Hello Bloggers! I forgot to mention that I saw Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince over the weekend and found it to be adequate at best. I've read all the books - a few times - and consider myself a big fan, so I'm probably well qualified to judge.Yes, I said adequate at best. I thought it left out some of the most interesting bits of the book while adding things that weren't even in the book - silly action scenes like battles and burning buildings that did very little to advance the story. To me, the additional scenes seemed superfluous in a movie already brimming with the book's less interesting tidbits.
My worst criticism is how the movie left out some of the book's best dialogue (especially a few great conversations between Harry and Dumbledore) to replace it instead with Quidditch highlights and teen angst.
It's true, the movie was filled with half-assed teen romance. The writers/producers unfortunately decided to make romance the movie's leading storyline, instead of the conflict between good and evil that dominated most of the book. Teen troubles were felt throughout the movie, going so far as to pepper the action scenes like bad acne.
My limited praise must go to the actors themselves, since the screenplay was not their fault. All the actors, including the ones we all grew up with, were excellent this time around. Kudos to all!
I wouldn't ignore the movie, for it's worth a matinee price at least. It does include a wonderful portrayal of Horrace Slughorn - Jim Broadbent steals every scene. I'm just a little disappointed because, like so many fans, I want the movies to represent the best parts of the books. Unfortunately, this movie turns Hogwarts into a bit of an English 90210.
As I said, the movie was adequate at best. Let's just hope they do a better job with the last book.
Monday's Movie Review - Michael
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3 comments:
I was afraid of that. The teen-relationship-angst subplot was a positively painful element of the novels and should have been the first thing left out in the difficult process of compressing the lengthy stories down to the scale of a movie.
I've seen a couple of the movies and thought they did a fairly good job with the earlier, simpler novels, but as is usually the case, it's the novels that remain as the true Harry Potter.
I agree Infidel - they could have left out most of the teen angst and the movie would have been much better - for kids, teens and adults.
Thanks for the review Michael. I've been contemplating seeing the movie but worried that this one might not be up to par. Maybe I'll wait for it to hit the cheap theatre in a month or so.
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