Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Overall Rating: 10
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a very well crafted movie and the best one of the series to date. The task of transforming a book into a movie is a difficult task even more so with the depth, length and multitude of fascinating subplots that the potter series contains, my hats off to Steve Kloves and David Yates for an outstanding job. In the Half-Blood Prince they fully used the movie medium to make this movie stand on it's own, it's the first of the movies that does not require the audience to have read the books to get the full story.
This was a great tale well told with only a few changes I would have liked to see. Though they did an amazing job balancing out the emotions and tension of the movie the end was very sullen. The theater was silent it's ending was like attending a memorial to a long dear friend who lived a long and enriching life. In it's self not a bad thing and part of what is the desired result but the book coupled that with a stronger message of hope. I wished they would have left the battle in from the book and shown the white tomb.
I strongly recommend this move. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is great in the theater and will be an owner for me.
The Plot / Story: As Harry Potter begins his 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he discovers an old book marked mysteriously “This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince” and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort’s dark past.
Likes
well balance of tension and mood containing both highs and lows
The effects looks great: though the Sectumsempra curse was far more graphic and terrifying in my head I'm glad they did not do that for this film so as not to scar the children in the audience.
How they fully used the movie medium to incorporate a more full story including in the clues needed like the use of the wanted poster to convey the dangerous nature of Fenrir Greyback
This is the first of the Potter movies to tell it's respective complete story without needing the audience to be familiar with the books to get the deeper messages
How they handled the clues surrounding Snape
The inferi were awesome: I'll confess even expecting them I still jumped when they appeared.
Daniel Radcliffe & Rupert Grint did a great job acting: they really shined in their respective moments when under the influence of potions and in an altered state of mind, they made the part believable
Dislikes / Concerns
The end was extremely somber bringing up a concern with it's rewatchability and in turn it's box office draw. It saddens me to admit or even have to say this because sometimes great films don't have the financial draw like a popular and fun film. I only hope that the populace remembers that box office earnings are not a measure of a great film.
I wished the ending had included the battle from the book at the end of the movie and the White Tomb to help lift the ending.
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