Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Aug. 11th, 2009 09:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
debithaI has seen it!
On the whole? ♥
Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe both have glorious comic timing. The love potion and Felix Felicis scenes respectively were lolarious. I thought the whole film was an interesting blend of comic and dark, which worked quite well for the most part.
Top marks for visuals, too. The cinematography, lighting, scene-setting and props were all incredible. The potions classroom, Slughorn's quarters, the Room of Requirement! All so fantastic.
And Helena Bonham Carter's Bella is a thing of glory. I love her so very much, evil psycho that she is. I also feel a need to do a shout out to the girl who played Lavender. She did such a great job with an excruciatingly embarrassing role.
I love the extra moments that were given to Draco. The ability to pull away from Harry's POV allowed the film to make a lot more of it. I should probably confess now that I have long had a soft spot for Draco, so I was glad to see him really get his plot line treated well. Mostly. The nose-stomping scene and the Sectumsempra scene were both fantastic. Tom Felton did a marvelous job with them. I loved the scenes on working with the cabinet. And the birds in the cage! What did bug me was at the end where he admits that if he fails to kill Dumbledore he will be killed, he suddenly isn't concerned about his Mum. One of the really important things that came out of that scene in the book was the picture of the Evil Malfoy Family as a very close and loving family unit, which is lost in the film without that line.
I was less impressed with the cave scene. I don't understand why they couldn't have just flowm on brooms instead of having Dumbledore suddenly and mysteriously able to apparate within Hogwarts (despite having needed Fawkes to make his escape in Order of the Phoenix. Nor do I understand why they apparated to a dangerous rock in the sea and pausing dramtically before, presumably, apparating into the cave. The brooms would have allowed the Big Drama CG Ocean Moment, and been less clunky. Once there, there was very little sense that Harry struggled with poisoning Dumbledore. Harry being pulled into the lake just felt drawn out, and when Dumbledore busted out the enormous fire (despite being poisoned nearly to death), well. Oh Hai Gandalf! How did you get here?
And what the hell was up with Harry not being Petrified? As if he would just stand there and not do anything, promise or not. Not to mention, weren't there supposed to be Aurors somewhere? And Bill Weasley? I know they had to cut bits, and Bill's disfigurement is an easy option but they made such a big deal of the Aurors at the start and they were nowhere to be seen when the Death Eaters walked into Hogwarts.
There are a couple of significant plot points missing, which will be interesting for the next film. They are going to have to re-write the entire beginning, as a) a wedding between Bill and Fleur would be ridiculously out of the blue, and b) they burned down the Burrow. Also, Harry is missing a whole lot of clues about what the Horcruxes might be. It will be interesting to see if they can/will do anything but Deus ex Machina with that.
So the conclusion I come to is that it was great, apart from the ending which stumbled a bit, as well as cocking up some plot points.
Someone please tell me that I was not the only one desperately holding back a giggle fit when they allgot their lighters out lit their wands over Dumbledore's miraculously unmangled corpse? I was half waiting for them to start singing Everybody Hurts or something.
On the whole? ♥
Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe both have glorious comic timing. The love potion and Felix Felicis scenes respectively were lolarious. I thought the whole film was an interesting blend of comic and dark, which worked quite well for the most part.
Top marks for visuals, too. The cinematography, lighting, scene-setting and props were all incredible. The potions classroom, Slughorn's quarters, the Room of Requirement! All so fantastic.
And Helena Bonham Carter's Bella is a thing of glory. I love her so very much, evil psycho that she is. I also feel a need to do a shout out to the girl who played Lavender. She did such a great job with an excruciatingly embarrassing role.
I love the extra moments that were given to Draco. The ability to pull away from Harry's POV allowed the film to make a lot more of it. I should probably confess now that I have long had a soft spot for Draco, so I was glad to see him really get his plot line treated well. Mostly. The nose-stomping scene and the Sectumsempra scene were both fantastic. Tom Felton did a marvelous job with them. I loved the scenes on working with the cabinet. And the birds in the cage! What did bug me was at the end where he admits that if he fails to kill Dumbledore he will be killed, he suddenly isn't concerned about his Mum. One of the really important things that came out of that scene in the book was the picture of the Evil Malfoy Family as a very close and loving family unit, which is lost in the film without that line.
I was less impressed with the cave scene. I don't understand why they couldn't have just flowm on brooms instead of having Dumbledore suddenly and mysteriously able to apparate within Hogwarts (despite having needed Fawkes to make his escape in Order of the Phoenix. Nor do I understand why they apparated to a dangerous rock in the sea and pausing dramtically before, presumably, apparating into the cave. The brooms would have allowed the Big Drama CG Ocean Moment, and been less clunky. Once there, there was very little sense that Harry struggled with poisoning Dumbledore. Harry being pulled into the lake just felt drawn out, and when Dumbledore busted out the enormous fire (despite being poisoned nearly to death), well. Oh Hai Gandalf! How did you get here?
And what the hell was up with Harry not being Petrified? As if he would just stand there and not do anything, promise or not. Not to mention, weren't there supposed to be Aurors somewhere? And Bill Weasley? I know they had to cut bits, and Bill's disfigurement is an easy option but they made such a big deal of the Aurors at the start and they were nowhere to be seen when the Death Eaters walked into Hogwarts.
There are a couple of significant plot points missing, which will be interesting for the next film. They are going to have to re-write the entire beginning, as a) a wedding between Bill and Fleur would be ridiculously out of the blue, and b) they burned down the Burrow. Also, Harry is missing a whole lot of clues about what the Horcruxes might be. It will be interesting to see if they can/will do anything but Deus ex Machina with that.
So the conclusion I come to is that it was great, apart from the ending which stumbled a bit, as well as cocking up some plot points.
Someone please tell me that I was not the only one desperately holding back a giggle fit when they all