Movie Review: Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince

Spoiler warning: Read at your own risk because I SOLEMNLY SWEAR I’M UP TO NO GOOD.

Ten minutes into the movie, the first thing you’ll notice is how “bookish” Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is. Reading the book 300++ days ago, the images I brewed in my head was playing right in front of my IMAX-ed eyes. That wasn’t so bad, right? Harry was so lost to me when Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban made it to the silver screen. While I acknowledge the artistry of directors who want to deviate from the book’s storyline, I prefer making the movies as close to the book as possible. After all, that’s the magic in all of it: transforming imagination into animation.

So back to the movie. Like I said, it was book-ish (at least for the first ten minutes). They nailed the perfect silver screen portrayal of Professor Slughorn and Narcissa Malfoy. While there are a few side quests added to make it richer, that’s okay. I was getting my trip’s worth.

As far as I’m concerned, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was on a winning streak until it hit a wall—a big, black, thick wall.

During cocktails at the Press Screening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was held at IMAX SM Mall of Asia, my friend Jori and I were talking about the whole Harry Potter business. The previous movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix received a lot of criticisms and negative ratings because the majority think it was a “dark” movie, obviously not kid’s stuff.

I rolled my eyes in the absurdity of it all. When you read the entire HP Saga, you would realize that Harry Potter is a dark character. The whole HP kingdom deals with sorcery, witchcraft, curses, murders, lost souls, ghouls, and dark magic. It’s stupid to say that HP is child’s play. So maybe the boy is destined to battle and destroy the darkest wizard of all, Harry is dark himself, battling with his own shared destiny with Voldemort.  Anyway, that’s for another entry. I could screw your heads for an entire week just talking about it.

Back to the movie. In the book, Harry suffered a massive depression because of Sirius Black’s untimely death. He was his godfather, the closest thing Harry had to have a real family. In the movie, it appeared as if Harry wasn’t suffering at all like nothing happened.

And then there’s the business with the Potions book owned by the Half-Blood Prince. There’s a reason why J.K. Rowling gave the 6th book that working title because the book gave Harry a big edge to dark magic. It also gave Hermoine the burning desire to figure out the mysterious owner of the book. In the movie, they didn’t even explain that “Prince” is actually a surname. Duh.

The absence of action scenes can be explained. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, we were stunned by the brilliance of the fight scenes in the Ministry of Magic. In defense of the 6th movie, the book, after all, is intended to be informative.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince tackles Tom Riddle’s childhood and his desire to be immortal. It shed light on Voldemort’s killing spree way before Harry was born. That’s why I didn’t expect much wand dueling, except maybe for the Hogwart’s Battle that took place before Dumbledore was murdered, when the entire student body led by Harry, Hermoine, and Ron, took the Death Eaters by surprise. Oh sorry to burst your bubble Potter fans, they decided to scrap that legendary war altogether. That’s a bad move, a very bad one. That part is the turning point in the saga: it’s when Hogwarts decided to fight back.

And now, the grand finale. Let me tell how the 6th movie destroyed the magic that was Dumbledore. Artistically speaking.

When Optimus Prime was stabbed to death in the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, someone from the upper deck wailed so loud that all of us turned our heads to look. Of course, the guy (yes, it was a guy) probably wet his pants in embarrassment.

Who could blame him? Optimus Prime’s sudden death was wrapped in all of Hollywood’s glory it was heartbreaking. It was an artistic death.

I was expecting the same treatment for the great wizard. As much as his demise is unfortunate, Sirius Black’s death brought more tears to the majority’s eyes.

In the book, Harry wasn’t able to save him because he was stunned and covered by the Invisibility Cloak. As much as he wanted to poke the damned Bellatrix and the rest of the Death Eaters, he couldn’t move an eyelash.

In the book, Harry just stood there. Literally.

At the end of the movie, everyone lit their wands for Dumbledore. However, it would have been more dramatic if they decided to adapt the Hogwart’s Battle and that despite fighting a good fight, their great leader would still be murdered. Oh well, they killed Dumbledore, alright.

On the brighter side of the not-so-dark movie, don’t forget to catch Helena Bonham Carter’s portrayal of Bellatrix Lestrange. It was strangely addictive.

Whew.

But hey, like just everything that requires repeating, there are good runs and bad runs. Despite this one being so bad, it’s still worth watching. After all, it’s still Harry Potter we’re talking about.

Much thanks to Azrael and Warner Bros. for the invitation.

Photos grabbed from fellow writers. Hehehe.

Check out their entries here:

http://azraelsmerryland.blogspot.com/2009/07/event-coverage-harry-potter-and-half.html

http://nextjam.blogspot.com/

Author, 2nd from right, with the movie group.

Come and find me.