Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

aka Snape is the Mack Daddy of Harry Potter PWNAGE

Pincers. That's all I have to say.



Kidding.

So, I saw "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," and I'm of two minds about the whole thing.

WARNING WARNING WARNING! SPOILERIFICUS TOTALUS AHEAD!

AHAHA, how can you spoil a movie about a book that has been out for five years? I mean, really? You know you've read the book, so how can it be spoiled?

Anyway...

Let me say this first. I have always been able to separate the movies from the books. I am able to watch the movies and think, "Okay, this is the story that they are telling in the movies. Anything that does not happen in the movie DOES NOT HAPPEN." That is how I've always been able to like the movies.

That being said, I really really really like HBP. There were problems, yes, but no problems that I could not overlook. I enjoyed every minute of it, though it does make me really worry for DH 1 and 2. How are they going to fix everything they've left out of all the other movies that ends up being so important? How can they just expect us to forget everything up to this point? They can't, so they have a lot of scrambling to do to make all of us psychos happy by the time the credits on DH 2 roll. Otherwise, I will be a very angry little Slytherin.

HBP is my favorite of all the Potter books, so I had high expectations, but I wasn't expecting miracles. There is only so much you can do, and just like always, I knew things would be cut--important, wonderful things, but in the end, something has to go, and someone has the unfortunate job of deciding what stays and what goes. Without further ado...

THE GOOD:
--Bellatrix. This movie really should have been called "Harry Potter and the Look How Badass Bellatrix Is" She's just all over the place with her CRAZY CRAZY self, and she is fantastic, especially the Unbreakable Vow scene. GUH.

--Quidditch. AHHHH. I'm so glad that when they finally did bring Quidditch back that they did it right! It was all cool looking, and it was totally brutal, and HEEE GINNY ON A BROOM. Good stuff. I wish there was more Quidditch in the movies. You can never have enough Quidditch.

--Draco. FINALLY this kid gets a chance to show that he can act. It is unbelievable how sorry you feel for him. He does an amazing job, and by the end, when he pulls up his sleeve and shows his Dark Mark, I felt like I was punched in the gut. It was just strangely heart-wrenching that this kid, this poor, poor child had to go through all of this, and he went through it alone. It's just terrible.

--Michael Gambon as Dumbledore. A lot of people have hated this guy since he took over in PoA, but I never did. Of course, at first, I was sad because I wanted the original, but then I realize that he was just fine. I like Michael Gambon a lot and I think he was doing a great job. That was until I saw him making the fire swirl of doom to kill the Inferi and then I FREAKING LOVED HIM. GUH. It was so strangely poetic that he would suddenly show us the greatness of Dumbledore right before he died.

--Slughorn. Jim Broadbent is fantastic, and though I thought he should have been fatter to be Slughorn, and, of course, he didn't have the walrus mustache, he was awesome. I kept thinking of "Moulin Rouge" the whole time though. Unfortunate side-effect of being me. I can never forget other, memorable roles that actors have done, hence the reason I loathe and despise Paul Reiser because he freaking fed Ripley and Newt to the face-huggers. DAMN YOU, PAUL REISER.



THE BAD:
--The Siege of Hogwarts. Oh, you don't remember that part? THAT'S BECAUSE IT NEVER HAPPENED. UGH. We get the stupid burning down on the Burrow WHICH IS NOT IN THE BOOK, but yet we don't get the most awesome scene in the book (possibly one of the most awesome in the series)? WHAT KIND OF SENSE DOES THIS MAKE?

--Lavender Brown. Could there be a more annoying character? She ranks up there with Dobby and Moaning Myrtle. YES, we get it. WE GET THAT THEY ARE TEENAGERS IN LOVE. She was just absolutely EVERYWHERE and so insufferable. I'm not sure if that means it was good casting or what. Either way, GTFO, Lav.

--Snape. So far, every single time that Snape has freaked out in the book has been left out of the movies. This one was especially bad. He and Harry have a freaking duel on the Hogwarts grounds, and there's that lovely DON'T CALL ME COWARD bit, but did we see that? Nope. We saw him totally own Harry with one spell then casually say "I'm the Half-Blood Prince" and then he sauntered off. Why do they insist on keeping him so understated? There is NOTHING understated about Severus Snape, and they're really starting to piss me off with this shit.

--Avada Kedavra. Yeah, it's green, guys. Not blue. Though it might have just been the lighting in the scene because everything looked blue. If that's the case, it should have been SUPER green.

--Harry/Ginny. I do recall there was a bit more description of their relationship in the book. I would have liked to have seen that, honestly. It seemed cheap that most of it was taken out.

--Sirius. Remember how he died in the last movie? Remember how devastated Harry was? NOBODY ELSE SEEMS TO. Ugh, I really felt like we should have seen more of Harry's sadness, but I guess there's enough emo going around that we didn't need left over from the movie before. Meh.


THE RANDOM:
--a lot of people are apparently miffed about the Room of Requirement and all that went on in there. On the one hand, it looked exactly as it was supposed to. On the other, if Harry didn't hide the potions book, then he never saw the diadem of Ravenclaw and so in DH, he won't remember having seen it. I'm guessing he'll just go, "Oh, it's probably in the RoR!" I'm okay with that, I guess.

--another complaint was that there was no funeral scene. I honestly don't care about that myself. They got the emotional pay off with the wands to the sky bit, which I liked, actually. I didn't need to sit there for twenty more minutes watching his funeral. It would have been all right had they included it, but I'm not going to yell and throw things just because they left it out.

--Hey, did you know Bill and Fleur are engaged and getting married in DH? Why leave this out? The Death Eaters attacking at the wedding after Kingsley's patronus shows up and tells them about Scrimgeour is AWESOME. Now, I doubt we will see that because there is no mention of them in this movie. I know from paparazzi photos that they have filmed the burial of Dobby at Shell Cottage which is where Bill and Fleur live, so I'm sure they're going to do some fancy work to make it all okay.

--I'm just generally worried about DH 1 & 2. They have a big mess to clean up from all the other movies. There is SO MUCH they have to cover, so it's a good thing we're getting two instead of just one, which honestly, is how GoF and OotP should have been. I have faith in them, but I can still be worried, and I am. Very, VERY worried.


All in all though, I totally loved it. HBP is my favorite of all the books, and though a lot of what made it my favorite was taken out, I still thought this movie was great in the context of all the other movies. You can't be mad at one movie for following the trend set by all the others. Look at them as two separate things, and you'll enjoy them much more.