Okay…so tonight I finally got to see the sixth instalment of the Harry Potter movies ‘The Half Blood Prince’. The release had been delayed another 7 months because WB wanted to make a bit more dosh out of the fans. Ignore their nonsense explanation of moving it so the wait wasn’t so long between the 6th and 7th film - they just wanted more money, wanted a guaranteed summer hit for themselves and were possibly afraid of the competition from Twilight (but then I don’t think anyone in the business expected what Twilight did to be fair!)
I’ve been looking forward to the movie since, well, since the last one really. Was SO annoyed when they put it back and after all this time, I want to say I was excited about finally seeing it. I was still looking forward to it though - probably because it also signalled the end of term for me, meaning the summer holidays off work. So, it’s a shame that I blog to confess I left the cinema tonight somewhat disappointed.
I know, I know - the books are always better than the films - not just with Harry Potter, but with everything, yes, including my beloved Twilight!! And I know it’s not physically possible or practical to include every little thing in the movie - though I’m sure some fans wouldn’t mind if they did and would happily sit there for hours to watch it all!!
But…I just felt like some important bits were not included in the film, whilst stupid bits that never happened were added. Some bits were changed that didn’t make much sense and I don’t see why sticking to the book would have made any difference - such as the fact that it was Tonks who looked for and found Harry on the train, rather than using that as an introduction for Luna. I don’t get it.
I could go on (and I have with my Mum) about silly little bits there were messed about….such as the Luna/Tonks thing. Why Ginny went with Harry to hide the book (and how that whole sectumsempra scene was changed before that!) the completely missing characters of Fleur and Bill. That Hermione accused Harry of putting something in Ron’s drink, rather than Loony Luna. That Harry never acted like an idiot when he drank Felix felicis (and he never drank the whole vial either!) you never found out about Tonks and Lupin until the end of the film and many many many more bits!!
But, there were some key scenes that really annoyed me. Those being…there was nothing mentioned about the history of Tom Riddles family - muggle or magical. In the book they visit many more memories in Dumbledore’s office…stuff I think is important - such as the fact that Tom Riddle aka Voldemort had killed people before he became the Dark Lord (his muggle family and the old witch with the cup and the locket) what the other Horcruxes were or anything…I get why perhaps the first visit to his mother’s old house was missed, but not the second…in a fashion.
The scene at the Weasley’s house at Christmas with the Death Eaters and all the fire - that never happened! The only people who turned up un-announced at Christmas were the new minister of magic Rufus Scrimgeour, along with Percy Weasley. Who decided to put that other nonsense in?! Why on earth would the Death Eaters waste time in going to ‘scare’ them? And how are they going to explain the burnt house when they need it for the wedding in the next film? That whole bit made no sense at all!!
The first scene…at the train station café was just…well, weird!! That was never in the book - he was at the Dursley’s and was understandably depressed - it being only a couple of weeks since he’d lost Sirius - the only real family he’d ever known. He would not have been asking girls out on dates! Dumbledore picked him up from the house on Privet drive and I was looking forward to that scene - it was funny!
Why would Mrs Weasley not know that Harry was arriving? Especially with all security being stepped up for all magical folk and in particular members of the Order of the Phoenix? Dumbledore would never have ‘dropped’ Harry off in the middle of the pond in the field either - not considering how valuable or in danger he was now - much more than before.
They never explained who Greyback was….never said his name, what he did…nothing! He was just some ugly death eater who followed Bellatrix around! And the Inferi were never mentioned - you just saw weird skeletal type beings attacking Harry during that whole cave scene.
The cave…that whole scene was rushed. Nothing was explained properly…little facts were stupidly changed and it was just over way too quick! They didn’t do it justice! Made it look easy to steal that locket - when Voldemort would have made it almost impossible! They didn’t explain how Dumbledore was weakened. It was just ruined!!
And then…the ending…Dumbledore’s death. It was badly done. I still cry even after 4 pr 5 times of reading the book…I was far too annoyed by it all to cry watching the movie. There wasn’t the emotion of the book…Dumbledore’s death wasn’t given due respect and they just ruined it!! I was waiting for Harry to be stunned…waiting for the battle downstairs to be shown. Dumbledore had plenty of time to defend himself before Draco disarmed him - that didn’t make sense! Why would Harry just stand quietly underneath and watch - he had time to do something - call for help…something!! The way JK did it made sense….the movie was dumb!!
I wanted to cry…the funeral was missed out - a very emotional and poignant scene, and you got a big fat nothing! Nothing much was made of Ginny and Harry’s relationship - they had one very brief kiss and then a comment from Hermione about it. You never really saw them together. You never saw them break up for Harry’s noble reasons.
I agree with another friends review where she said that Dan Radcliffe fails to bring the emotion to Harry’s character.
I think the movie just tried too much to be funny. When really it’s much darker than the predecessors. Escaped murderers/prisoners/death eaters have entered the school. A head teacher is murdered. A young boy is ordered to kill him. People are seriously injured - there’s nothing funny about that! And they injected too much humour into the movie. I can’t fathom out why! Sure - some bits were supposed to be funny…but some bits were very serious, dark, upsetting and frightening.
There were some great bits in the movie though - the special effects were amazing as always. And when they stuck to the book and put in scenes I was expecting - it was great. I know that they have to change some things in the movies because what works on the page won’t work on the screen - it’s hard to convey a thought you can read in the book into a scene in the movie for example. And I know some unnecessary bits need to be cut. But I don’t understand why some big scenes are cut to be replaced with utter rubbish that make no sense!! And the final scenes really did need more.
The best bit of the movie…Won Won! I have always said that Rupert Grint is the best actor out of the 3 of them - and he proved me right yet again!! To be honest, he probably saved the movie for me. His acting with ‘Lav Lav’ was perfect - just as I pictured. The pair of them working together really well. The new actress playing Lavender Brown was exactly the right amount over overly love struck girl. And the scenes with the love potion were hilarious - some fantastic, believable acting there from Rupert!!
So, overall…you probably think I hated the movie. I didn’t…I did enjoy it. If you tried to forget it was based on some hugely popular book, it was a good movie. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have seen the movies without ever reading the books - just to understand what those who haven’t read them see when they watch it. Do they understand things? Has too much been left out?! It would be interesting.
I just, sadly, think this was one of the most messed up of the films so far and I was disappointed in it - esp after waiting so long for it. And now I’m worried about what they’re going to do with the final book. At least it’s going to be split into 2 movies…maybe they’ll be able to fit everything in that needs to be…maybe. One can hope they don’t screw up 2 in a row anyway!!
6 years ago
Totally agree!
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