Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
By Teresa Jusino
I’m a “bad geek.” I obsess over TV shows, love comics, go see midnight shows of geeky movies, and can have lengthy conversations about any of it. But I don’t have a good geek’s encyclopedic memory. I’m not good at remembering minutiae. I’ll forget even major plot points if I’m away from a story for too long, and there are very few things I watch/read often enough for me to remember everything by rote. The fact that most geeky stories have sprawling, detailed lore doesn’t help the fact that I can’t keep things straight.
I don’t consider this a bad thing though, because while it might make me a “bad geek”, it also allows me to enjoy things anew. I can love reboots like the latest Star Trek movie or film adaptations of work in other mediums, because I’m not beholden to years of canon.
I’m sure it is this quality that allowed me to really enjoy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
***SPOILER ALERT!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED***
The short version of the story for the two of you who haven’t read the books is this: it’s Harry’s sixth year at Hogwarts. He is more famous than he’s ever been after the events in Order of the Phoenix, and now Dumbledore needs him to take greater risks and go further than he ever has before to get closer to stopping the Dark Lord, Voldemort. Meanwhile, he and his friends are getting older, and are becoming more and more interested in the opposite sex. Romance drama abounds!
From the opening credit sequence, I knew I was going to like this. The first shot of Harry and Dumbledore being photographed by wizard world paparazzi felt like a grown-up film rather than a children’s film. The filmmaking, like the characters in the story, has matured. It was quickly paced, for the most part, and David Yates’ direction captured the increased danger these characters are in. The Death Eaters flying about in black smoke destroying bridges and capturing people in the night; Katie Bell being hoisted in the air, mouth agape, as she suffers a curse, Draco being split open by a painful spell – all of these moments were tackled with the appropriate level of seriousness. We know that from here on in, the films are only going to get darker, and that the stakes are life and death for everyone.
Not only does Yates handle the danger well, but he also captures something very important from the book – the journey from child to sexually aware adult. Compared to the preceding films, this movie seems downright tawdry, and yet Ron’s relationship with Lavender, Harry’s relationship with Ginny, Hermione’s fending off another boy’s advances while pining for Ron, and even random make-out sessions in Hogwarts’ corridors are all handled in a truthful and age-appropriate way. Teenagers aren’t condescended to, but they’re also allowed to act their age and not like adults in high school uniforms.
This film’s greatest asset, however, is its cast. Half-Blood Prince requires the three leads to reach their highest highs and their lowest lows yet, and they have all come into their own. Daniel Radcliffe shines in this, as he not only captures the gravity of what’s happening, but manages to demonstrate some comedic genius in playing Harry under the influence of Felix Felicis. If Rupert Grint’s comedic chops were ever in doubt, his love potion scene or the Quiddich scenes here should make you a believer. And Emma Watson, who’s always been a weak link for me, has blossomed as an actress. She finally shows us what she’s capable of, and when her heart breaks over Ron, ours break too.
There are a lot of changes/omissions between novel and film. For example, Bellatrix Lestrange plays a very important role in the film, whereas she’s a mere cameo in the book. However, when a character is played as colorfully as Bellatrix is by Helena Bonham Carter, I say bring her on! Her being thus involved certainly doesn’t hurt the storytelling, and she manages to convey the level of single-minded evil and insanity present in the Death Eaters with very few words.
The Burrow, the Weasley family home, is destroyed by the Death Eaters in a blaze. That doesn’t happen in the book either, and yet it provided a visual emotional whallop to watch this beloved family suffer in this way.
And then there’s Draco Malfoy, wonderfully (and smolderingly….yeah, I said it) played by Tom Felton. In the film, we see the entire process of his part in going after Dumbledore, whereas it’s only hinted at in the book. There, Draco’s involvement can be summed up by lots of prose and talking in the end. To do that in a film would seem contrived. Not only that, but with a talented actor like Felton performing the role, watching this character go from snotty, rich hooligan to misguided, wounded, insecure child is a revelation. With each step he takes toward his final encounter with Dumbledore, we see a bit more of him being chipped away by the evil that is prodding him along. It’s fascinating to watch.
I went to see the film with a friend of mine who is a bigger Harry Potter geek than I am, and who’d recently re-read the last two books in the series. Her complaints were all about things in the book that were changed for the film. The point I tried to make to her, that I will try to make to any of you who might feel the same way, is that film is about showing, not telling. The changes that were made to the film allowed the filmmakers to capture the important themes of the book as well as get the major necessary plot points across while staying true to this medium. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is an engaging, entertaining, and well-acted film, and if you are willing to see it on its own terms, I think most of you will agree.
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TERESA JUSINO was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so. As a writer, her work has appeared in Elmont Life newspaper, and on the sadly defunct website, CentralBooking.com. She is a founding member and editor of The Revolving Door Commune Blog, is currently at work on a collection of short stories, and is writing a web series for Pareidolia Films called The Pack, which is set to debut this fall! As a geek, Teresa loves all Star Trek, Lost, Fringe, comics, and anything Joss Whedon, Brian K. Vaughan, and Neil Gaiman ever touched. She is also an aspiring fangbanger. Get Twitterpated with Teresa, or visit her in The Red Room.
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i too loathe geeks who can't wrap their minds around the fact that books or comics are a completely different medium from film. i also loathe geeks who smell about as good as an orc carcass.
i also generally enjoyed HP6. but i didnt read the book (my policy is to never read anything with more words than pictures). the direction and cinematography and most of the acting were pretty strong (i disagree with u about ms. granger). however, there were too many random events that weren't sufficiently dealt with by the story's characters that made the movie feel somewhat disjointed and arbitrary. HP3 is still the best.
You and my friend would probably be on the same page, then, about the destruction of The Burrow?
I think the films have been getting progressively better since HP3 (which I also loved!). Chamber of Secrets – both the book and the film – can suck it, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not a fan of either.
Ah, Teresa I loooooove you.
At this point, the films have been following their own personal canon. I think the films have been following their own personal canon since movie 3. That's not to say that the films are completely off the rails from the book, but that the film focuses on certain things that the book does not. For example, in the 5th movie, at then end, we see this moving scene where Harry is trying to reject Voldermort. We get flashbacks and it's very cinematically dramatic and gorgeous. After the film I asked my friend if that was in the book (I've only read each book once…a thousand years ago) and she looked it up and said that whole rejecting Voldermort scene was ONE sentence in the book.
The HP film co. knows what they're doing–they know what scenes will work in a film and what scenes won't, and they cut and add acccordingly. And I think complaining at this point about stuff that's been left out is kinda weird. They've been doing that for the last 5 movies. It really shouldn't come as any surprise.
And HOLY HELL, Lavender Brown was amazing. And I found myself admiring all of the ladies outfits, especially Luna's shiny silver layered cake dress. It reminded me of Cyndi Lauper…in space.
Yes! I LOVED Luna's wardrobe in this! (I love Luna!) Lavender and Ron both were hilarious in this. Oh, Won-Won.
As for complaining about the changes in the book. It's true that that's what they've been doing all along, but it's also for that reason that my friend thinks that the movies have been getting progressively worse. She hated Order of the Phoenix, and hated this new one. I don't hold out much hope that she'll be at all satisfied with the last two for Deathly Hallows. But I could be wrong.
Personally I was dissapointed by a few things that were added/left out, of course being obsessed with the potter books myself I was outraged when they had a few pet peeves:
1. MAGIC out of school!!!!! What on earth is up with that anyway? An essential piece of the books is completely trampled over by these movies, starting in the third movie I have always frowned upon this particular aspect.
2. Adding things that weren’t in the books, I know you have to cut stuff to fit a book this size into two hours, but personally I feel Rowling did a fine job knowing what to put in and what she thought important was plenty.
Also here are a few scenes that should have been cut and replaced by something more important:
1. The train/diner scene at the start, get rid of it completely, start with bellatrix and narcissa, then with albus showing up at privet drive (I miss the dursleys).
2. The whole attack on the burrow, what a waste of time, use the time later and put in two more pensieve memories. The one where we see the Gaunts, and where we see Hufflepufs cup and slytherin’s ring, how on earth is Harry supposed to know what the horcruxes are going to be?
3. Finally, either play up the whole slughorn’s party with Luna (great actress) or cut it down a little and add some Harry to Dumbledore discussion concerning what and where the horcruxes are.
All in all I think it was worth seeing but am greatly dissapointed by the storyline in some places.
This is the first movie since the chamber of secrets that that mostly sticks to the story line. Although there is a part that had nothing to do with the book, it was an overall good harry potter film. For someone who hasn’t read the book, this would seem to fast paced and confusing in some places. This is because there are things that a thoroughly explained in the book that weren’t in the movie. But a good film overall.