My Harry Potter Review!!

Hello!

So...ok....On Wednesday night this week I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
And this is my Review.

*loads of spoilers so be warned*

First of all I am confused about the rating of the film because I have read elsewhere that it was given a PG rating. When I saw it, it was given a 12A. Anyone know why? Are they different ways of saying the same thing?

Second of all I just want to say that I think since Order of the Phoenix.... LUNA LOVEGOOD has stolen the films for me. She is wonderful, and seems to innocently and gently steal any scene she glides through. I want her to have her own film and series of books.

Anyway... the film overall. Rub your bums this might be a long one.

The mood, as is the fashion with the harry potter films, is indeed ‘darker’ that before...however, it is also funnier. I suppose a good way of describing the atmosphere of the film is sombre. It has moments of excitement, moments of great humour and moments of great sadness, but overall there is something sombre running underneath. A sort of feeling of despair. And I liked it for that.

Perhaps this is because there aren’t any moments of great triumph, no big trio win the day moments, no house points, or Halloween celebrations. Just Harry’s story. And it really is Harry’s story, as many of the other players have just blink and you’ll miss them moments. But this is to be expected when cutting down a book as big as the Half Blood Prince.

Over all, I really enjoyed the film. But there is still a small feeling left with me, that it wasn’t quite adequate enough. There is something about the film that is not quite fulfilling, and it’s taken me a couple of days to really think about what it is...and I think I have worked out.
To me it didn’t quite feel like we were given enough of anybodies story. The Half Blood Prince is complex in that there are numerous important plots that play out. There is Harry’s story...his lessons with Dumbledore, his relationship with Ginny, his task with Slughorn, and his obsession with the Half blood prince. That’s four quite major story lines just for Harry to cram in. Then of course we have Snapes tale...now defence against the dark arts teacher, the unbreakable vow, his need to help Malfoy, his difficulties with Dumbledore. Then of course there is Malfoy’s story of desperately trying to achieve the dark lords task, avoiding Snape, his face off with Dumbledore, his feelings over what has happened to his father. Then there is Slughorn the new teacher and his history and purpose....oh and of course there is Ron and Hermione to get in there as well. That is a lot to fit into a film even if it is 2 1/2hours long. And as such I don’t feel like as an audience we were really shown much of a journey for anybody. More sort of quick overviews. More of this in a minute.

Harry has his lessons with Dumbledore. And personally I think Gambon nails the part of Dumbledore this time. He managed to marry the darkness and urgency with great humour and eccentricities. But I also consistently believed he truly was a great wizard of immense power and knowledge. I really thought he was wonderful, and it made his death all the more painful. In fact, I thought that particular scene was played with incredible grace by all actors involved and Gambons ‘Severus, Please’ was perfect, emotional but ambiguous.

The acting praise doesn’t stop with Gambon. I think all of the cast upped their game in this film. Hermione seemed believably heartbroken, and her small scene when she tells Harry he’s her best friend and she wants to know how he feels about seeing Ginny with another, was a really lovely scene that portrayed the depth of their friendship beautifully. It made me look forward to the moment of Ron’s return in the seventh book. Because it’s nice to see just how deep and important the trio’s friendship is. Ron and Hermione, more than anyone, are Harry’s family, and it’s nice to have a director show how emotionally raw that can be sometimes.

Radcliffe is good as Harry, mature and relaxed in this film, and his Felix scenes are both inspired and beautifully played. Grint is funny as ever, and his relationship with lavender is well handled. However, I felt there wasn’t the emotional connection between Harry and Ron as there was with Harry and Hermione. Except perhaps when Ron is on the love potion and jumps onto Harry’s bed love sick and dopey, looking to his best friend for help.

Rickman is wonderful as Snape... less intense than he is portrayed in the book, but his good/evil ambiguity is still nicely handled. Although he doesn’t shout ‘Don’t Call me coward’ which I was looking forward to because Rickman really does shout venom well.

And of course the brilliant Jim Broadbent. Not looking quite how I envisaged Slughorn in the book, but he brings such a quirkiness and believability to him that he is a joy to watch. He wasn’t how I expected him to be...or even wanted him to be....in many ways he was better. He had a lovely eye tick that looked a bit like he had winked at so many people it had become a physical habit. Brilliant.

So...why with all this good acting did if feel somewhat lacking. Well. There wasn’t quite enough pain for me. There wasn’t quite enough trails, or difficulty. I felt Malfoy was having the hardest time, really caught in a horrible position, and really struggling with it, but there wasn’t quite enough of him for it to matter enough. And the same goes for Harry and Dumbledore’s journey. We miss some of the memories I really wanted to see and also some important information.
We find out the essential... what is a Horcrux. And that Tom Riddle was a manipulative little boy. We don’t however come to the realization that he liked to collect things...like a magpie. He liked trophies....that’s quite important info what you’re Harry on a mission to destroy them. And by not finding them out we don’t have the Hepzibah memory, with the locket! (We don’t even know why it’s a locket at all when they get it!) We don’t have the examples of Tom Killing for the first time and tearing his soul apart. So we have no back story of Voldemorts journey. There is not creation of Voldemort, just what he was like as a kid. No scene of him coming back to Hogwarts asking for a job, not sign of the tiara anywhere, no Morfin memory.

Basically, we don’t see how the boy riddle became the man Voldemort....which I thought was frankly one of the most exciting parts of the book. As a consequence we don’t know what sort of Horcruxes Harry needs to looks for. What is the ring? What is the locket? Where did he get it? None of this is answered or even adhered to...How will that effect the storytelling of the final book.

So I found that unfulfilling.

Dumbledore and Harry’s journey into the cave showed off some wonderful effects, there was no climbing down the cliff, no swimming to the rock (although even in the book I thought ‘they are wizards...why are they swimming?’) no brooms used to get back to the castle. I know its nit picking and doesn’t really offer anything in terms of story, but what these things did offer was a sense of adventure. The sense of Dumbledore having to rely on Harry... and that wasn’t all that clear. It is also a good example of just how determined and adventurous Dumbledore is for an old man.

However I have to say the Ring of fire / Dumbledore become Moses moment was breathtakingly exciting and really really really awesome effects.

So yes, I found the adventurous moments a little unfulfilling, as was the whole riddle to Voldemort story. But also I found the half blood prince story unfulfilling. In fact to me it almost felt like they quickly had to jam it in when they could. And I wandered if it hadn’t been called the half blood prince, if they would have cut it entirely. Harry’s obsession with the book comes across and a slight interest. There just isn’t time to show Harry reading a book and discussing the handwriting...but as such that storyline suffers hugely. And it did kind of make me think...if I hadn’t read the books, when Snape says ‘ I am the half blood prince’, I might have gone...’So what?’.

So again that, for me, was not fulfilling.

Also I thought it was a strange choice to have harry (a) not under the invisibility cloak and (b) not frozen. In the Dumbledore death scene. By not doing either of these things it changes Harry’s character. It makes him less reckless, less hot headed, less brave in some ways, more obedient but even more importantly it has given him a new grief complex!!! He even said in the following scenes that he did nothing. So he now regrets and blames himself for Dumbledore’s death? This is strange because it’s just not the case in the book, he tried to do something but was glued to the spot and the minute he was free he was after Snape! All thoughts of self preservation out of the window. It seemed to be an unnecessary change for aesthetics sake, but for me has quite severe character repercussions for Harry.

I wanted to see the Funeral...but I also didn’t miss it that much. They did show Fawkes leaving which was nice. I also wish Ron had spoken in that last chat the trio had.

What I did like a lot aside from the acting was seeing Snape’s house. The humour. Lavender. Helena Bonham carter. Mrs Malfoy and the unbreakable vow scene. I actually liked the handling of Harry and Ginny’s relationship. It felt right for the film. And I also liked the slightly suggestive moments. Anybody else smirk when Ginny did up Harry’s shoe lace? I also liked Ron’s slightly mishandled physical contact with Harry...Like the look at my chaffing lips, and the jumping onto the bed with him. Just subtle examples of friends finding their physical barriers with each other which I think is very typical with boys.

Luna turning up for the party (I was one of the many audience members who went ‘Awwwww’).
Snape being thrown up upon. The attention to detail.... like the Weasleys shop! And Mr. Weasley’s shed! I quite liked the attack on the burrow because it helped keep the feeling of danger being very close to harry. Katie bells curse was suitably scary. The Sectumsemptra (spell?) scene was good...although I wanted it to be a bit more shocking.

The Amazing and full score! Really lovely music. The cinematography and style of film is really beautiful. Some lovely framed shots. The Snape silhouette as the sky grew dark sticks in my mind as one small example of a lovely shot. Some really well done effects. A lovely foggy looking Hogwarts. And again I have to say it...Luna ‘That’s why I don’t wear shoes to bed’... (Because we were all wondering) Lovegood.

I would give this film almost four out of five stars. Well....er....yes ok four out of five stars.... but only just!

Sorry it was so long I just had a lot to say about it!!

Chris xx