Movie Review — Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
***Spoilers Below***
There is an old saying attributed to William Shakespeare, “some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em.” Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) Harry Potter fits all three of these categories. Harry was born the chosen one, we learned that in The Order of the Phoenix. Harry has been achieving greatness ever since he arrive at Hogwarts, but he has always been the reluctant hero. Now, in The Half Blood Prince, Harry finally has no choice but to fulfill his destiny with the death of Dumbledore.
In short, I found the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to be everything I could have wanted from the film. The movie covers the major plot points and is enjoyable to watch as well. The scenery is beautiful and the acting is, for the most part, very good. This movie is more light hearted than the first five which I thought was an good choice. Order of the Phoenix was very intense and The Ghastly Hollows will also be very intense, so this movie being a little lighter is good.
On some levels I don’t know that you can fully appreciate this film unless you are surrounded by and used to high school teenager antics. The awkward moments between Harry & Ginny and Ron & Hermione are really amusing. The way that Cormack goes after Hermione in his overblown jockey way and the way Lavender fawns over Ron is equally amusing. One of my favorite scenes early in the movie is when Harry and Hermione are commiserating with each other in a corridor after Ron snogs with Lavender for the first time. Harry asks Hermione what is wrong and she asks Harry, “How does it feel when you see Ginny kiss Dean?” Hermione then launches several charmed birds at Ron and Pavarti who come wandering by and Harry says, “about like that.” The movie shows them growing closer as friends more than any other two.
Jim Broadbent plays Professor Slughorn and does a good job playing the part. He captures the egotistical side of the character as well as the flawed side of the character.
There are many decision that have to be made regarding what scenes to take from the book and put in the movie and whether or not the story can be changed for time. Some of the plot the movie makers and stuck with because of the book, but in other cases, they had to make conscious choices and, while I can appreciate how difficult that is, I don’t understand or agree with some of them. One, for example, is the scene in the Burrow. The scene doesn’t happen in the book and it doesn’t really advance the plot at all. Yeah, you see Tonks and Lupin in the Burrow which is fun, but the scene could have been cut in favor some time between Ron and Hermione or Ginny and Harry.
The movie really focuses on Harry’s story and you are left to fill in a lot of the other relationship gaps on your own. The Ron & Hermione relationship is kind of developed, but again you are supposed to put together a lot of those pieces on your own. I think they could have cut out a few other scenes and spent some more time developing that relationship and possible the Ginny & Harry relationship. A friend pointed out, and I agree, that the movie spends more time focusing on Ron and Lavender than it does on Ron and Hermione. I can’t say I fully understand that choice.
Unlike the first five movies, I did not re-read the book before I saw Half-Blood Prince. I think this let me appreciate the movie more as a movie rather than as an adaptation. Usually I sit through a Harry Potter movie and think about all of the scenes they had to cut. During this one, I was little more at ease. My only real disappointment was the end of the movie. After Harry and Dumbledore go for the horcrux in the cave, they return to Hogwarts and Dumbledore basically sacrifices himself to Malfoy. Somehow Malfoy knew right where to find Dumbledore and he just waits. I also was disapointed that they didn’t have the big showdown fight in the castle. I think leaving out the big fight scene leads to two flaws in the movie.
The first, and perhaps it won’t be a problem in the next movie, is that because Harry wasn’t immobile & invisible during Dumbledore’s death (as he was in the book) and was able to chase Snape and Bellatrix out of the castle. Snape or Bellatrix then have a chance to kill or capture him, but don’t. I would think they will have to explain this to Voldemort later on.
The other exception I take with the ending is that it seems to take the two main characters completely out of character. In every other case we see Dumbledore he always fights until the end. In Order of the Phoenix when they try to arrest him he does not go easily and now, in the end, we are expected to believe that he is just going to let himself be killed. I suppose there is a chance that he is offering himself up as a martyr in order to inspire others, but I don’t think that is in his character. Maybe he does it because he knows that Snape has to kill him in order to maintain Snape’s cover. This I could possibly buy, but I don’t think so. In the book he is killed more suddenly in the middle of battle which is a scenario I find much more plausible.
By the same token, I find it hard to beleive that Harry would just stand there silently and watch this happen. Harry has consistenly shown himself as an impulsive hot head in these types of situations. Early in the movie they show an out of place scene at the Burrow which could only exist to remind us that Harry is a hot head. Belatrix just shows up at the Burrow, and Harry starts running after her before she even does anything. But when Harry watches Snape kill Dumbledore he just stands there? I don’t think that is a proper display of his character.
All in all, this is another great addition to the Harry Potter tradition and I am anxiously awaiting the first half of the next book’s movie. Hopefully with the expanded format, they will be able to fully develop some more of the relationships as well as the plot.
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Tags: Dumbledore, Half Blood Prince, Harry Potter, Hermione, Lord of the Rings, Movie Review, Reviews
I have a couple of disagreements with you on your evaluation of the movie. This is definitely a continuation story. It starts as the last movie ended, with Harry being led out of the Ministry looking lost and in shock after his godfather, Sirius Black is killed by Bellatrix. I believe that the scene in the Burrow is more than just showing that Harry is a hothead. Bellatrix already did something to Harry. She killed his godfather. Harry is reacting to seeing her for the first time since then. The scene also establishes the relationship between Lupin and Tonks, lets us know that the Order is still fighting, and establishes Snape’s position as spy for one side or another based on what we’ve seen. And we aren’t really sure which side he’s on.
As for the ending, I agree that there are some problems with Snape and Bellatrix not capturing Harry. However, I have thought about it and I believe they were acting on orders. The “mission” was to kill Dumbledore and ransack the school. The mission was accomplished. They were not told to capture Harry and so they did not. It’s not how it happened in the book. It also leaves our minds reeling with doubt about Snape. Is he good or evil? We don’t really know. He killed Dumbledore, but he only blocked Harry’s advances and did not even try to hurt him. I believe he also stops Bellatrix from attacking Harry as well. I believe that in the end, Snape knows that Harry is the key to ending Voldemort. Whether he is good or evil, I think Snape is very selfish. He doesn’t want to be under anyone’s thumb. I don’t think he really wants Voldemort to succeed but he doesn’t want to really help Harry more than he has to either.
As for Dumbledore not fighting, Malfoy disarms him straightaway. He does not have a wand and he has Malfoy’s wand pointed at him. I have a few theories on the reason why he doesn’t even try to get his wand back. First, he doesn’t want Malfoy to suddenly grow some and kill him if he goes for his wand. Two, he is pretty sure that Malfoy just doesn’t have it in him. Three, I think he told Snape that if Malfoy doesn’t do it, he’ll have to in order to keep his cover (like you said) but also because he doesn’t want Malfoy to be punished by Voldemort. And finally, he was weak after drinking the potion and then fighting off the nasties in the cave with Harry. I also think that the big fight scene getting left out is okay. I think the point was being made about how horrible the Death Eaters are and how much destruction they can wreak when they really want to. And, if it came down to it, there are a lot of kids at Hogwarts. I find it incredibly hard to believe that if there really was a huge battle, that 5 or 6 death eaters would leave unharmed.
I didn’t feel that they spent too much time on Ron and Lavender. Pretty much every time Ron and Lavender were shown, we saw Hermione’s reaction. I think they went a sort of backwards way to develop the relationship between Ron and Hermione. But I agree that they did a lot for developing Harry and Hermione’s friendship. I think it needed to be done. We already know how close Harry and Ron are. They have been through a lot over the years. We don’t really see a lot between Harry and Hermione to believe that she would leave school and help him with his quest before this movie. Now we can be sure that she feels strongly enough about Harry and his purpose that she would leave school to help Harry in his quest to end Voldemort.
I agree that Jim Broadbent did a great job as Slughorn. The character was perfect and exactly what I was expecting from reading the books.
Don’t get me wrong, you make some very valid points and I value your opinion! I just had a different view of this movie.