My Review of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince SPOILERS for DH

[dumbledore11214]

Carol:
<SNIP>
And I disagree with
Alla about a weakened Dumbledore being unnecessary to the scene--it showed the
potency of that horrible potion and it made the moment more gut-wrenching for
Harry and the reader and probably for Snape as well. His revulsion at having to
kill Dumbledore should match Harry's in having to feed DD the potion in the
first place. <SNIP>


Alla:

I did not say that it was unnecessary to the scene. Of course it is necessary to the scene in the book for all the reasons you described and to be faithful to the book it could have been there. I am sure JKR still wants us to sympathize with Dumbledore in this scene, she just cannot convince this reader and viewer to do so anymore.


I said that in light of new information in DH scene lost its poignancy for me and to me it does not matter anymore whethere Dumbledore looks sick or not. I was feeling a lot of sympathy for him in part because he was in so much pain. All this sympathy is now gone. Even if his body is shown to be suffering in the book I still see a man who IMO methodically and mercilessly enlisted unwilling man  to do his bidding for him. Thus in the book I still see Dumbledore who is in his mind extremely satisfied that his plan came to the fruition. To me all that filmmakers did was to materialize Dumbledore as he is imagining himself in his mind if that makes sense.

JMO,

Alla