Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

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Horrorphile - July 2009

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

July 16th 2009 03:15

I’m in a slightly cynical and impatient mood. So here are my succinct two-cents on the sixth installment of the adventures of Harry Potter, orphan, wizard student extraordinaire, The Chosen One ... Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

The opening sequence which follows the trail of three Death Eaters as they spiral down out of the clouds and hurtles toward the narrow streets of London, then careers at breakneck speed dodging double-decker buses and buildings before streaking down the narrow cobblestone street of Diagon Alley and finally exploding into the side of an antique store, is brilliant, and worth the extra ticket price to see it in IMAX 3D. It’s a pity the whole movie isn’t in 3D. It’s kind of ridiculous having the first 12 minutes in 3D and then you have to watch the remaining two-a-quarter hours in standard 2D.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Death Eaters

Death Eaters descend on London town

The movie is overlong. Because ostensibly the plotting is a set-up for the double-whammy finale that will be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010) and Part 2 (2011) there isn’t as much action, instead relying on deepening the characterization of its key characters, both good and bad. But mostly it seems to want to play the burgeoning romantic intrigue angle, which is frightfully tedious. More action, less conversation, better be the rule of thumb for the final two movies.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince inferi

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) battles the Inferi

The best sequence, apart from the stunning opening, is when Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) joins Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) in a cave searching for a part of Voldemort’s soul called a Horcrux embedded in a locket that belonged to Salazar Slytherin. It is here that a truly nightmarish scene – and arguably the darkest, most menacing scene in the series so far – unfolds where Harry is besieged by skeletal ghoul demons called Inferi that emerge from the dark watery depths and pull Harry under. It was like something from my own nightmares! Dumbledore comes to a fiery rescue despite being a little worse for wear having drunk more than enough of the poisonous potion where the locket was hidden in.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Dave Legeno

Fenrir (Dave Legeno) confronts Harry

The Death Eater’s siege on The Burrow is a good scene, with Harry running through the long grass, the sound of Fenrir (Dave Legeno) and Bellatrix (Helena Bonham Carter) all around him, it was tense and odious. Another good scene has Katie (Georgina Leonidas), a young female colleague of Harry’s become momentarily possessed by a curse meant for Dumbledore, and she’s seemingly strung up in mid-air, mouth agape, eyes wide in terror, then hurled back down onto the snow. Creepy stuff!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Katie Bell curse

Poor young Katie Bell is manhandled by a nasty curse

I’ve not read any of the novels, and I have no intention of reading them. Not my bag o’ bones. I was entertained by The Order of the Phoenix (2008), and I was beguiled enough by Half-Blood Prince. The movies are very well made for what they are. The fans should be thankful they’ve had some high calibre filmmakers delivering the movie adaptations. So many novels’ series fall flat after the first installment. The Harry Potter series gets progressively more and more ominous, which tickles my dark fancy. I’d love for the last two movies to be rated MA, but that is asking a little too much of young Harry methinks.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Hero Fiennes-Tiffin

Young Tom Riddle (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin) enters the Darkness

Oh, and Hagrid’s pet spider. Ugh.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince clooud of evil

Voldemort's presence is felt at movie's end

Here's the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

17 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Natalina

July 16th 2009 04:17

My Life My Muse
Beta Girl Blog

You would not believe how many of my friends are begging me to see this movie with them! I haven't even seen the last one yet, so I suppose I have some catching up to do.

I just never really got into the Harry Potter thing, ever since I worked at Amazon.com during the release of the first few books. It made me hate people. I was called every name under the sun by parents who were upset that their child's book arrived a day late. God forbid.

However, I guess I'm in the minority. I live right next door to a movie theater, and was unable to find a parking spot anywhere tonight. There are people all over outside waiting to get in and see this movie. There are people wearing capes and brandishing wands. I just watched out my window as a couple of people just got into quite a fist fight...I think they ran out of tickets....It's pandemonium!

Comment by Bryn

July 16th 2009 05:52

Horrorphile

Hey, I'm with you. I don't get the whole Harry Potter fanaticism. It spans generations, that's what I find so scary. I much preferred the Moomintroll books as a kid.

Comment by Natalina

July 16th 2009 05:59

My Life My Muse
Beta Girl Blog

Oh my god, Bryn. I haven't thought about the Moomin books FOREVER! Wow. That brings back memories! Wow. Now I'm nostalgic.

Comment by JESUS

July 16th 2009 07:11

What's Love?

Harry Potter = LAME

Its just Lord of the Rings all over again accept with a lesser calibre of actors, far lesser quality of cinematography and an excessive use of CGI to tell a story.

Bring on DRAG ME TO HELL, that will blow your mind
horrorphile!

Comment by Lara M

July 16th 2009 11:06

Love Speaks
Food Slate

I like the Harry Potter series

Not fanatical but do really enjoy it.

I am disappointed though to hear it's so *bad*...

It’s kind of ridiculous having the first 12 minutes in 3D and then you have to watch the remaining two-a-quarter hours in standard 2D.

Whaaat?! That's cheating! I was gonna do the IMAX 'cos of the 3D. Thanks for the heads-up, Bryn.

Comment by Bryn

July 16th 2009 12:20

Horrorphile

Natalina ... I'm thinking a Book Review Babes post in the future ... One of my all-time fave books, Comet in Moominland

JESUS, I don't think you quite got the tone of my "review". I actually think the cinematography of the last two Harry Potter movies have been excellent. And as for excessive use of CGI? I beg to differ. Jackson's LOTR trilogy used an extraordinary amount of CGI! And in all honesty I think the CGI work on this Harry Potter movie was pretty well integrated into the live action. Let's be fair, neither LOTR nor Harry Potter movies could realistically portray half of the imagery that they do without CGI. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not a fan of the series, I've only seen three (and a bit) of the movies, I'm much more a fan of darker adult fairie tales.

Lara, the movie is polarising audiences and critics. Sydney Morning Herald's Paul Byrnes loved it. Others are saying it lacks the "Potter" magic, whatever that means. I thought it was way too talky and too long. And there wasn't enough spectacle.

Comment by Natalina

July 16th 2009 13:26

My Life My Muse
Beta Girl Blog

Not sure if I read that one...maybe. I have a vague recollection of alligators eating their pants and hiding in a cave.... is that the right one? I'd have to read them again, but a Moomin review on Book Review Babes would be fun. Make sure you check out the one that is getting posted today. It's about a serial killer!

Comment by Bryn

July 16th 2009 23:59

Horrorphile

Don't remember alligators eating their pants? I'm talking about author Tove Jansson from Finland. Finn Family Moomintroll, Moominsummer Madness, Exploits of Moominpapa, Moominland Midwinter ...

Comment by JESUS

July 17th 2009 00:12

What's Love?

Fair enough Horrorphile, after watching a spectacular HD preview on my MAC last night I haev to say the cinematography on this particular installment looks better then the last few but I stil find it a bit contrived and silly, this darkness you speak of, something like Pans Labyrinth perhaps?

That blew my mind.

P.S I am really enjoying your blog

Comment by Natalina

July 17th 2009 00:45

My Life My Muse
Beta Girl Blog

I know! But there is a part in one of the books where they are on a journey and some kind of an animal eats their clothes, I swear! I'm gonna have to look it up.

Comment by Bryn

July 17th 2009 00:56

Horrorphile

J, everyone loves Pan's Labyrinth, and yes it was well made, but some of that just didn't gel with me. I actually enjoyed Hellboy II: The Golden Army more. I can't wait to see what he does with The Hobbit, the book of which I preferred over LOTR. Have you heard or seen a sf-fantasy movie called Wizards?
Harry Potter is definitely very silly in places, but that's JK Rowling for you. And she's been laughing all the way to the bank.

Comment by Dianna G

July 18th 2009 01:53

I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds

As someone who hasn't seen the movie yet but who HAS obsessively read all the books and thinks that HBP is the best of them:

In Half-Blood Prince it's all about the conversations that various people have. They seem pointless and annoying to you now, but the sixth movie/book is full of conversations that will be completely explained in book/movie seven/eight. These are things that need to be brought up and tied together in the seventh book/movie.

Harry Potter starts off pretty light and the sixth and seventh books are very very dark-the movies have to be similar.

The one thing I'm wary of is that the movies won't REALLY do Snape proper justice as he is revealed in the books; but we shall see.

I'll post my own review once I've read it, but those are my two cents; besides which, the book is nearly seven hundred pages long... the movie's going to be a couple hours.

Comment by Bryn

July 19th 2009 05:11

Horrorphile

Dianna, thanks for that ... yes, I gathered that Half-Blood Prince was setting up a lot. I'm actually looking forward to the two other movies, which surprises me. I'd love for both to be completely 3D instead of the tease that the fifth and sixth movies were (order of the Phoenix had twenty minutes in 3D and Half-Blood Prince had twelve minutes). I wasn't rally that surprised by Snape's duplicity.

Comment by Dianna G

July 19th 2009 08:51

I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds

Bryn,

Snape is SO much more than you can possibly understand from HBP. And the flashback of him in the fifth movie is a TOTAL DISAPPOINTMENT.

They're missing an essential part of that scene and in the sixth movie, from what my friend told me, they're missing an essential line. They're either going to pull off a miracle (and spend an hour on Snape because they've neglected him so far) or I'm going to throw tomatoes at them 'cause the way it looks right now, they won't do him justice.

In the entire series, Snape is the most well designed and well written character. From a reader's PoV he's the most complex and from a writer's PoV he's simply an amazing piece of work, and I really hope the movies do him justice but I'm starting to doubt it.

~Dianna

Comment by Bryn

July 19th 2009 22:56

Horrorphile

Dianna, hmmmm, seems curious that the Steve Kloves, the screenwriter for five of the six movies, would neglect him so.

Comment by Dianna G

July 20th 2009 20:16

I Wish This Was 42
Fictional Worlds

Bryn,

Apparently (and I think this is pure insanity) to add the extra (most important) part of the flashback in 5 would be too complicated; we have no idea about the line that's missing in the sixth movie though.

Up until the 5th movie they did a great job; in the fifth movie, the flashback is setting something big up to be discovered in the seventh. And it failed. And it annoyed me.

My review of the sixth movie, after I watch it... will be entertaining.

~Dianna

Comment by Bryn

July 21st 2009 00:53

Horrorphile

I wait with baited breath

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