Four and a Half Torches (Out of Five)
It’s really, really good — the best Harry Potter movie so far (by far).
As great as it is, it’s important to keep in mind that this isn’t just a movie; it’s a movie based on a book.
And not just any book: part of one of the most popular, most beloved book series of all time. The pressure to stay true to the book, and not disappoint its legions of fans, must have been enormous.
But as every screenwriter knows, and as the producers of this franchise have surely learned by now, a movie is not the same thing as a book. They are completely different mediums. For a book adaptation to be successful, it must be reinvented for the screen.
Past Harry Potter movies haven’t always succeeded at this (then again, they didn’t have source material as good as Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — possibly the series’ best book).
But this time it all comes seamlessly together. Director David Yates (who also directed Order of the Phoenix and will direct the final two movie installments), and screenwriter Steve Kloves (who has written all the previous Harry Potter installments except Phoenix) made significant edits from the book, but they were all sound choices.
In a summer that, as usual, is full of movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — not even real movies, but, rather, mere excuses to show explosions and merchandising tie-ins — it’s particularly gratifying to see a movie about thoughtful, articulate teenagers — not the cocky, arrogant ***holes I’m so used to seeing on American theater and television screens.
“You’re kind,” Dumbledore tells Harry, “a trait people repeatedly undervalue.”
When a female approaches a dinner table, Harry frickin’ stands up!
This is one part of these British books that the movie is extremely faithful to, and it gives Half-Blood prince an old-fashioned, yet timeless feel.
Visually, it’s hard to imagine a movie looking any better. It’s pure professionalism all the way.
Of all the great actors that have toiled in Harry Potter movies, Jim Broadbent may be the best of all, delivering a truly impressive performance as Professor Horace Slughorn. And Michael Gambon shines even brighter than usual as Dumbledore, with a particularly meaty role in this installment.
Likewise, Half-Blood Prince benefits greatly from decisions made years ago, long before Yates was involved: the casting of Daniel Radcliffe and especially Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, who have all never been better.
In a better world, Broadbent and Grint might both be up for Oscars, and I’d give the movie a shot at Best Picture as well (at least in the Academy’s new incarnation with ten nominees). Alas, Half-Blood Prince will probably have to console itself with merely being the year’s top-grossing movie.
Much of the Half-Blood plot revolves around burgeoning teen romance. For the most part, it’s touching, but there are a few times when it plays things a little too broadly — the one thing that the movie takes straight from the book that it probably shouldn’t have.
Still, if you’re a fan of this movie series, you’re sure to love this latest installment.
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I can’t wait!!! I took half a day off of work tomorrow to go see it. And I expect I’ll go and see it again this weekend.
I hated it. Flat out. They killed it. I have hated all the previous ones, and this one was the same.
I do agree though that Jim Broadbent was great, but I thought that Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe were atrocious.
David Yates (director) did a superb job just magnificent to watch, may be Alfonso Cuarón would have made them ROCK. I am a great fan of Harry Potter series. My favorite still remains HP3: Prisoner of Azkaban. But Half Blood was simply outstanding on levels. I’ll be seeing it again Saturday on IMAX which will be even better as it’s one of the original IMAX screens that loom up and over the audience as opposed to newer screens that are just big.
Being a great fan I have collected a list of good sites and articles (may be around 200) related to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (movie information, movie schedule, movie reviews, books, games, news, wallpapers and many more). If you are interested take a look at the below link
http://markthispage.blogspot.com/2009/07/all-you-want-to-know-about-harry-potter.html
You are on crack. This film FAILED AT LIFE. There were so many holes in this film that made no sense. IF the film is supposed to stand alone from the book, then what is up with Draco leading death eaters into the castle, only to walk them out the front door? To smash some plates… wow. FAIL. IF its not supposed to stand alone from the books, why put in scenes that weren’t even in the books and leave out ones that were. This movie was simply a case of JK being so Rich she didn’t give a damn how much they screwed her lifes work up, and about a director who is SO lacking in skill or vision that he should simply be jailed.
IMO, the movie dragged. It was really, really long and filled with awkward-ass moments. There were several characters missing (3 of the Weasleys) and there were oh so many moments that were really unrealistic - even within the bounds of the wizarding world. For instance, the chase at Christmas - there was no snow on the ground, nor did it appear to be too cold. And (I’m saying this only because it was shown in the previews) I didn’t notice any lasting reaction to the Weasley’s house being blown up. It was like, house blown up, close up on Mrs. Weasley crying, and cut back to school! Wayy too sudden, and it wasn’t even in the books.
The death eaters seemed erratic and completely without direction. The end of the movie was awful and made no sense, deviating from the book completely except for the one key thing.
I haven’t hated all the other movies, I’ve actually liked a few. It’s been years since I even read the sixth book, so I was going into this movie kinda blind and looking forward to being able to watch it just as an addition to the movie series. And, as a movie I thought it folded as well. Don’t get me wrong, there were many things I liked about it - Luna Lovegood and Snape stole the movie, and Tom Felton as Draco was brilliant. But I thought the way the story was told could have been massively improved.
Even though this is my least favorite book in the series (I hold firmly to my belief that JK Rowling was just really preggers and reading too much fangirl FanFiction while writing it) I was looking forward to the movie if only because there’s one thing each and every movie in this series has managed to get across to the audience: they all make the wizarding world very real, very natural and fun and totally plausible, for the space of 2 (or 3) hours.
So. Anyway… just my thoughts about it all… haha I could probably have written more but you know… :0)
I admit to being fascinated by the varying reactions. I’ve found a couple of the earlier movies to be TERRIBLE (won’t say which ones, cause I’m not sure I want a fight!), but I keep reading how people loved them. Meanwhile, I (obviously) thought this, and Azkaban, are by FAR the strongest in the series. And clearly not everyone agrees.
It’s all so subjective!
Thanks for sharing.
I agree with you, dorkdude64 on so many levels. I thought that Tom Felton really did a great job with such a hard and emotional part, but so many things they changed or added/took away just shouldn’t have been tampered with. The whole Burrow scene was exciting, but it doesn’t quite fit with the next book, and it defiantly finished abruptly. As for the whole end, it was ripped and torn to pieces.
I hate it when movie makers rip apart books to make them into movies. It CAN be done well, I have seen some great movies based on books, but this one was one of the many that just don’t get it.
“Luna Lovegood and Snape stole the movie, and Tom Felton as Draco was brilliant.” Absolutely. Very pleasantly surprised by Felton indeed.
And yet, I had a different reaction to the changes/omissions they made from book to movie. Whenever I watch a movie based on a book, half of my brain is analyzing the movie for the changes the first time I watch it. This doesn’t lessen my enjoyment of the movie but it does take me out of the movie a bit. With Half-Blood Prince, while I definitely noticed the changes, I thought the movie was so well made that they really didn’t register that much. The movie sucked me in and the changes didn’t bother me.
No movie can or should follow the book exactly. I thought they did a good job of pulling out what needed to be shown and capturing the emotion of the book, despite the changes.
Plus, I’ll just reread the books when I want the original story.
I guess most people would agree a movie should or often times can’t follow books exactly but what about following the other movies from the series? I think this movie was the worst of the HP films. I have read all the books and own the previous movies and walked out of the theater very disappointed. The part of the movie that bothered me the most was the ending. Through out the book and even the previous movies we have seen how HP is one of Dumbledore’s biggest supporters. We have also seen how much HP dislikes Snape and does not trust him. Yet, in this last movie we are supposed to believe that HP would listen to Snape telling him to stay quite while under the tower floor and then watch Dumbledore get killed without a scream or casting spells against the deatheaters? Absurd. I mean we saw HP running in anger, disregarding danger, after Bellatrix at the burrow, yet we are asked to believe HP would just sit there and watch Snape finish off Dumbledore. Very unlikely. I hope they do a better job with the next films as the last book is great!
Honestly I could not care less if the movie was “faithful” to the book - I agree with a previous poster that they are two very different mediums. I do however care if a movie is boring, and unfortunately this one was. I went into it having loved the previous films and being excited, and came out thinking that IMHO this film contained none of the spark that the last film especially had. There were some appalling lines (and even if most of them were in the book they did not translate well to the screen) and the ending left me cold. The whole point, that sometimes human emotion is as unpredictable as magic, was entirely lost.