Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

[Khaldun]

Discuss.

My take after seeing it yesterday: competently directed by Yates, some good visuals, and yet somehow very flat and rather boring by comparison with the post-Chris Columbus Potter films, including Yates' Order of the Phoenix. It wasn't my favorite book of the series, either, but the book did somehow feel to me as if it had more of a steady ratcheting up of dramatic tension leading the climax than the film did. Most of the fun characters in the series also feel very much pushed to the margins in the film. The three principals seem pretty bored by it all, particularly Emma Watson, who I suspect just wants her check and then a chance to get on with her life.

Also, the end feels very different. I'll skirt spoiler territory just in case of the unlikely possibility that there's someone out there who plans to see the film and yet is unaware of the conclusion of the story, but in the book, Harry suddenly feels very grown-up and for the first time determined to act on his own rather than just wait around passively while events push him this way or that. In the film, that doesn't come across at all.

[ahoythematey]

My short opinion is that I agree that the movie was flat and boring, but disagree on the direction.  There are a lot of really good actors in this movie, and almost every character seemed phoned-in.  Tom Felton surprised me as Draco, though, and I wish they'd spend more time on his scenes.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, Felton was good. I agree that just about all the actors seemed bored and listless otherwise, which must have something to do with Yates, I suppose.

I wonder how much some of the flatness has to do with the relative lack of exciting set-pieces in the book itself.

[ahoythematey]

Well, my theory is that Yates also had his hands tied by others involved, because he had some really beautiful shots in the movie that tell me this isn't some C-list director.  Maybe he needs to co-direct/produce with a more visceral type of director.  

[Khaldun]

Yeah, it's the visuals that make me remark on the competency of Yates himself (compared to Chris Columbus' hackery in the first two films): they're often gorgeous and more importantly aesthetically consistent--you can see what he's going for in the look of things. But then the pacing was just flat, and sometimes (the scene you mention especially) the scenes themselves are just kind of perfunctory in their staging.

[NowhereMan]

My brother and mother went to see this and apprently both fell asleep at different points. Haven't seen it myself but make of that what you will.

[Samwise]

IMO the HP films have only gotten steadily worse since the first one, so it is not a shock to me that this one is rather meh.  I'll probably see it anyway, just like I kept slogging through the books (which peaked for me at #3).

[Evildrider]

I'm the complete opposite.  I liked the books more once I got to the third book, and Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite out of the HP movies so far.  The biggest problem is that the books almost triple in size after the third.  Meaning there's more they have to leave out of each movie as they go along. 

Looking forward to the new movie though, the main complaint I've heard is that there's a lack of action sequences in the movie.  One of the big fight scenes from the book supposedly didn't make it into the movie at all.

[Khaldun]

I thought Prisoner of Azbakan was a really great film from possibly the weakest book in the series. I also thought Goblet of Fire was really well done. My chart of the series would be

Prisoner of Azbakan, Goblet of Fire = great
Order of the Phoenix = decent
Sorcerer's Stone = ok, does the job of introducing series fine
Chamber of Secrets = meh
Half-Blood Prince = boring, flat, not really worth the time it takes to see it.

[ahoythematey]

I'm going to echo the others and say that Prisoner was the best.  Of all the harry potter movies, Prisoner was the closest to standing on it's own as a good movie itself.

[Oban]

I am waiting for the IMAX 3D version to be released in a couple of weeks.

[Tale]

I notice they are doing a double movie for the final book. Probably need a whole movie for the camping. And half the other one.

[NiX]

I am waiting for the IMAX 3D version to be released in a couple of weeks.

Fall asleep in... 3D!

[Khaldun]

The idea of splitting the final movie into two really bugs me. Because you know that's going to mean that the first of the two is going to actually replay the excrutiating camping and wandering scenes as they are in the book, possibly the worst misfire in the whole series and a sign that Rowling was really becoming self-indulgent.

[Slyfeind]

Yay! I caught the good version of the movie! Sorry you all saw the crappy version.

[Triforcer]

I'm betting, without having seen the movie, that they faithfully recreate each and every snogging incident, and also every time any character talks or thinks about snogging. 

[Quinton]

I'm going to echo the others and say that Prisoner was the best.  Of all the harry potter movies, Prisoner was the closest to standing on it's own as a good movie itself.

It's also probably the best book in the series.

[ahoythematey]

I don't know which book I thought was best, but Azkaban is definitely a contender.

[K9]

It's a toss up between the 3rd and 4th books. The 5th book is where the angst and hormones kicked in bad, and having been through puberty once I don't much care to re-experience the crap side of it in written form.

The last book was wank.

[Ironwood]

Well said.

[Oban]

The 5th book is where the angst and hormones kicked in bad, and having been through puberty once I don't much care to re-experience the crap side of it in written form.

Hormones are not a bad thing...

Semi-NSFW:

[Mrbloodworth]

 

[Oban]

born 15 April 1990

[Slyfeind]

So my feeling is, I'm really happy with the changes they made. This was clearly the most fucked-with story of the bunch, but I think it needed it. The book was a bunch of flash backs where Harry and Dumbledore watched people from the past do a whole bunch of talking, interspersed with teenagers whining about their love life, culminating in a zombie fight. They cut the flashbacks to two, focused on the kids and their angst, and...culminated in a zombie fight. When Snape killed Dumbledore, they played it perfectly; they acknowledged everybody in the audience knew what was coming, why it happened, and decided fuck it, here's that scene. My big gripe before seeing it was they diminished Harry and Ginny's kiss, and cut Dumbledore's funeral, but after seeing it, it just played better that way.

Fuck. The final scene stuck out like a sore thumb to me. I was so damn immersed in the world of the movie, then all of a sudden I see Steve Kloves going "LOL HERMIONE IS BETTER THAN RON LOL" and giving Hermione all the cool lines and making Ron sit in the background. Fuck you, Kloves. Ron is Harry's best friend. Quit trying to find ways to write him out of the story.

I agree though, that it just didn't quite push things past the edge. It was all played very subtley, very quietly, not taking things too far. But damn Yates, sometimes things need to go that far. Your whole damn movie doesn't have to be a 2 1/2 hour quiet moment. There are more bigger moments in the last one. I hope he takes things that last step into awesome.

[Merusk]

I'd agree with that assessment, Sly. 

Also, the soundtrack was really off.  Major chords at tense moments instead of minor ones. Music stopping and starting up again at odd points and just generally not feeling right for the scene.   The cinematography, however, was pretty stunning.  Some really nice shots in the film, IMO.  I liked the way both Harry and Draco's story were interlaced in a number of scenes. It let you see both sides of what was going on without some awkward cut or wipe.

I disliked the final scene, though.  I'd have preferred a shortened version of the funeral to "Harry, Ron and Hermione hang out in the astrology tower."  With so many scenes in that tower it felt like the producers just didn't want to spend the money to build another set.  Which really rankles because, yeah, they're hurting for money I'm sure.   

[Selby]

Honestly, the book was 800 pages of flashbacks, teen angst, and talking with 1 stressful scene, and Harry walking in to a semi-action scene at the end followed right by the big climax.  That the movie is not that exciting\just as boring does not surprise me one bit, it's hard to work with the source material when it's not that action packed or exciting to begin with.  All of the first 5 have had a decent pace to them (the fifth had some serious angst issues and didn't get good until the end) so it's not surprising that one film would end up feeling slow or odd.

[Soln]

WTF was that?

That was awful.  No, I haven't read the book, but I was actually looking forward to it after Order of the Phoenix.

It was long, boring and made no fucking sense.  More of a teen soap.  Twilight influence I expect.  Very disappointing.

Edit: it's not worth a rant, but what a lack of plot.  I thought the whole world was upside down after realizing His Badness was back in the last book/film.  There was no jeopardy, no risk -- no sense of mission.  No fucking plot.  "I am the Half Blood Prince lulz." 

[IainC]

Just got back from seeing it. Holy fuck does it take a long time to say nothing at all.

[Merusk]

It's very much a movie you have to have read the book for.  There were 5 things of major relevance in the book and they were all important enough that diluting them like the movie did makes it very 'wtf'-ish, yeah.

 1) The rise of Voldemort's power/ disappearance of 'good guys'.
 2) The discovery of Horcrux's and what they mean about destroying Voldemort
 3) The teenager plot line you all hate. - Most important for Ron's character as he stops being such a cringing self-doubting coward.
 4) Draco Malfoy's attempt at being an assassin and Snape's role in that plot.
 5) Dumbledore's Death

[Triforcer]

Holy fuck is Ron still ugly.  Couldn't Hermione do so, so much better?  Ginny is ok, if you have a fetish for average. 

[Slyfeind]

WTF was that?

That was awful.  No, I haven't read the book, but I was actually looking forward to it after Order of the Phoenix.

It was long, boring and made no fucking sense.  More of a teen soap.  Twilight influence I expect.  Very disappointing.

Edit: it's not worth a rant, but what a lack of plot.  I thought the whole world was upside down after realizing His Badness was back in the last book/film.  There was no jeopardy, no risk -- no sense of mission.  No fucking plot.  "I am the Half Blood Prince lulz." 

Heh. They made an action-packed thriller compared to the book. Personally I liked the characterization and transitionary stuff. It's like they made a whole movie just for the transition moments that were missing from the other five! ^_^

I feel that the whole saga could have been boiled down to three books; Years 1-3, Years 4-5, then Years 6-7. When Spielberg was slated to direct, he wanted to jam the first three books into one movie, which would have been interesting to see.

[ahoythematey]

Action-packed wut?  They glossed over what was pretty much the most action-heavy part of the book.

[Soln]

wife tells me the corn field sequence was not in the book.  To which I say, how obvious -- it was thrilling.  :/

[Jayce]

Like Sly, I saw the good version. It wasn't flawless but not bad.

I did like the pacing compared to Order. Order was my favorite book, but the movie tried to do so much that it had no time to linger.  It felt like the recent Star Wars movies: felt like a bullet list of points to hit.  HBP took time to linger on the aspects they chose to shoot, so it felt alot more naturallly paced.

That said, I think they put too little mystery around Horcruxes. In the book, I spent half the time speculating about what deep evil thing this was.  In the movie I didn't have time to.  Also , I would have liked to see more Pensieve moments - the Gaunt family, etc.  They never even explained what Dumbledore's black hand was about, so if you missed the book  you missed that entirely.

Not perfect, but not terrible.

[Slyfeind]

Action-packed wut?  They glossed over what was pretty much the most action-heavy part of the book.

I'm of two minds about that. On the one hand, after Dumbledore dies, it's a real pace-killer to have a big fight scene after that. It's like in Star Wars when Luke is going "I can't believe Ben's gone," then all of a sudden he's giggling as the TIE fighters attack. I was really glad to get Harry against Snape as soon as possible. But on the other hand, in the book it was really thrilling to see Harry kick some ass, really displaying excellence and efficiency, while everybody is looking to him trying to figure out what's going on. I mean holy crap, Harry takes on multiple death eaters in the book and they don't stand a chance against him. That would have been awesome to see.