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- Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
After watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I'm worried that a franchise that was building up some significant steam could be heading for a disaster of Matrix proportions. While the movie doesn't commit an atrocity on the level of, say, the rave scene in Matrix Reloaded, it is quite dull—and this far into the series, that's a bit disconcerting.
This is easily the least likable Potter film since the dull first one (Sorcerer's Stone). I liked the second one (Chamber of Secrets), totally loved the third (Prisoner of Azkaban), was OK with the fourth (Goblet of Fire) and really liked the fifth (Order of the Phoenix).
The biggest surprise regarding the failure of Half-Blood Prince is that David Yates, the same man behind the camera for Phoenix, directed the film. He's also in charge of the upcoming two-part finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. If the Deathly Hallows films are anything like this one, Harry's cinematic story will smash into the earth like a Quidditch broom that has lost its soaring power.
Things start interestingly enough, with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) almost picking up a hot waitress in a diner, and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) spoiling the party. The old wizard needs Harry's help in recruiting former Hogwarts teacher Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent). Dumbledore wants him back in the fold for some reason, and he needs to use Harry as bait.
Dumbledore chooses to show Harry some rather disturbing memories of a former student named Tom Riddle, a young kid who could talk to snakes and who grew up to be a major troublemaker. Yates and the young people he gets to play Riddle in these memories (one of them being Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, a relative of Ralph Fiennes) make these scenes easily the best of the film. Actually, I wish a larger percentage of this movie had been flashbacks of the creepy kids. This aspect of the film is engaging.
Sadly, the movie turns out to be, for the most part, a blasé look at Harry and friends starting to notice the opposite sex. A subplot involving Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and his emerging sex appeal is nothing but silly. Even worse, the normally enjoyable Hermione (Emma Watson) is left to do little but pout and whimper, and she rarely raises her mood above somber.
A major character says goodbye near the film's end—and Yates bungles it. Given the importance of the character, I was expecting something momentous. Instead, we get a scene that feels rushed and has little emotional impact.
Yeah, I get it: The movie is supposed to be dark, disturbing and foreboding. It's supposed to act as a transitional film to the big finale. I'm OK with the dark sinister stuff; hell, I welcome it. But Voldemort is nowhere to be seen (unless you count cloud formations), and the movie's secondary bad guys are not given enough screen time to really register. The whole thing lacks focus.
I haven't read the books (with the exception of Deathly Hallows). With every one of these movies, I have heard diehard fans complain about key points in the books being left out, which is a necessity, considering the lengths of the novels—but the Potterheads I know are almost outraged by the omissions made in this film. I also got a sense that something was missing.
While I'm mostly complaining here, the film is more of a near-miss than a total failure. But given the quality of the four chapters preceding it, this qualifies as a major letdown, especially after the delay in the release date.
Part one of Hallows hits next year. Let's hope Half Blood-Prince is just a misstep for Yates, and that he steers the franchise to a finish worthy of Harry and friends. And, please, no rave scenes.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Official Site: harrypotter.warnerbros.com/harrypotterandthehalf-bloodprince
Producer: David Heyman, David Barron and Lionel Wigram
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Jim Broadbent, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Timothy Spall, David Thewlis, David Bradley, Warwick Davis, Tom Felton, Julie Walters, Jessie Cave, Frank Dillane, Matthew Lewis, Evanna Lynch, Helen McCrory, Natalia Tena, Bonnie Wright and Hero Tiffin
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The thing I'm most worried about is that the 350-page scene of Whiny Emo Angst in the Woods from book 7 will be the main focus of the last two films. Rowling really needed an editor to sit her down and say, "Look, JoAnne, you have GOT to redact some of this crap."
Thanks for your feedback...and thanks for not yelling at me for not liking a Harry Potter movie!
Mr. Grimm,
Two of your major criticisms are also true of the book: Voldemort is not in the book either! (except in those memories of when he was younger.) And much of the book was about the "romance", including the "silly" subplot on Ron, which you didn't seem to like either. Please remember one of Ms Rowling's major themes is about love. As for the bad guys, they aren't really in the book a whole lot either. I understand that one battle was removed from this movie to be replaced for an even bigger one at the end of the last movie. I'm guessing you wouldn't have liked the book much either, (although perhaps better than you liked the movie) which might have carried over to the film. Personally I loved this movie because of the interaction of "the trio."
There were several points during the film that could have been shortened considerably, either tightening things up, or leaving room for important material that got left out or reduced.
While I'm no fan of Rowling's writing (she needs an editor desperately, and her prose is flat and tedious at best), she did have a solid climactic point in HBP, and a hell of a battle scene, and a movingly described funeral -- both of which are bobbled excrutiatingly by the writer,the producers, and Yates -- oh, and by Alan Rickman, who plays a highly intense scene as though he's just let out a most disagreeable fart (those potions will do it every time.) We get a bit of energyless running about, and a scene of the kids doing the Hogwarts equivalent of holding up Bic lighters at a Moody Blues concert.
Mr. McDonald, you nailed it. While I enjoyed Rowlings earlier writing, which was clever and engaging, yet not dumbed down for children, it seems to have gone flat as the series progressed. I did enjoy the final book, though that could have used some cutting as well, and I was engaged largely because I wanted to see what happened. That said, I thought this film was a dissapointment not because the story was worse than previous stories, that is Rowlings' fault. What bothered me about this film was that there was so much in it that was either not true to the story or not needed in the film that could have easily been replaced by much better material. The ending was the biggest letdown and in that scene at the end I actually scoffed "what are they, at a concert?" In the book the death and funeral scenes are completely different and could have been treated much differently in the films, replacing or making up for some of its slow, somewhat meaningless prattle.
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