Two WTF moments in the movie (spoilers)

[julie]

> Carol responds:
> 
> But my concern is with the Snape/Draco/Dumbledore subplot, which is really the heart of the book. Snape is the Half-Blood Prince, after all, so the book is about his relationship with Harry on two levels.
> 
> As I said, he needs to remain ambiguous. Yes, it should look as if he's betrayed Dumbledore's trust as he did in the book, but there should be hints that all is not as it seems. And the scene on the tower seems to be stripped of its power, its believability, and its pathos. (Harry needs to be frozen under the Invisibility Cloak, unable to act; Dumbledore needs to be weak, helpless, and obviously dying. How will they make Snape's agreeing to kill him believable in DH if he wasn't already dying from the ring curse?)
> 

Julie:
This is the main problem with the movie, IMO. I enjoyed it on some
levels, but the whole Half-Blood Prince part of the story is barely
there, and Snape's revelation comes off as rather irrelevant ("The
Half---oh, yeah, the book from the first part of the movie, I'd
already forgotten about it."). The Tower scene is very much
lacking in power and pathos, which is inexplicable to me in a
movie adaptation. Why take the most powerful and emotional scene
in all the books (IMO) and reduce it to something much less, when
the usual choice for movie adapations is to keep and even enhance
these kind of scenes that resonate strongly with the audience?
I was on the edge of the seat while reading this scene in the book,
but in the movie it was quite a letdown. All the characters
were much more subdued in the movie version, despite the efforts
of the actors. I wanted to see Dumbledore obviously weakened,
Snape furious and conflicted, Harry horrified and enraged by his
powerlessness to act. But it isn't there.

As for the relationship between Harry and Snape, it has barely 
existed on any level in the movies, missing most of the acts of
animosity (Snape's gross unfairness to Harry in class, Harry's 
blame of Sirius's death on Snape, Harry invading Snape's memories,
etc) from the books. Nothing really changes in HBP, and some of it
was even cut apparently (part of the confrontation between Harry
and Snape at the end was cut, including a comment about Lily's
eyes from Snape, and Harry's "Fight back, you coward!"). 

Which is why in the movie I did find Harry's willingness to 
let Snape by without interfering in context. After all, Dumbledore
ordered Harry not to interfere, and given that Harry showed 
little hesitation in force-feeding Dumbledore the potion in the
cave (as opposed to his anguished doubts in the book), and the
lack of extreme animosity and loathing between Harry and Snape
in the movies, it didn't seem out of character that Harry would
wait as he'd been told, at least until he heard Snape's "Avada
Kedavra."

Even while (trying) to ignore the books and view HBP within the
more restrictive context of the movies, HBP doesn't work completely
and sacrifices a lot of its dramatic potential by shortchanging
the Dumbledore/Draco/Snape/Harry story and interaction in favor
of the romance angle and the addition of scenes not really 
related to either angle (the cafe and Burrow scenes). So you go 
forewarned, Carol. At least the acting is uniformly well done!

Julie