Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Movie review - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

One of the problems I have noted with viewing and reviewing the Harry Potter movies is that being a fan has both it's distinct advantages and disadvantages. As a fan who has read all the books, you know what's going to happen and why and can fill in the gaps - non-readers have to make do with action scenes or whatever plot points the script/director decides to keep. But by knowing what I need to look for, my ability to assess the movie is severely compromised. This is particularly apparent in HP6.

Following the events of HP5, the Wizarding World is aware the Voldemort really is back and the Muggle world is aware something isn't quite right due to brazen attacks by his followers, the Death Eaters. (I must say that the opening scene of zooming around London and The Millenium Bridge being destroyed was pretty awesome!) After realising that keeping Harry out of the loop is no good, Dumbledore decides that this time Harry should have a central role in finding out how to destroy Lord Voldemort. And Harry is going to do it by trying to crack the memories of Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent - really, who does batty old Englishman better than him?) who told Voldemort some key info while he was still merely Tom Riddle at Hogwarts...

So I watched the movie with The Pom (book fan) and Laulita (non-book reader). Oddly enough, the Pom had expressed the same sentiments as me following HP5 - that it was a terrible movie that ignored key plot elements in favour of the action scenes. We also expressed the same opinion about HP6 - that it was a lot better than HP5 with better plot development with respect to what happens in the last installment.

Laulita's opinion could not be further than ours. Not having read the book, she described the movie has having action at the start, action at the end, and a long dragging middle section that meant absolutely nothing to her. Why was there so much talking? What was the point of various scenes involving Malfoy in that dingy room? You get the gist of it.

Further thought has brought me to this - since the other HP movies were filmed prior to the conclusion of the series, the moviemakers had to guess what was key enough to include in the film. This often meant ignoring complex plot elements in favour of action (as in HP5). Now that we know what's important, HP6 had to include what would be key to HP7 which meant the sacrifice of action in favour of development. Not really the most rivetting of things to watch. What HP6 did make me realise was how well JK Rowling had plotted the series and how I wanted to go back and reread the books.

Also, I guess the acting from the kids have marginally improved. Marginally. The visuals are pretty damn good too - nice sinister greyish colour wash.

So then if you are a fan of the books, HP6 is a 7-7.5/10.
If you haven't read the books, its a 3-4/10.

4 comments:

Pooey said...

i always thought JK Rowling had influence on the screenplay etc to ensure that the movie series included the key elements?

The Pom said...

I believe that I could to batty old Englishman better...

Stephanie said...

This was such a perfect summary. I agree with you totally. For my younger step-brother who hadn't read the books, it was torturous for him to sit through almost 3 hours of it and yet to me, it still felt like they left a lot out.

7tavern Admin said...

Hi mallymoodle,

We've browsed through your reviews and thought that they are really original and interesting! We would like to invite you to publish your reviews on 7tavern.com, which provides an alternative platform for promising movie reviewers to showcase their talents. Based on the merit of your reviews, we intend to offer you exclusive publishing privileges on our website!

Please feel free to contact us to discuss our proposal. =)

Cheers,
7tavern Team
admin@7tavern.com