Harry Potter: The Half Blood Prince (Spoilers)

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. My goodness. Now I'm a large Harry Potter fan, I've read all seven books, but unlike most I have not gone back and read each one over again before I watch the movies. I do this because I want to get the full experience of someone going in without a detailed synopsis of what's going to happen. So after being dragged to the theaters for the midnight showing at 3:00 in the afternoon I went through the few things I remember from the movie in my head. I recalled that Draco was really emotional, Ron got attacked by canaries, and Dumbledore died in the tower. Honestly I felt bad being surrounded by friends who would literally tell me a paragraph from page 47 if I asked them to. However even my half dead brain could remember some important things from the books that I figured would be caught by the movie producers. Now before I start ranting about what I disliked about the movie I want whoever chooses to read this to know that I loved this movie. I had a great time and the twelve hours I spent at the theater were well worth it. My biggest compliments go to the man who did the cinematography, for even I, someone who doesn't notice those little details was in awe over the brilliant staging and art like look of every single frame. I would also like to comment on the acting, which seems to have stepped up a great deal from the last film. I never enjoyed Emma Watson's performance on film and even though I was expecting a lot of fake crying scenes I really got involved in the characters and truly felt pity for her.

However that leads me to some of the pet peeves I had while watching. Though I think that the script had it's faults and defiantly could have been polished up a bit more the lack of thought and planning for the Ginny and Harry relationship was obviously thrown in last minute. Even in the books it was sudden and annoyed me but here we go from making out with Cho for ten minutes to her suddenly falling off the earth and now Ginny, who we haven't seen since the second movie, is Harry's new crush of the year. The chemistry and moments together felt completely forced and even Ron and Hermione's moments seemed like the movie producers had just forgotten about them and instead of moving their relationship slowly and subtly throughout the series, threw them all together in one movie to make it clear they "loved" each other. I have great respect for Rupert and Emma for pulling off the very crude situations the script threw at them, and I even feel for for Danielle for trying so hard to no avail with the Ginny relationship.

Watching Ginny really did make me cringe. She was nothing like I pictured and I really had no idea who she was. Her acting seemed one noted which made her character flat, and even when the climax of their relationship reached a point where they felt comfortable enough to kiss, I was just painfully aware this was all because the script said they had to, not because the characters truly felt something for one another. The added scene in the movie, which I know was not in the book, felt like just a ruse to get Harry and Ginny together in something exciting, and I was almost intrigued by how they'd use it to play into the relationship, but nothing happened- nothing! It was so anti-climatic, I wondered why they even bothered putting it in in the first place.

A couple of the last things I disliked about the movie was the lack of battle and funeral at the end, how they never really got into what the 7 objects meant to Harry, what he had to do, and how Snape ended up being the "Half Blood Prince".

Now probably the most disappointing scene was Dumbledore's death. If you've read the books you know that Snape didn't actually mean to do that and he's a good guy ect. ect. but I still wanted to feel that shock, that betrayal, that last moment of horror in Dumbledores eyes- I wanted the audience to feel for the first time what I did when I read the book. However the director obviously had other plans. The last scene was all a hint as to what Snape really was- a good guy. They were subtle little things, just like the rest of the film, but they killed his "bad guy" image in just a hush of the finger. From what I remember Snape was supposed to look caniving, unmerciful, and Dumbledore was supposed to play the part of the betrayed and weak old man. In my head this was a horrible scene with tears and wide eyes and Dumbledores one moment of weakness. Instead what the audience got was an almost apologetic Snape and a very assured Dumbledore. At one point it seemed like he told Snape to kill him and prepared himself for the fall. Just like Sirius' death I thought this scene could have been a lot better.

This director is brilliant with comedy, and with the scary moments in the film, but his biggest weakness I've noticed is trying to get tears out of the audience. I didn't tear up, which was odd since I nearly had a break down when I read that Dumbledore had died. The fact was I didn't really care about him, or Sirius, and there deaths were tragic enough for me to even pay attention to them. What should have been the last moments in the story, the entire castle with their wands pointed in the air, was quickly destroyed with a thrown together last scene. What should have been an even more gruesome funeral full of beautiful visuals and a last bit of commentary to fill in the lost viewers was replaced by Hermione nearly stating that Harry was too dumb to find the stuff himself and a pan out. Even more so than the rest of the film it left me confused, wondering what happened to the "elder wand" subplot, and trying to figure out how they're going to explain everything they missed in the next movie.

That being said, I still think this was one of the best book transferred movies I've seen in this series. Everything was bright and beautiful, and even though they were wearing normal clothes (which still erks me) the clothing fit a lot better with their characters than before. The acting was, mind blowing even with the poor direction, and the references to sex and drugs and hormones just reminded me of how much the kids are finally growing up. I must say my favorite part of this movie though was Draco's inner struggle. In the book I didn't understand anything Rowling was trying to say about him until I saw this film. I nearly died when he started crying, and his inner turmoil was apparent. I really wished I could see more of him and less of the forced Ginny and Harry screen time. In the book I believe that Voldemort threatened to kill his father, while in the movie he told Dumbledore it was his own body that was being threatened. I did not appreciate this change, but even so the acting was still so incredible I felt like he was lying about his intentions.

Again I really do want to send my congratulations to the actors in the movie, the phases from drunk to sober were apparent on their faces and the way they changed both their body and their voices was so funny and apparent I could tell exactly what it was happening to them even if I hadn't seen the scene before.

Overall I'd give this movie a Full Price. I hated this book and I really did love this movie. I think they had a hard task of trying to keep up with the books and trying to match the other movies while still keeping their style into it. The little things that I'd occasional glance at were incredible, the acting was past my expectations, and the pacing seemed fairly uncontentious I was never bored. You need to see this movie on a good quality big screen and just sit back and enjoy the visuals for it's truly fantastic.

I'd say a job well done!

-Momoko