Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince [2009] review
July 17, 2009 · Print This Article
I have gone on record as saying that Harry Potter is the greatest genre series ever, even better than my beloved Star Wars. I came to this conclusion after seeing how both series came to their conclusions, the movies for Star Wars and the books for Harry Potter. The movies for the latter are usually just a nice after thought, a minimal outward visual representation of a world that lives much more vividly internally, i.e. in my imagination while reading the books. That said, I thought David Yates could deliver us a final trio of movies that nearly held their own. I am thus sorry to be disappointed by him as a result of witnessing the horrible by its omissions HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE.
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***
I can summarize my review in two words: EPIC FAIL. I really mean it. HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE, the movie version, is just far, far too gutted to even deserve that title. Half-Baked Prince would be more like it. The book is one of the high points of the series, and after I finish reading it every time, I am left with a feeling like I am after no other in the series. I have the feeling of wanting to take action, of having a purpose, or wanting to throw caution to the wind and strike out on my own like Harry states his intentions of doing. It is an absolutely great feeling.
At the end of the movie, I was left feeling, where were the emotional high points?
I understand you cannot include everything from the book in the movie, but the high points need to be in it and the way you choose to depict things in the movie needs to be consistent with the book, or why bother making a movie based on a book in the first place?
One of my top 5 moments in all of Harry Potter lore, is the moment when Harry and Ginny lock eyes in the post-quidditch celebration and embrace and kiss for the first time in front of the whole Gryffindor common room. It is written as a moment of pure energy, and a singular perfect moment for Harry in his otherwise tragic life. The movie’s interpretation: a gimmick, limp, kiss all alone in the dingy Room of Requirement. This alone would have earned the movie an EPIC FAIL had everything else been perfect and faithful.
Perhaps the greatest omission was the HUGE BAD ASS EVERY ONE GET THE H OUT OF THE COMMON ROOMS AND FIGHT climax!! Give everyone a precious drop of felix felicis and get down to battle. The movies interpretation: none, the climatic battle scene is entirely omitted. This is in excusable and does not prepare the movie only viewer for the truly epic battles to come in DEATHLY HALLOWS.
It also makes it moot having Bellatrix and Fenrir Greyback be at Hogwarts at all.
Then there is what was not in the book at all but for some insane and useless reason was in the movie, i.e. the attack on the Burrough. Umm, totally no purpose, nothing happened, and setting a wizards house on fire is pretty useless as a wizard can do magic and just put it out instantly. It looked ridiculous watching Molly watch her house burn. Um, aguamenti anyone? What a truly wasteful scene.
All the romances were sped way, way up. Way up. Harry’s classic lines of being reminded of the Burrough when he smells the powerful love potion were cringe inducingly spoken by Hermione.
Did Yates get ANYTHING right? Yes, the casting of Slughorn, which I was initially skeptical of, was a home run. Jim Broadbent (‘cuz I can, can, can!), played an outstanding Slughorn and the subtleties in his acting were much appreciated. He had to of read the books to nail the part so well.
And even the infamous non-book reader Michael Gambon played Dumbledore in the correct manor for the first time ever! He needed to as this is Dumbledore’s swan song.
The few Tom Riddle flashback scenes that we got were also pretty good.
Everything else was either omitted or gutted. The one quidditch match we get to see and there is not even a snitch catching scene!
There were some nods to the hardcore fans like Luna’s lion hat, but would it have killed Yates to make it roar? Slughorn’s favorite pineapple, but they couldn’t say crystallized pineapple?
The cave scene was also very well done and pretty much spot on. I was pleased with that and thought at least the movie would end with the amazing scenes it should have. As soon as Harry did not get frozen under his invisibility cape by Dumbledore, I knew the ending would not be saved from Gimmick. Like Harry would just watch from below. Ha! Earlier Yates established the character as one that would just run out into a field after multiple death eaters all by himself.
The pacing in the opening of the movie was off too and did not bring me into the movie at all. The unbreakable oath scene had little power as well, probably because as creepy-hot as Helena Bonham Carter is playing Bellatrix, she is just way too over the top to make any scene with her in it be credible.
And of course no Dumbledore funeral. The greatest wizard in many, many generations and his death gets no respect. A lame attempt at appeasing fans by having Fawks fly off into the sunset in a total cliche, instead of the highly imaginative way Rowling had the hint of a phoenix shoot from Dumbledore’s beautiful marble casket. And what of the Elder Wand? Will it just lie around on Dumbledore’s desk for Harry to conveniently find in Deathly Hallows? Ah, so frustrating!!
I am sorry Yates made the decisions he did with Half-Blood Prince. It would have been so easy to get it right, why alter it?
UPDATE:
Maybe my biggest disappointment:
Sectumsempra for enemies
I was totally stoked when Harry followed Draco into the bathroom. The foreshadowing of the above words in the potion book. I was slashing in front of me in my theater seat in anticipation. Totally stoked to see the flaming sword come out and cut Draco wide open. What we got? A magic burst go around a blind corner to hit Draco with just a bit of blood under a white shirt. Yet another epic fail. Make the movie PG-13!!
Snape having NO reaction to being called a coward, when we all know it drives him insane to be called that one word in particular. Snape needed to show more out of control emotion in this movie, but he did not.
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(2 votes, average: 2.50 out of 5)
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I agree with the review in it’s entirity. The battle on the staircase is crucial to a lead in for Deathly Hallows. The development of the young love crucial to our empathy of separation from loved ones during the war in Deathly Hallows. And the firestorm destruction of The Burrow held no meaning for me whatsoever – I didn’t get it. Me thinks that current shooting of the final two pictures may produce equally disappointing products. As a reader of the books I’ll admit that I fell in love with the hearts of the characters and was only charmed by the magical abilities – I found no heart in The Half-Blood Prince.
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Jason Collin Reply:
July 18th, 2009 at 10:41 PM
I think there was some heart in the scenes with Harry and Dumbledore and Harry and Slughorn, just too much Lavender and other nonsense scenes instead of the actual main plot scenes we were all expecting.
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I think your review is dead-on for those of us who have read the books, Jason. I came out pretty disappointed and the more I think about it, the more the movie’s faults stick out in my mind.
Another couple examples:
As you say, there had to be omissions…he couldn’t have kept everything from the book. But I was disappointed that there wasn’t even a mention of the new Minister of Magic. I thought the exchange in which Harry admits to Scrimgeour that he is “Dumbledore’s man through and through” was important for setting the tone of the 6th and 7th books, and is important for exploring Harry’s relationship with Dumbledore, especially when future facts come to light.
The secumsempra scene was completely botched, especially when Snape runs in to heal Malfoy and just lets Harry go. Would any teacher just let a student go after they used dark magic on another student? And this is Harry and Snape we’re talking about, making that scene even less believable.
Perhaps I’m being nitpicky, but in the scene in which Katie Bell is cursed – Hagrid just struts over and carries her off, without seeming surprised or anything. There was no time in the movie to have Harry run and get him, fine – but they could have at least had Hagrid run over with some sense of urgency.
Aside from the battle at the end, I thought the most glaring omission was the fact that Dumbledore seemed to know much less about the Horcruxes than his literary counterpart. In the book, Dumbledore tells Harry what the other Horcruxes are likely to be. In the movie, he tells Harry that they could be almost anything, leaving Potter pretty clueless at the end of the movie. I was surprised at this, since they included the scene where young Tom Riddle steals things from other kids, but in the movie Dumbledore didn’t point out the significance of this behavior. It’s frustrating to think that they will probably allay this problem by having Hermione figuring out what they are.
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Jason Collin Reply:
August 4th, 2009 at 10:57 AM
Paul you point out a lot of other significant omissions that I totally forgot about. The minister of magic being replaced is significant and that was a great line by Harry “Dumbledore’s man through and through” that adds to the emotional impact of D’s death at the end.
Yeah, Snape not punishing Harry for something? Totally inconsistent.
And I did think something was off about Dumbledore and knowledge of the horcruxes. It seemed that Dumbledore wasn’t even sure Voldemort used any, while in the book if I recall he needed Slughorn’s memory only to know the exact number to look for.
Let’s hope Yates hears such complaints and remedies them for the two final movies.
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It is possible if not probable that the SAG and WGA stikes during the production of Half-Blood caused a good portion of our disappointment. Each Union has a membership and chapters that circle the globe, many writers and actors won’t cross a line, and many are hyphenates as writers-producers-actors. What we got in Half-Blood was a glossy, set dominated production with minimal cast and limited dialogue and therefore a greater loss of J.K. Rowling’s storyline. Personally, I find that situation to be a clear demonstration of the value of the hard work writers do and our need for house elves to take up the slack.
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Jason Collin Reply:
August 4th, 2009 at 12:02 PM
Excellent point. I had forgotten about the writer’s strike. It’s really a shame then. They should remake the movie!
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