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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (David Yates, 2009)
Contains some spoilers throughout
Having seen the movie twice now, and reading the book last week, I think it’ll be a bit easier to do a review this time. I personally thought the book was really great, even if it didn’t seem to compare to the Deathly Hallows to me, but the movie wasn’t so. I guess as a movie alone, it was pretty good, but it’s weak as an adaption. Maybe 2009 just isn’t the year for book adaption’s, between this and Watchmen. Mentioning Watchmen actually, it reminds me a of similar gripe between the two movies, they both felt extremely rushed to me. This didn’t feel quite as rushed, except the ending, which I feel they pretty much completely butchered. I didn’t even really feel this was rushed the first time around seeing it, but I guess that it is what re-watches are for. My biggest complaint with the movie is not the fact that it was rushed though, rather than the fact that they focused entirely on the wrong thing. In the book, there is barely any focus on the relationships going on at Hogwarts. And frankly, there were just too many subtle changes from the book throughout the movie.
Before I get in too much about what I didn’t like about the movie, I may point out some of the things that I did like. The cinematography for one thing, which has just seems to be improving with each film that passes. The scene where Harry and Dumbledore are standing on the huge bolder before entering the cave with the Horocrux is a really amazing shot, probably the most stand-out of the movie for me. I particularly liked the score at that one shot, too, which I guess is saying something because the rest of the score was rather dull. I guess for a movie the story worked fine, but as I was saying before, it strays too far away from the source material. It was missing too many of my favorite scenes from the novel, most notably the ending. Okay, I can understand why they changed it, because it is very similar to the ending of Deathly Hallows. What happened to the other memory scenes that Dumbledore shows Harry from the book, though? Also, at least if they’re going to change the ending, there are still ways to make it good. The astronomy tower scene happens so fast that you’re left feeling unaffected by Dumbledore’s death. I would say the same thing about Snape’s betrayal, but after the ending of Deathly Hallows, you know that he didn’t really betray them.
Something other than the cinematography that has seemed to been improving throughout the series is the character. With each film the story just gets deeper into the characters, but still, that’s not saying there’s any acting Oscar-worthy. What I find very ironic though, is the fact that the best acting in the movie comes from an actor that doesn’t really show any emotion throughout the movie. Alan Rickman plays the character of Severus Snape perfectly, showing no emotion at all, yet still being comical at times. Not too comical to the fact that his character just gets ridiculous, though he’s still frightening at times. I won’t deny that he did much better in the previous installments of the Harry Potter series. I quite liked Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix as well; she’s truly psychotic and even if I didn’t like the ending that much, her acting really was shown in those particular moments. You could tell that she’s really messed up in the head and quite a bit crazy even.
As far as the other movies go, though, I’d probably rank this about tied with Goblet of Fire near the bottom half. Part of that blame I’m putting on Steve Kloves though, because he wrote all the films except Order of the Phoenix, and Order of the Phoenix just happens to be my favorite of the series. Though it’s been forever since I’ve read the book for Order of the Phoenix, so I have no idea how well of an adaption that is. Sadly he’s writing the final two movies, too, but I have more faith in him for those because they’re getting broke up into two different parts. Seeing as how long the book for Deathly Hallows is, I am completely behind the choice of them breaking it into two different parts. Yeah, maybe it is an attempt at more money, but at least fans of the book are benefitting from this decision as well. I guess if you haven’t seen it by now, you’re really not planning to, at least while it’s in theaters, but it’s still a surprisingly good summer blockbuster. I suspect that people that haven’t read the book will enjoy it a lot more than people have, especially people who have read it rather recently.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (David Yates, 2009)
Contains some spoilers throughout
Having seen the movie twice now, and reading the book last week, I think it’ll be a bit easier to do a review this time. I personally thought the book was really great, even if it didn’t seem to compare to the Deathly Hallows to me, but the movie wasn’t so. I guess as a movie alone, it was pretty good, but it’s weak as an adaption. Maybe 2009 just isn’t the year for book adaption’s, between this and Watchmen. Mentioning Watchmen actually, it reminds me a of similar gripe between the two movies, they both felt extremely rushed to me. This didn’t feel quite as rushed, except the ending, which I feel they pretty much completely butchered. I didn’t even really feel this was rushed the first time around seeing it, but I guess that it is what re-watches are for. My biggest complaint with the movie is not the fact that it was rushed though, rather than the fact that they focused entirely on the wrong thing. In the book, there is barely any focus on the relationships going on at Hogwarts. And frankly, there were just too many subtle changes from the book throughout the movie.
Before I get in too much about what I didn’t like about the movie, I may point out some of the things that I did like. The cinematography for one thing, which has just seems to be improving with each film that passes. The scene where Harry and Dumbledore are standing on the huge bolder before entering the cave with the Horocrux is a really amazing shot, probably the most stand-out of the movie for me. I particularly liked the score at that one shot, too, which I guess is saying something because the rest of the score was rather dull. I guess for a movie the story worked fine, but as I was saying before, it strays too far away from the source material. It was missing too many of my favorite scenes from the novel, most notably the ending. Okay, I can understand why they changed it, because it is very similar to the ending of Deathly Hallows. What happened to the other memory scenes that Dumbledore shows Harry from the book, though? Also, at least if they’re going to change the ending, there are still ways to make it good. The astronomy tower scene happens so fast that you’re left feeling unaffected by Dumbledore’s death. I would say the same thing about Snape’s betrayal, but after the ending of Deathly Hallows, you know that he didn’t really betray them.
Something other than the cinematography that has seemed to been improving throughout the series is the character. With each film the story just gets deeper into the characters, but still, that’s not saying there’s any acting Oscar-worthy. What I find very ironic though, is the fact that the best acting in the movie comes from an actor that doesn’t really show any emotion throughout the movie. Alan Rickman plays the character of Severus Snape perfectly, showing no emotion at all, yet still being comical at times. Not too comical to the fact that his character just gets ridiculous, though he’s still frightening at times. I won’t deny that he did much better in the previous installments of the Harry Potter series. I quite liked Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix as well; she’s truly psychotic and even if I didn’t like the ending that much, her acting really was shown in those particular moments. You could tell that she’s really messed up in the head and quite a bit crazy even.
As far as the other movies go, though, I’d probably rank this about tied with Goblet of Fire near the bottom half. Part of that blame I’m putting on Steve Kloves though, because he wrote all the films except Order of the Phoenix, and Order of the Phoenix just happens to be my favorite of the series. Though it’s been forever since I’ve read the book for Order of the Phoenix, so I have no idea how well of an adaption that is. Sadly he’s writing the final two movies, too, but I have more faith in him for those because they’re getting broke up into two different parts. Seeing as how long the book for Deathly Hallows is, I am completely behind the choice of them breaking it into two different parts. Yeah, maybe it is an attempt at more money, but at least fans of the book are benefitting from this decision as well. I guess if you haven’t seen it by now, you’re really not planning to, at least while it’s in theaters, but it’s still a surprisingly good summer blockbuster. I suspect that people that haven’t read the book will enjoy it a lot more than people have, especially people who have read it rather recently.