“Doing is overrated, and success undesirable, but the bitterness of failure even more so”
--Cyril Connolly
--Cyril Connolly
Yet again it becomes quite clear that Hollywood is relying on a big-named series to make money, while leaving movie patrons grasping for more yet happy it is over. In a nutshell when I went to see the midnight premier of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the experience went something like this. It started late, more people clapped and cheered at the end of the Where the Wild Things Are trailer than they did at the end of the film, and one of my friends literally snored her way through Dumbledore’s death. So if you haven’t guessed by now, this will not be a very positive review.
The hype machine sucked me in for this one. Admittedly I have not been a fan of the series as a whole, but I did enjoy watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and I expected David Yates to come through again, especially since, I really find J.K. Rowling’s sixth addition to the series to be one of her best Harry Potter books. It had a ton of emotion a very strong love story that did not completely consume the main plot of the book and one hell of an ending. You would think anyone could make a great movie out of her creation, but the movie adaptation fell flat.
The majority of the book deals with three major plot points, who the Half-Blood Prince is, the increased Voldermort/Deatheater presence, and the budding love interests of Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione. Unfortunately most of these major points are glossed over in a few short scenes none of which gives the viewer any closure. Instead the majority of the film is spent watching Draco Malfoy skulk around Hogwarts, with at least four shots of him pulling a dusty rug off of the Vanishing closet (I am almost positive they just reused the same shot for each time), and Lavender Brown fawn over Ron (and if you hadn’t read the book before seeing the movie, you could have easily not known who she was considering they mentioned her name about two times the entire movie.
More disappointing still, was the fact that many of the characters that are already quite popular, were noticeably absent on screen, thus missing out on the immense acting skills of Maggie Smith (Prof. McGonagall), Alan Rickman (Prof. Snape), Emma Watson (Hermione), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), and David Thewlis (Remus Lupin). All of these actors had very little screen time, Lupin and Neville each had about one scene with a speaking role, and everyone else with the exception of Hermione, Snape and Luna had about two or three scenes with decent speaking roles.
The plot was very hard to follow because much of the important bits of the story were reduced to one or two scenes and never spoken of again, or alluded to much later in the movie. For example, Apparating and Snape teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts were mentioned once. Hermione and Ron’s love relationship was dealt with well as far as acting goes but was restricted due to the writing. Watson and Daniel Radcliffe were able to really stretch their legs in only a few scenes relating to their respective love interests and they excelled, but those scenes were few and very far between.
Most of the new characters were introduced haphazardly and despite all of the early hype around Luna Lovegood’s character, she was hardly developed past an odd behaving sidekick. The new Potions professor, Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, Vera Drake, Brazil), was a prominent character throughout the movie, but little time was spent explaining who he was, and when it did occur it felt a little rushed.
The most disappointing part of the whole movie was the ending. When I read the book I shed a tear or two for Dumbledore when he died, and was very surprised to find out Snape was the Half-Blood Prince, yet my first thought when Dumbledore died was, “that’s it?” For a movie that had such a jumpy plot, I was very surprised to see how rushed the ending was.
There were still a few bright spots in the movie, Yates was able to capture the darkness and evil that shrouded everything in the wizarding world, and most of the special effects were dazzling and complimented beautiful scenery shots that had a varied depth ranging from desolate beauty of the landscape around the Hogwarts train, to the gorgeous yet dark landscape around Hogwarts. I was very pleased to see how much many of these young actors have matured, Radcliffe, Watson and Rupert Grint really demonstrated their knowledge and understanding of who their characters are supposed to be and more and more quality actors are being placed around them for these films, making a cast of some interest.
Finally, Yates made a good decision to show how much everyone is growing up through subtle shots of couple congregating in dark corners making out, more drinking and lots of sneaky drug references, that made the actors feel more adult than in previous films. These
Unfortunately these positive qualities are blanketed by sub-par writing and plot choices. I can honestly say that this was easily one of the worst films given the potential and if there is one person pleased about how this movie turned out, it was Chris Columbus the director of the first two films, because I am sure he could have come up with a much better plot than this one. I am now even more hesitant to see if Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows can deliver a strong ending to the series, especially since they are cutting it into two movie, but at least they will be able to make a more comprehensive, interesting, and less confusing plotline.
Making the Grade
Acting: Most of the acting was great but severely restricted by the poor plot. B+
Plot: Nonsensical, choppy with a poor focus, predominantly on other characters besides the three main protagonists. F
Special effects/Visuals: The special effects were great and the landscape shots were very enjoyable to watch but several shots were repetitive and unnecessary (read: Malfoy and the Vanishing Closet). B-
Music: Aside from the theme song the music was either ignorable or not present. Thus it did not lend or detract from the movie. C
Re-watchability: None Whatsoever, read the book. Unless, for some reason, you want have a Harry Potter Movie marathon. D+
Overall Grade: C-
