So. It’s been a little over a week since Harry Potter hit the theaters, and I’ve decided to do a review of the film.
Before I go on – I want to say: HERE THERE BE SPOILERS! If you haven’t seen the film yet, but you want to, GO NO FURTHER! Come back AFTER you’ve seen it and take a gander at the spoileriffic review below the image:
Okay – now that folks have been duly warned, let’s talk about the new film.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth in the series from JK Rowling and the first that I read before seeing the movie, which may have colored my experience just a bit.
I want to say up front that I enjoyed the film, I really did. It was a good movie for what it is.
I’ve been trying to verbalize what I didn’t like about the film, and it’s taken me a week to finally realize what it is.
First up – the film feels rushed and disjointed, more so than any of the others. I understand that they have to make changes, I get it – the book is what? 600 pages long? That would be a massive movie and hardly anyone would sit through it. I’ve never cared for Hollywood treatments of books, but I’ve always felt in the past that they’ve done decent jobs with the Potter flicks – not so much with the ‘Half-blood Prince’ though, which brings me to my second problem.
There was no emotional impact when the death happened. I won’t say who dies, just in case – I don’t want to give EVERYTHING away. But when it happens in the book, it’s just such a shock and is very emotional. Not so much in the movie. It’s such a defining moment in the book and it rips through Harry, fueling his anger and rage. In the movie, it just sort of happens.
If that isn’t a big enough bang for you, in the book, we now have a pretty decent battle inside of Hogwarts between the Deatheaters and the Order of the Phoenix. In the movie? Nothing. Harry chases after Snape but even that fight doesn’t have the bang it does in the book. It’s all very disappointing.
Lastly, there is no funeral. In the book, the funeral brings everyone together, gives them a moment to mourne, to be together – again, it’s a very emotional moment, very poignant. In the movie? Nothing. Not even a mention.
When they mage the decision to remove certain plotlines and minor characters from these movies, I get it – I really do. But I don’t understand the thinking behind the removal of such pivotal moments as these.
In the end, that’s what disappointed me in this movie – the lack of those pivotal moments from the book that -made- the story. I’ve no clue why they would take them out.
~P
