Another teaser analysis (with photos)

[Carol]

Julie wrote:
> I hope your analysis of this analysis is correct, Carol!

Carol responds:

Me, too. :-)

Julie:
> I am increasingly getting the feeling that the Half-Blood Prince
subplot will not be particularly central to the movie, more of a
sub-subplot related to the Love Potions shenanigans. <snip> Voldemort
is a lot scarier than Snape (at least in the movies, where Snape has
been toned down and Voldemort has been presented more sparingly to
better effect--IMO). Showing lots of Pensieve scenes about his rise
(or fall, whichever way you see it) is bound to be considered more
interesting to the general viewer than showing the nuances of the
relationship between Harry and Snape (and Harry and the Half-Blood
Prince) that hasn't really been developed in the movies. <snip>
> 
> I am sure Snape will still be the Half-Blood Prince, and Draco will
be struggling with the order to kill Dumbledore. I'm just not sure the
revelation of Snape as the Half-Blood Prince or his killing of
Dumbledore, will have the same meaning to the characters (or the
audience) as it did in the books. 
 
> Julie, missing the complex character of Snape from the books when
watching the watered-down version presented in the movies, Alan
Rickman's fabulous vocal delivery notwithstanding.

Carol responds:

I agree completely that movie!Snape misses the nuances of book!Snape,
but, we do have the Pensieve scene in the GoF film, in which DD states
that Snape was once a Death Eater but has returned to our side (I
forget how much of the book got into that scene, but at least its
there as a precedent for movie!Snape's role). The scene in which
Karkaroff shows Snape his Dark Mark is also in there (and there's the
cut scene with karkaroff that viewers who watch the extras will have
seen. So the ground has been laid for "Death Eater" Snape in HBP and DH.

More to the point, besides the HBP's Potions book, which we know is in
the film and which Snape will have to claim as his own at some point,
we know that certain Snape scenes will be in the film, among them
Spinner's End, Slughorn's Christmas party, the conversation between
Snape and Draco on which Harry eavesdrops, and the scene on the tower
in which Snape kills Dumbledore. They'll have to provide some
preparation for that moment, and for Harry's distrust of Snape, beyond
Snape as mean teacher. Since Slughorn will be announced as Potions
master, snape will have to be announced as DADA teacher (giving us
Harry's astonishment at the announcement, even, I hope, his shouted
"No!" and his vengeful little wish that the DADA position will prove
fatal again). I suspect that Snape's mysterious conversation with
Dumbledore will go by the wayside, as will his comments on Tonks's
changed Patronus, but I hope they retain the chase and "duel" (with 
Snape so cleverly anticipating and parrying all of Harry's curses)
after Dumbledore's death. 

At any rate, Draco's mission to kill Dumbledore is direly hinted at in
the plot synopsis, and Snape's role in that is key. Also, I'm pretty
sure that the Sectumsempra scene is retained.

All in all, I hope that the eponymous Prince will not be forgotten in
the film that bears his name.

I forgot to mention that the number of Voldemort-related Pensieve
scenes has been greatly reduced, with neither the Gaunts nor Hepzibah
Smith appearing. Obviously, we'll have child!Tom and teenage Tom in
Slughorn's office (with the Felix Felicicis subplot). We might have
Tom Riddle applying for the DADA position about ten years too early
since there are three Tom Riddles listed on the IMDB: Tom at eleven,
teenage Tom, and "Tom Riddle at 18" (yep; that's a different Tom from
the one who plays him at sixteen. Could be an error, of course.

One concern I have is the scene with young Lucius Malfoy and Regulus
Black 9if it's the same scene). Are they going to present those two as
being members of Tom Riddle's generation, possibly in the Slughorn
memory? After all, the CoS film followed the book in having Tom's
diary be fifty years old, so it makes no sense to have Tom twenty
years younger now. If so, where does Severus Snape fit in? They
haven't recast the teen version of him. (I really, really hope they
didn't set that scene with eleven-year-old Tom in the fifties as
stated in the Rotten Tomatoes analysis. Bad enough to add the attack
on the Burrow. Let's not mess up the chronology as well. And yet the
more I think about how they could fit in Regulus and teenage Lucius,
the more I arrive at the conclusion that they must be part of the
Slughorn memory, with Regulus being, perhaps, Sirius's older brother
to make him the same age as Lucius.)

Carol, who BTW has found that at least some of the posters she linked
to earlier have been noted as fakes by Warner Bros. and suspects that
they all are