I thought that Half-Blood Prince was certainly one of the better movies in the franchise, based on one of the better books. There are some fantastic acting turns: Michael Gambon is awesome, as usual, and Rupert Grint does really well with (comparitively) little screen time. And I was surprised at the maturity of the filmmaking: there are some scenes that are crafted exactly like they were from a horror movie, which fits the tone well well. Plus, the film adaptation does away with some of the stuff I didn’t like from the book (for instance, by getting rid of the character of Tonks, they got rid of the ruination of said character).

The biggest problem with Half-Blood Prince is the problem I’ve had with the past few Harry Potter movies. Ever since Goblet of Fire, the movies have felt like the main plot makes up the framework of the movie, and then a handful of interesting scenes from the book are simply slapped on. This can make the movies feel disjointed, with scenes randomly appearing that have no further impact on the story. Still: I thought that this was one of the better Potter movies, and I think I could easily watch it again.

This book was one of my favorites, focusing on easily the most complex character in the series (Snape). The movie doesn’t go into much of anything though (even with the title) and chooses to focus on adolescent romances.

It was still entertaining, but I was really sorry to see so much of the books content lost in the transition to film. I think this was the first of the movies I’ve seen of the series that left me wanting.

Easily the weak point in the series so far. It was okay, but far, far too slow, with half the action (and plot!) cut in favour of various relationship developments – not good. It did pick up a bit near the end, but until then I was shifting uncomfortably in my seat waiting for something to happen.

Poor choice of emphasis from the film makers, alas.

Have only started reading the book, did screen the movie as per previous plan of HP 1-5 marathon + HP6. I’m very much taken by how the story has gotten much, much darker – for something I’d (forgive me) hardly any interest when the books came about. Took me years to succumb to reading, but like most once I started I could hardly stop. But that’s a testament to some powerful writing. I take the movies as they are, and especially in this case. No spoilers: But know this, this latest Potter offering ends very sadly, and leaves a heavy feeling in your heart. With things going this badly one can only hope that good triumphs in the end and that the cost is not too great. And now to (re)start on the books, to see just how much they left out in the flicks.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet and care about spoilers, now is the time to walk away… but come back and share your thoughts after you’ve seen the movie! ^_

Usually when I see Harry Potter at midnight I try to go see it a second time at a decent hour to give it a fair shot; however given how expensive movie tickets are these days I am certainly not wasting another $10.50 on a movie I know is not worth a second try. Now, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate it like I did PoA. It was a good movie. Great? No. Best out of all the movies so far? Hardly! Better than the last movie? Yes, in some aspects.

Prior to seeing the movie I had finished re-reading the book to refresh my memory. As most of you know this is quite a sad story, which is why I haven’t re-read Deathly Hallows since it first came out. Before I glanced at the what-will-be-cut portion of WikiPedia’s page on the film, I was very optimistic about the film; however once I realized some VERY crucial scenes were cut I was already annoyed.

Ever since David Yates became the new director the only thing keeping me going with these films was his ability to do every scene involving Voldemort and his cronies 98-100% faithful to how it is in the book. This film disappoint me in that respect. If anything, this movie was supposed to be about Harry learning more about Voldemort. Instead, it was overshadowed by Ron and Lavender snogging all over the place!

I understand that for the sake of budgeting and time, some scenes have to be cut. What I don’t understand is changing around and adding stuff in the scenes you do include. By now the changing things around is really compromising the integrity of the film therefore leaving a lot of people who haven’t read the book confused. My sister was confused. Joshua was confused. Joshua’s brother was confused. I tried to keep the book out of my mind, and even I got confused!

I expected the first chapter to be cut. The second chapter was included, but it wasn’t the first scene. The Dursely’s being cut I was understanding, but why couldn’t they have Dumbledore picked him up outside of #12 Privet Drive and make some reference to the spell? WTF was with him being picked up at a train station after flirting with some black chick? Kinda reminded me of the train scene in Prince Caspian.

I did like how they touched on the bridge being messed with and showing Harry numb from the events in the previous film. I loved Horace Slughorn and basically every scene involving him was great! Him as a sofa, hah! Now was it just me or was there a lot of emphasis on the pond near the Weasley’s house? Harry apparates via Dumbledore there. The extremely UNNECESSARY and infuriating scene during the Christmas holidays was by the pond. Um, what?

Diagon Alley was great with the Weasley’s shop until they decided to go after Malfoy. There were key things that happened with Malfoy which supported Harry’s theory Malfoy might be a Death Eater. In the movie they cut these small things out so when Harry expresses his thoughts on Malfoy being a Death Eater it sounds like he pulled it out of his ass. And unless you happened to take a really good look at the wanted poster, you’d never know quite who/what Fenir Greyback is.

Luna or Tonks, I honestly don’t think whoever found Harry was that big of a deal. It made no difference. Surely it was cheaper to have Luna find him than Tonks. I was pretty much fine with everything until we started getting into some key scenes.

The whole Ron/Lavender bit was funny at first, but then it just got annoying. As one reviewer put, “It seems that the producers of Harry Potter were aware of the growing popularity of the Twilight phenomenon and wanted to make their own teenage romantic love story as part of the series.” So true! The portrayal of Harry and Ginny’s relationship was extremely disappointing. In the book Ginny didn’t kiss Harry. Harry kissed her upon realizing she won the Quidditch match replacing him as Seeker. Any scene with those two made me want to barf because it was so overdramatic, not to mention didn’t happen like that at all in the book. They didn’t even touch on their Peter Parker/MJ-like break-up.

My biggest heartburn out of the entire film? The lack of memory scenes (which are a HUGE part of the plot and next book) and the insertion of the Death Eaters burning the Weasley home. In no way shape or form did anything remotely close to that occur to the Weasley house in the book. Didn’t happen AT ALL! Why was it in the movie? What point did it serve? None. By only including 2 out of about 6 or so memories did the film makers waste 2hrs explaining one fact: Voldemort split his soul into 7 Horcruxes. And because there is no explanation the audience is only going to be further confused on how Harry goes about finding these Horcruxes.

As acting goes the only characters that did well were Ron, Slughorn, and Draco. Emma Watson makes Hermione into such an overly emotional drama queen; I can’t stand her. The character of Harry is suppose to be modest, not into himself (”But I AM the chosen one!”) as Daniel made him to be. Snape was only good for the Unbreakable Vow scene.

Here’s the thing about the Potter series. Books 3 through 6 give thorough explanation on why Voldemort went after Harry, why his parents die, how Voldemort came to power, and how he can be destroyed. If you didn’t understand what was going on throughout the book, Dumbledore was there at the end to explain everything. They have failed again and again to give the audience that same courtesy in the movies. Even if things like Dumbledore’s funeral, Bill and Fleur’s wedding and such are supposedly going to be in the next one, they’re going to be wasting a lot of time in the 7th film to try and explain what wasn’t included in this to make sense of the last two films.

Bottom line: Cutting scenes to save time/money is one thing, but cutting scenes that are crucial to the plot and explain things is what makes this movie a poor one.

With the emphasis on the romance over the story, this was a good but not great adaptation.

My review at Epinions.