Whew I’ve been doing a lot of catching up on movies in theatres so get ready for many new movies in upcoming posts. First order of business was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We’re six movies in and this shit is getting real. Voldemort’s totally back and recruiting more minions, including Harry’s (Daniel Radcliffe) nemesis Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), who’s on some secret mission. Hogwarts has upped its security and gained a Potions professor, the oily Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), who delights in making favorites out of exceptional or well-connected students. Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) wants information he holds regarding young Voldemort aka Tom Riddle, and enlists Harry to get close enough to learn the truth.
Meanwhile hormones are a-raging throughout the school, what with Hermione (Emma Watson) totally into Ron (Rupert Grint), Ron constantly snogging Lavender Brown (Jessie Cave), and Harry having sexy thoughts about Ron’s sister Ginny (Bonnie Wright). Also Harry has an old Potions text book belonging to a mysterious “Half-Blood Prince”, with various helpful tips and experimental spells written in the margins. Also Dumbledore is teaching Harry about Voldemort’s past hoping to find a way to stop him. Some magic and other stuff is worked in alongside the makeouts and Quidditch and Snape (Alan Rickman) speaking painfully slowly.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. It’s easily the funniest one, and the first time I feel that the movies focused more on the characters than the action of the story, which was nice. As much as I like the stories of the books, it’s the interesting characters and amusing dialogue/descriptions that I enjoy most. There were a lot of conversations and relationship issues happening here and that was actually kind of a nice break from MAGIC AND FIGHTING AND PROBLEMS, which is what’s usually going on. And this time around, everyone got funnier, which was a little odd and unexpected, but very appreciated. My movie buddy and I laughed a lot throughout, but often found ourselves to be the only ones. I guess the rest of the audience was just to dumb to get the subtle comedic nuances.
Yeah, lots of stuff was cut out from the book, but I dealt with it. The main thing I found frustrating was how they cut that part about Dumbledore getting Tom’s ring. It wasn’t even mentioned, yet they showed his blackened hand without explanation. Also considering how the Half-Blood Prince is in the title, it really wasn’t important to the movie at all since they didn’t focus on the book very much. Oh well. *Spoiler Alert* And I know some people were frustrated by the omission of Dumbledore’s funeral, but I think that scene with everyone holding up their wands and destroying the Death Eater symbol was pretty darned affecting, and it was enough for me.
The cast is swell, obviously, with nice turns from Broadbent, Gambon, Maggie Smith, and of course Helena Bonham-Carter, one of my favorite casting choices. The kids are doing better than usual acting-wise, and Daniel Radcliffe is possibly some untapped comedic genius judging from his amazing Felix Felicis good luck escapade. I’m laughing just thinking about it. Weird. And every word oozing out of Alan Rickman’s mouth is so loaded with disgust it’s hilarious. Also child Tom Riddle: CREEPY AS HELL.
Visually The Half-Blood Prince looks really great, with a combination of bright and sugary colors and deep blue and brown tones. There is a good attention to detail, making this fantasy world feel fully-realized. It doesn’t hold up to Cuarón’s take on Prisoner of Askaban but it’s still pretty impressive. Though I wish more time could have been spent in the twins’ Wonder Emporium-esque joke shop. All in all this installment is probably my favorite of the series, but I’d need to re-watch them all to really make that decision. It’s funny and very entertaining, and filled with enough magic and mystery and action scenes to meet my fantasy requirements. Great job director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves, I hope you don’t mess up the last two Harry Potters by getting all entangled in the myriad characters and plot points not really brought up in previous films. Huh.
4/5
Popularity: unranked [?]
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