Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince the Movie
I’m torn right now because The Prisoner of Azkaban has been my all time favorite Harry Potter movie but Half-Blood Prince might just take it’s place. Scott and I went to see this on Saturday and I have to tell you I almost screamed at one point and cried at another. I know these books forward and back and this movie still elicited a very strong emotional response from me.
In the Half-Blood Prince Harry and his friends are much more mature than in previous movies. They are making more adult decisions and faced with ever increasingly hard situations. Harry faces another year at Hogwarts but this time Dumbledore is showing Harry more and more about Tom Riddle who grew up to become Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore is preparing Harry for his destiny to face Voldemort and destroy him.
David Yates the director kept a lot of the same style that he used in Order of the Phoenix which I thought was so smart. The way the Death Eaters fly around is truly inspired. And the way the Pensieve works is amazing.
Speaking of Death Eaters, Helena Bonham Carter is one of my favorite parts of these movies. She is the perfect wicked witch. And Mrs. Malfoy was superb.
The bits with Won Won and Lavender are disgustingly hilarious. In fact Ron continues to be the humor in the film and it’s brilliant.
Young Tom Riddle is so beautiful it’s hard to imagine the horror that he grows in to. There are some bits that they threw in that weren’t in the book but believe me they only furthered the story and kept things moving.
I LOVE this movie. I totally want to see it again and then I want to own it so I can watch it over and over. Now, the movie is rated PG but it’s very, very suspenseful. My oldest is 8 and I would not even think about taking him to this movie. I would rather wait until he was older and could really appreciate the beauty of the more mature relationships and the darkness that surrounds the whole movie. The choice that Malfoy has to make at the end. Oh man, there is so much in this movie that is just incredible.
As for my favorite I think Prisoner of Azkaban takes it for beauty and style but Half -Blood Prince takes it for real life drama. I honestly felt like I was watching real events, especially with the blossoming love in the story.
I know I’m not the only one that saw it this weekend. What did you guys think?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is in theaters now.
2 Comments so far
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I saw it this weekend and loved it, too. I didn’t expect it to be so well done–and I didn’t expect to bawl like a baby when I’d already read the book and knew what was going to happen.
That horcrux scene was incredible, start to finish, and I loved how much of the film focused on character relationships rather than cramming in as much plot from the book as possible. I think less is more sometimes with adaptations like this.
By Julianne on 07.20.09 2:25 pm | Permalink
I was surprised at how much I liked the additional scenes, and the changes they made. Nothing will ever be as good as the book, but for the very first time I felt like I walked out of a harry potter movie not feeling like I was missing anything. I thought it was a really a smart move on their part to move away from trying to stay true to the exact specifications of the book, and instead stay true to the overall plot. This was probably my favorite Harry Potter solely for that reason- even though it was so long, the flow was really natural and didn’t feel long. With some of the other movies I felt like they were just trying to cram stuff in, to appease the die hards.
By Laura on 07.28.09 10:20 am | Permalink
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