Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, starring the famous Daniel Radcliffe, among others, has high expectations from fans across the world. Sadly, this installment of the Potter-movies does not meet anywhere near the expectations met by the other films.
Let me give you a gist of what this movie is about:
-Hermione crying
-Lavender snogging Ron
-Ron getting tired of Lavender
-Hermione showing feelings for Ron
-Lavender breaking up with Ron
-Dumbledore poking into these teen-romance affairs
This isn't even Romance-Adventure hybrid. This is a pure Romance flick. I mean, never did I expect so many people to care about snogging, especially not a 150-year old wizard who is supposedly the Headmaster of Hogwarts.
The first thing I would like to address in this review is the HORRID portrayal of Dumbledore graciously given to us by Michael Gambon (instead of the late, ever so wonderful Richard Harris). Instead of being a calm, serene, intelligent, and powerful wizard that JK Rowling writes Dumbledore in as, Mr. Gambon flocks around like a rambunctious, immature, overactive, mean, nosy, crotchety old wizard who cares more about whether Harry and Hermione are going out then whether Lord Voldemort is defeated.
Second is the ending.
SPOILER ALERT - SPOILER ALERT
The entire ending is re-written and totally convoluted. Remember how students of Hogwarts and the Death Eaters battled on the Hogwarts grounds while Snape proceeded to murder Dumbledore? Yeah, that no longer exists in the movie. Instead of them having to fight, Bellatrix and the gang get to happily Disapparate off of the grounds as soon as the deed of murder is done. No sort of resistance is given once her and her Death Eater buddies skip out of the picture scotch-free.
This is not for people who remember the books in depth, it will simply piss you off rather than entertain you.
Remember in the book where Dumbledore pleadingly says "Severus...please..." and Snape, unwillingly, casts the Killing Curse upon his longtime friend?
Instead of:
"Severus....Please...."
".....Avada Kedavra" Snape said, with a look of disgust and revulsion upon his face.
It was more like this:
"Severus ple-"
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
There was no emotional impact, no sense of loss. Instead, I was quite happy that Michael Gambon was finally killed off, save for his small and presumably-irritating appearance in the Deathly Hallows.
D= D= out of D= D= D= D= D=
Those two D= were only garnered because it, in a raw and deeply uninteresting sense, brought one of my favorite books in the series to life.
-Thirteenthorder
I actually heard it was pretty good.
Although I think everyone knows my position on licensed movies at this point X_X;;
The ending does piss you off if you have read the book. And I actually gained respect for the Dumbledore at that scene. Played it well. And I though that Snape played the part well.
Yes though, ending was the only bad part. I'm making all my friends read the last part of the book so they know what really happened.
I don't understand how the divide between reviewers is so clear; I've seen practically the same amount of praising reviews as I have panning ones. Personally, I thought the movie was by far the best in the series. But then again, anything is better than the disaster that is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
I thought it was good. Pretty funny too. Not too much action, more story driven, but it was still pretty good. I like number 5 better though.
This is true, Javert:
"DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE? >:( >:( >:( >:( >:("
-Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
is half-blood prince the 5th or 6th movie?
I kinda stopped caring about harry potter after I read the 4th book, I was in 5th grade at the time and the books were getting to long :P
HP&THBP is the 6th book.
I have to ask: Was it as choppy as the 4th and 5th movies were relative to the book?
Quote from: Penmoet on July 21, 2009, 10:28:39 AM
I have to ask: Was it as choppy as the 4th and 5th movies were relative to the book?
Even more so D:
Um...
Isn't that how the book was?
I thought the movies was okay, no better or worse than any of the others. And I liked number 4. :(
No one should expect HP to be a cinematic masterpiece... the books weren't that great by themselves.
Quote from: HTA on July 23, 2009, 08:43:38 AM
Um...
Isn't that how the book was?
Not really. As the books got bigger, year after year, their respective movies got more choppy. Mainly because you can fit infinite amounts of stuff in a novel, but only have 3 hours to fill a movie.
And the books wern't that choppy. Actually, most of the time, they flowed together pretty well.
I meant about the love stories.
Quote from: HTA on July 23, 2009, 12:43:39 PM
I meant about the love stories.
Oh, oh, ok, nvm then.
Those are annoying though. JUST FUCK AND GET IT OVER WITH ALREADY GOD DAMN IT! GET TO THE KILLING AND FLYING CARS!
Ugh, the in-novel love stories were irritating enough, the movie adaptations are even more terrible.
But the story was exceptional and amazingly intriguing.
I actually thought that this one flowed rather well as its own movie. Only one part felt really awkward as to its pacing, and that was Aragog's burial. In my opinion, this is much better than the last two.
i feel like they didnt get as much acomplished in this movie. it seemed...slower than the other movies in the series. but i loved the comedy that they included this time.
lol the part when the zombie grabbed harry was hilarious. my dad's friend screamed so loud everyone in the theater bursted out laughing.
The movie kicked ass, aside from the ending. I didn't mind the chages to Dumbledore's death scene. I hated that they removed the fight. Somewhere online, I read the makers removed it cause it didn't fit with the rest of the film and they felt it would make the fights in the next movie feel repetitive.
No people. WE LIKE THE FIGHTS. Huge battles don't happen much in this series. The only big fights in the books were near the end of each of the last 3. Other than that it's Harry v. Whoever, Dumbledore v. Whoever, or maybe 2 or 3 wizards. Even then, the big fight in the OTTP movie wasn't even epic really.
The last 2 movies better has kick ass fights or I'll be mad.
Quote from: chaosgear on July 25, 2009, 05:58:02 AM
i feel like they didnt get as much acomplished in this movie. it seemed...slower than the other movies in the series. but i loved the comedy that they included this time.
lol the part when the zombie grabbed harry was hilarious. my dad's friend screamed so loud everyone in the theater bursted out laughing.
Yeah, the way they did the Inferi attack was good. It scared the heck out of me!
@Mystic - There's only one more movie left ;)
Deathly Hallows is being split into two films ;)
Oh, yes I forgot D=
Can't wait to see Molly Weasely whoop Bellatrix's ass.
I will kill a ninny some Molly's "ninny" line is written out of the movie.
I know, they better not write that out, or I will rip out the brain of the director ^_^
More like the screenplay writer.
Whoever. I don't know who's writing this crap, but a group of people who've actually READ the book could do a better job at making the films more accurate, even with a three hour limit with which to fill everything in.
*coughflamingMichaelGamboncough*