anything resembling its normal state.  It's just shame the visual design of the school seems so stale at this point.  On the other hand, the corpse of Aragog is a wonderful model (although I'd have liked some indication that he was ailing, and maybe a reminder of who he was).

Daniel Radcliffe has actually become a pretty likeable actor, and the relationships of the three principals work well, even if the various rival love interests (other than the solidly understated Ginny) are played as walk-ons from a Carry On movie.  The humour is simple, but generally works.  

Michael Gambon gives a really great last hurrah as Dumbledore, and the almost unbearable scene at the lake is carried off brilliantly, even if it borrows too much visually from Gollum and the Dead Marshes.

Maybe it'll all make more sense as the first installment of the Horcrux Trilogy.

[Roger Godpleton]

I've never read the book. I thought the film was decent. It dragged a lot during the teen soap segments, and it seemed that most of Draco's character development consisted of the odd shot of him moping. Broadbent & Gambon are fantastic and really carry the movie. Personally I thought Ginny was a bit wooden. The best scenes in OotP & this are where we see Dumbledore (& Voldemort) at "full power".

[radiator]

I thought it was very good, but perhaps too much emphasis was put on the teen romance angle (almost felt like they were making concessions to the Twilight crowd - witness also the trailer that had rock music instead of the theatrical score...) at the expense of crucial plot - the Half Blood Prince storyline is so sidelined that as a title it's completely redundant.

Many characters, such as Lupin and Greyback are underused, and it's a shame no mention is made of Sirius - Harry is supposed to be grieving at this point, and the main theme of the books is mortality and coming to terms with death.

I'm a bit hazy on the books, read them years ago, but ISTR the relationship between Ron and Hermione being far more subtly played than it is shown in the film..? Also a shame that Hermione is left to cry and strop thoughout the entire film.

Though the three leads are likeable, I don't think any of them (with the possible exception of Ron) are very strong actors - I did like the minor characters from the young cast though - Luna, Lavender and McClaggen(?) were all great, and Jim Broadbent was wonderful (though I thought Slughorn was supposed to be really fat..?).

I've read elsewhere that there's a slightly weird 'seduction' undercurrent to the scenes of Harry and Slughorn, but must admit this went way over my head, and I just took it at complete face value.

They fluffed the ending a bit, but it didn't annoy me as much as others. To be fair having Harry paralysed and invisible during the climactic scene was awkward in the book, and it would have looked a bit rubbish on screen IMO. Harry didn't do anything to stop Snape because he still trusted Dumbledore's word, that's how I read it. Shame we were denied the funeral scene (was looking forward to seeing the centaurs, mermen etc..) but I've heard that the funeral will form the start of film 7...

One last thing, I can suspend my disbelief to accept flying broomsticks and magic rings etc, but there's no way that the extremely pretty waitress at the beginning would be interested in Harry!

[TordelBack]

To be fair having Harry paralysed and invisible during the climactic scene was awkward in the book, and it would have looked a bit rubbish on screen IMO. Harry didn't do anything to stop Snape because he still trusted Dumbledore's word, that's how I read it.

Yeah, the missus and I agreed that that was a distinct improvement on the book - in fact the whole tower scene was pretty cool, just a shame it wasn't preceded by a ruck.  

As radiator says, the book is very much about mortality, but I was glad the film wasn't - it was quite grim enough.  The teen romance stuff is if anything a bigger part of the book than it was the film, and as I was saying earlier, it is the last chance to do it - after this it's just the three main guys hiding in a tent.

Slughorn wasn't what I was expecting, but I thought Broadbent's performance was terrific, and the awkward scenes with Harry played out perfectly.  As per usual the folk reading 'sexual seduction' into every single relationship between an adult and a child that appears in any media have earned both my contempt and, frankly, my suspicion.  I also enjoyed the OTT luck potion version of Harry, although I've heard the anti-drugs obsessives arguing that it glamourises taking E.  -sigh-

Radiator is partly right about the smaller character pieces - Luna continued to represent the most perfect casting imaginable (different, but perfect), and Neville as a waiter was classic.   Lavender on the other hand was way over the top.

And that waitress was very fine indeed.

[Devons Daddy]

ok
got the fact it was half the book.

went in knowing that and accepting it was scene setting stuff,
like the way the characters have grown.once again brillantly cast, and rickman for me, still one of our finest actors ever to have accepted a yank paycheck! he embodies the maybe? villian, still kept you geussing,

the nonsense in the press, about drugs and sexaulality. all crap.
as always great entertainment. my 12 year old son. enjoyed it as much as i did.

[Mike Gloady]

I probably shouldn't have read this before seeing it, but now that I HAVE (I'd already read the book ages ago) I'm actually pretty looking forward to taking my neice at some point this week (her schedule being WAY more busy than mine, sniff).

Perhaps the removal of Dumbledore's funeral from the end of THIS was intended for an opener to the next book?  It'd make sense in terms of reminding everyone what'd happened....

[bluemeanie]

Not read the book and to be honest didnt really want to go and see this... but my dad is a big fan of the books and my mum didnt want to go with him, so there I was.

And gotta say I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than I was expecting.
I did feel the Half Blood Prince thing, being the title, should have been more than just a book with some ways to cheat potions class though. The big "I AM the Half Blood Prince" at the end just left me thinking "Yeah? And?"
The whole thing with the cabinet lost me a bit as well. I never got the impression he was fixing it.


Thought the kid playing the young Voldemort was really cool though. Was quietly menacing. And Malfoy went from being the one dimensional school bully into something much more in this which I also thought was well done.
Main thing I suppose it that its got me looking forward to the next one.

[TordelBack]

The big "I AM the Half Blood Prince" at the end just left me thinking "Yeah? And?"

Obviously best to read the book, but if by any chance you care to find out the significance of the title/textbook:

[spoiler]Snape is the son of a muggle father and a wizard mother whose maiden name was Prince - just like Harry and Voldemort, he comes from mixed stock.  During his extremely unhappy time at Hogwarts. he secretly refers to himself as the 'half-blood Prince', probably in a self-loathing rather than boastful manner.  Snape's school relationships with Harry's parents and their friends are central to the whole saga, and revelation of the annotated Potions book serves almost as a journal of those times, emphasising Snape's brilliance, early dalliance with dark magic and his isolation.  

As shown in the previous film, Snape was the victim of bullying from Harry's father and Sirius Black, but was treated kindly by Harry's muggle-born mother Lily, who he worshipped.  He was poor, unattractive unpopular and of 'inferior stock' to those that care.  Contrast this with 'poor Harry', who despite an admitedly shitty start has money, fame, talent, mates and girlfriends.  This arrogant git is who Lily dies to protect? When Harry uses Snape's own sectumsempra  spell on Malfoy, Snape realises that Harry has his book, and is understandably embarrassed and enraged.  In the book Snape confronts Harry, and Harry lies, not realising how Snape knows, worsening their relationship still further.  

Lastly, Harry's own potential for both evil and skill if he applies himself is emphasised by his success with the book.

So the book and the revelation of its owner is quite central to Snape's character and to Harry's, something the film never really gets around to.  The relationship of Harry to Snape, and both men to Dumbledore, is the key to the book and the saga - hence 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince'[/spoiler]