Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[SK]

I went to see it last week, I wasn't very impressed. It was the best one yet but that's not saying much. The films just don't compare to the books for me, there's something so forced and artificial about the Harry Potter films and it felt the same again. If I hadn't read the books I probably would enjoy it a lot more. Just a few notes though;

• Whys there so much love for Ginny Weasley? She's really not that good looking.
• Emma Watson is getting more attractive every film!
• When Dumbledore said Harry needed a shave, surely they should have given him some stubble at least?
• Where was Dumbledore's funeral! Better be in the next one!

 

[phaedra100]

However I have heard people rip the fact that the massive fight between the Death Eater's, Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army wasn't in there took away from the movie, but how could of it have been in there? I mean really half the characters in the book involved int he fight were left out of previous movies, so you can't expect David Yates to just throw them in without any story given to them.

Where was Dumbledore's funeral! Better be in the next one!

Yeah, these are the two things I've heard people complain about the most. I guess I can understand how most people wanted a big dramatic fight at the end, and part of me did as well. I feel like Yates could have done the fight on a smaller scale, just something, anything to give the ending more gravitas instead of Snape just firing a few shots at Harry. As far as the funeral goes I thought that shot near the end of all the students holding their wants in the air was a sort of symbolic funeral.

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[hArdyPUNKmArk]

Well. I saw the movie on the weekend and it was awesome. A lot of my friends didn't like it but I for one loved it. Now, I think the reason why people haven't like it is because they are expecting the book in movie form, I'm sorry but it will never happen and you can't go into it expecting it to be exactly like the book. Take a step back and try to watch it as a movie, not as a book being played out.

That being said there were bits that did somewhat annoy me:

- Dumbledore's funeral. True, it would have been great to see but I did like the symbolic raising of wands at the end, that was an ok substitute.

- Hagrid. There needed to either be more of him OR take out the scene with Aragog. That scene just seemed to come out of nowhere, Hagrid should have been used more throughout the movie and what was the deal with Aragog's size, he was a lot bigger in Chamber of Secrets. Small point but it stood out for me.

- Dumbledore v Malfoy. The only problem I had with this scene was how easy malfoy disarmed Dumbledore. Although Dumbledore was planning it it was still annoying to see a kid disarm the almighty Dumbledore. In the book Dumbledore kind of had a choice, protect Harry and conceal him and freeze him just in time before Malfoy ran in and disarmed him OR fight whoever came through the door. Again, small point but it did bug me.

Now, let's get onto the parts I found very good:

- Tom Felton. Wow, what a performance. He totally stepped up in this movie and portrayed the character perfectly. I've been seeing improvements in acting from Emma, Rupert and Daniel over the years but this movie completley put Felton in their league, great performance by him.

- Rupert Grint. He really had a fun time with this and made Ron Weasley the guy I remember in the book. I feel like he plays his character the best out of the main 3. It was hilarious to watch him in this movie.

- Chemistry. Fuck me, Rupert, Emma and Daniel have now got some serious chemistry with eachother. They have grown up around these movies and it shows how much time they must spend together on set. They have truly given a great performance once again as they did in Order of the Phoenix.

- Dumbledore. I have never been a fan of Gambon's portrayal of Dumbledore. He just doesn't seem right, too emotional or something. Richard Harris played it perfectly (RIP), if only he was still here. But, this movie won me over slightly. The scene in the cave with Harry was perfectly done and because of this I think I can get by with Gambon. I still feel like he could do a better job but I can live with it after that scene. Up until this movie I really hated Dumbledore in the previous 3 films.

Well. My take on the film is that it was brilliant and I can't wait to see it again. As a true die hard HP fan I'm always going to enjoy the movies simply because it's something els of Harry Potter I can get into and get excited for. Now the books are finished I'll grasp onto anything Harry Potter just because it is Harry Potter, I will always love anything to do with it. On a side note I just read JK's Tales of Beedle the Bard and it's a pretty good quick read, I reccomend it to any HP fan.

 

[RageBattle]

Definitely the best of the 6. It had everything it needed. The 6th book was always going to be a tricky transfer to the big screen as the book was much darker and set at a slower pace with romance thrown in the middle.

It didn't bother me about the end, or the new scene during the Christmas break, as it fit the goal of the movie. Yates is setting it up to do an even better job on the last 2, and I expect him to succeed.