[HPFGU-Movie] My Review of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

[Valerie Flowe]

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> I saw the movie at midnight...all 16 screens were playing it and sold 
> out...Wow! I was glad to see that the HP franchise is alive and 
> kicking. I thought for sure the delay would've made the average fair 
> weather HP fan go elsewhere. Apparently not!
My first reaction to the film was that I loved it! I felt like this was 
the movie that kept the most to the book (well, aside from HP1, maybe). 
Here are my pros and cons:

> PROs:
> - Draco...wow! I thought he was amazing. When he stomped on Harry’s 
> face “That’s for my father!” = disturbing. Loved the unraveling of his 
> character; his crying, his facial expressions. Well done, Tom Felton!!
> - Ditto for Slughorn. Though I would’ve liked to have seen him with a 
> big belly and mustache as in the book, but otherwise his acting was 
> awesome! Loved the added scene of the fish. Now I can't even remember 
> how H got Sluggo to hand over the memory, in the book?
> - Harry with the Felix scene...Dan is a funny comedic actor! Harry 
> never gets to be silly in these films/books, ya know!
> - Hermione/Emma: Not overreacting...yay! Love it when she was drunk on 
> butterbeer!
> - Child and Teen Tom Riddle. Wow!!! Both of them had that innocent, 
> handsome exterior, yet creepy, sinister underlying feel to them. Great 
> choice of actors!
> - A bit too much focus on the snogging, but I love the exchange 
> between Harry and Ron about the ‘soft skin’!
> - Ron/Rupert with the love potion...lol!
> - McGonegal: “Take Weasley with you; he looks too happy!” LOL! They 
> said she was ill. She did look fragile. Maybe that’s why they didn’t 
> have the Deatheaters stun her in that Hogwarts fight scene??
> - Horcruxes. I think the interchange between Harry and Slughorn 
> adequately explained the horcruxes.
> - Sectumsempra: Wow! I’m surprised they left that in. In some ways it 
> was not as horrific as I pictured in my head while reading. I really 
> imagined that Draco was almost cut in 2. This looked almost like 
> bullet wounds. I suppose if it was as gory as in the book it would've 
> warranted a PG13. I remember feeling sick to my stomach reading that 
> scene in the book. But having Draco lying in the pool of blood/water 
> while Snape healed him, and the look on Harry’s face...wow...powerful~
> - Luna...awesome! Loved the spectraspecs and her tiered dress at the 
> Xmas party. I'm looking forward to the cut scene with Sanguini...Luna 
> has some witty comment in the book which I can't quite remember...
> - Love how Dumbledore asked about Harry & Hermione’s relationship 
> “Just curious!” Cute...
> - Special effects of bridge twisting = pretty amazing.
> - Bellatrix – wonderfully horrible as always! Love how she so 
> disrespectfully is stomping on the tables in the great hall, and all 
> the candles get blown out. The look on Draco's face was one of shock 
> and fear as he realizes just how deep he's gotten in with these evil 
> people. I always felt Draco was a pampered, light-weight bully. But 
> this was big-time 'grown-up' evil.
> - Glad they mentioned Regulus! Thought they might leave that out.
> - Foreshadowing of last book as Harry asks D “Did you know at the 
> time”...”that I had just met the darkest wizard of all time? No...if I 
> had..?” Shows Dumbledore’s fallibility.
> (by the way how DID D hear about Tom Riddle in the orphanage? Just 
> part of D’s secret intuition of all things magical?)
> - Weasley Shop: Have to see it again and in slo-mo to catch it all! 
> Umbridge gag gift?! Did you see it? I missed it. Brilliant addition; 
> you just know the twins would invent that!
> - Fawkes flying away at the end was very poignant, as was D sleeping 
> in his frame in his office.
> Rickman’s line delivery was brilliant as always. Don’t remember if he 
> made that comment in the book to D about what if he didn’t want to do 
> it anymore, and D replied that he had already agreed to it or 
> something like that. Or was that more foreshadowing of Snape’s 
> innocence in DH?? I thought Snape gesturing for Harry to keep quiet 
> while he was hiding under the tower, was way too much of a giveaway of 
> Snape's ultimate goodness. Harry doesn't realize till the very end of 
> the series that Snape is a good guy after all and has been in cahoots 
> with D this whole time.
> - Also loved the Burrow perspective. The sets just seemed so ‘real’ in 
> this movie. More in-depth, detailed. I mean, they always were, but the 
> details were brilliant in this one. For example the vanishing cabinet 
> was truly beautiful. I pictured just a black box, not an ornate 
> cabinet. Repeatedly showing Draco testing out the cabinet with the 
> apple, and the bird actually worked better in film than in book in 
> explaining how this was a magical transport for Deatheaters.
>
> CONS:
>     - Narcissa: I thought she was unattractive. Didn't like the 
> Cruella de Ville hair! I think Movie-Lucius would’ve picked a hotter 
> wife!
>     - I agree that the cave scene was a bit anti-climactic. The “it’s 
> my fault” over Ariana was a bit too subtle; I expected D to be more 
> crazed, agonzied, doubled over, etc.
>     - Inferi were creepy though! Everyone in the theatre jumped!
>     - Whole burrow burning scene...not necessary imo. Was that just to 
> introduce us to Fenrir? Or introduce us to Jenny & Harry’s mutual 
> attraction and protectiveness??
>     - There wasn’t much talk of Sirius’s death or Harry depressed over 
> it. He was all ready to go on a date with some chick?? I wish they'd 
> left in the whole scene w/Tonks rescuing him on the train (instead of 
> Luna!) and Harry thinking that Tonks was in love w/Sirius. Harry 
> inheriting Sirius’s estate and Kreacher??
>     - I hate how they threw the Lupin/Tonks relationship in as an 
> afterthought. “Sweetheart”? For those who hadn’t read the book it’d be 
> like “huh???”  But then again my biggest pet peeve with the movies is 
> that they skimp on the backstory. Which to me is what makes the whole 
> HP series so rich. There are all these layers of story, which all tie 
> in to the present. For example in the book Harry thought for a time 
> that Lily might be the HBP since Slughorn was raving about how 
> wonderful she was in potions.
> - The revelation of Snape being the HBP was anti-climactic. But then 
> again it sort of was in the book as well.
> - Did they make it clear that the locket was a horcrux? The book and 
> ring, yes. But I really am bummed that they skipped the Gaunts/Merope 
> backstory. It would’ve helped explain Voldemort’s connection to 
> Slytheryn. I think that was pretty critical to show Voldemort’s 
> decline into madness and evil. He was p.o’d that his dad ditched his 
> mom, so he went back and killed him and his grandparents, remember? 
> That’s pretty darn evil! Plus it displays the similarities between 
> Harry & Voldie (both orphans, abused) But one chose the path of 
> darkness and one the path of light. Classic theme of good vs. evil.
> - I thought Ginny and Harry’s kiss was too mellow. Though it was 
> sweet/coy when G said “you can choose to leave that hidden here too, 
> if you’d like!” But I would’ve liked to see her run into his arms 
> after the game and kiss him; Ron freaking out “Ahhh, my sis just 
> kissed my bf!!”
> - Beginning scene: I would’ve preferred the Dursley scene rather than 
> the waitress picking up Harry scene.
> -I agree with everyone else that it was stupid to have H hiding under 
> the stairs. How hard would it be to film him under the invisibility 
> cloak, immobilized? Same way he was on the train in the beginning?
> - The ending was a tad anti-climactic, but then again it was like the 
> book (similar to the GoF and OotP endings). But as many mentioned, the 
> funeral, with the casket going up in flames, would've been much more 
> powerful.
>
> OK...that’s my analysis!
> V~