Believe it or not, I’ve been anxiously awaiting this day. It has been a while since my last review of a Harry Potter movie, and that was a fun — if somewhat controversial — review to write.
I’m not a Harry Potter fan. I have read only the first book, and I feel that most of the movies were horribly made. They tend to be drawn out and full of fan service that interrupts the flow of the movie for no discernible reason.
This latest film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is getting rave reviews. It’s percentage on Rotten Tomatoes is a perfectly respectable 87%. It was moved from a winter release date in 2008 to a the more prime real estate of July 2009.
It has to be good right?
I will say that Half-Blood Prince is better than its predecessor. While the Order of the Phoenix was full of indecipherable character subtext and questionable plot advancement, Half-Blood Prince lives up to it’s name and gets it half right.
For the first time in over 12 hours of Potter on film, the three leads finally got their act together. Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe really own their characters in this film and emerge as the protagonists that they always should have been.
I finally believe that Hermione loves Harry like a brother and Ron like a boytoy. I finally believe that Ginny Weasley is a wizard wunderkind herself and that she has the hots for her older brother’s best friend.
It’s hard to believe that Harry has taken 6 years to come to grips with the fact that he’s awesome, but having him finally do so is a welcome relief. Daniel Radcliffe has confidence this time which is something that ‘the chosen one’ should have had all along (or at least after the first couple of movies).
Half-Blood Prince is also funny. Though there were some stupid site gags (like a cauldron blowing up in a student’s face; cliche much?), there were also some genuine laughs to be had.
Sure we find out that our leads are all about getting it on with as many students as possible, but hey — isn’t that what any teenager would do if they were sent to high school away from home?
But for all its humor, good acting, and character development, Half-Blood Prince falls down about halfway through the movie. When we’re done welcoming back the cast and seeing where they are in their love lives, we have no choice but to return to the Voldemort story line to promptly fall asleep.
Seriously, I almost fell asleep. How can they chase Voldemort for so long without action? How can every movie involve the introduction of a new teacher with a secret that must be uncovered, none of which actually progress the goal of defeating Voldemort?
Also, what happened to Draco Malfoy? He used to be a delightfully mischievous boy, but now he’s just weird looking with practically no lines and no guts. Although Malfoy is worth being suspicious of, I never really believe that Harry has a good reason to do so and thus agree with those who think he’s off his rocker.
Having not read the books, I had no idea that there was a character death in this picture. I don’t want to give it away, but I will say that after 6 movies I really should care a lot more than I did. The fact that I was completely unmoved by the occurrence is not a good thing.
Having a discussion with my wife after the movie, she pointed out to me that perhaps my problem with the inconsistency of character development in the Harry Potter movies is not the fault of the filmmakers, but the situation.
Since many of these movies were filmed before the entire story had been unveiled, they didn’t know who would be important and who wouldn’t be. They didn’t know that they should have cut out Longbottom entirely, and beefed up Ginny for future installments.
And that’s seriously a problem. When Peter Jackson cut up Lord of the Rings, he was able to do so in an informed manner to capture the essence of the story for a film-going era.
They didn’t have that luxury with Harry Potter, and it has shown over the years. I don’t know who to blame for that, but having not read the books it’s a pretty big ding on the films.
You Potter fans will love it. I loved the first half.
It was coming in at a B- before Dumbledore and Harry went on a wizard adventure where they both forgot that they were wizards and that they didn’t need to do silly things like ride a boat across 50 yards of water.
Oh well. At least I tried to like it.
Verdict: C Tilt: D+
Having just watched the movie, I have to say that while I disagree with parts of your review, I can’t really fault you for feeling the way you do. I think you just have to look at the movies as a companion to the books. If that means that on their own they aren’t great movies, then so be it. A D+ is pretty harsh though… Your telling me HBP was worse than Hancock, and no better than 10,000 BC?
To defend the story, some things like why they didn’t use magic to cross the lake are explained in the book, and they chose to cut some scenes that made for an overall better ending.
I propose that you take advantage of the long wait that we have and read the books, so you can fully enjoy the final 2 movies as I believe they’re meant to be enjoyed: a familiar but great story brought to life.
I refer you to my Movie Review Guidelines for your first point:
http://www.lykaon.com/2007/05/21/movie-review-ratings/
I make no guarantee that the rankings I give will line up properly when compared to one another. I expect more out of Harry Potter than most films because people go crazy over it and it makes tons of money.
It’s a valid point about the movies being more of a companion to the books. That makes me a little bit sad because I think they could have been turned into awesome movies in their own right, ala LotR.
I’m not sure if I’ll take your challenge about reading the books before the next movie. Maybe I will read just up until the last book! Then I’ll be surprised by the movie, but caught up with whatever little details the movies have glossed over.