Half Blood Prince Review

It sounds reasonably positive.

I dunno if anyone else has noticed that screen Ginny Weasley appears to be morphing into screen Lily Potter. Probably not intentional but just thought I'd mention it.

I really enjoyed it. It tested badly initally apparently so I wasn't expecting much but I thought that it delivered above and beyond. Depsite being two and a half hours long I thought that it was paced nicely and I never found myself looking at my watch. I thought that it kept enough of the book to be relevant and not lose track of the story but cut enough to keep it cracking along a great pace. It had genuinely dark moments which were perfectly counteracted with very light, comic relief. Well worth a watch - keep an eye on Lavender, Ron's love interest, a great young actress with brilliant comic timing in my opinion.

Is there plenty of Tonks & Luna Lovegood in the new one. I thought they were great last time round.

I still haven't read the book but I want to get through it before seeing the film. At my current reading rate and the size of the book, I might just finish it in time for the DVD release.

She is played to perfection. Better than the book because of her lovely accent - 'keeps away the nargles'.

Tonks in the book was annoying. I like her much better since the film.

Agreed. Evanna Lynch is easily the best out of all the younger actors.

I should have been going to see the new film tomorrow, but I'm going out with the family instead. I am still a little wary about seeing it because I pretty much hated HBP and thought it was the worst book of the whole series, but I can't help being quite intrigued by the film all the same.

It is a lot better as a re-read. Now it's one of my favourites.

This is why I don't like modern movies...

You know what else makes really realistic fire? Fire.

It's also quite difficult to work with.

It's not that I mind digital special effects (though I'm not a fan of overuse of them because it's easier). A lot of them are quite brilliant.

I just don't see why something like that should be one of the listed positives of a movie. Nobody says Blade Runner's good because the studio rain machine made it look really realistic.

Seeing as I strongly disliked Order, I went into the new one with very low expectations.

I loved it! Everything was there for me this time around!

Reason I didn't really like Order was the fact it had next to no fun or magic in it. It seemed sort of bland in a way.

Even though it was slightly on the long side, I wouldn't mind seeing it again at the cinema, very enjoyable

Very little of Tonks, which is a shame but plenty of Luna and she is fantastic.

Going to see it tonight. Squee!

Have a blast (ended skrewt).

Nicely done.

I thought Order was the best adaptation so far, simply because it cut out several hundred pages of guff and got on with the story.

I'm looking forward to seeing this one, but I won't be going until the crowds have thinned out somewhat!

Loved it. And that's not easy praise. I liked the last one quite a bit. But the first four were awful. This is my favorite of the books, so I was particularly excited and it met most all of my expecto-patronums.

sorry.

I really didn't enjoy film 5, Goblet of Fire is my favourite of the series and I felt that from the first to fourth they were steadily improving and then five came along and took it all back to square one for me. I really hope this new one is as good as it looks, but I am not a fan of the books at all (I am sure this will change when we get to read them to Nathaniel and put on voices etc)

Order of the Phoenix and Prisoner of Azkaban are my two favourites - both the books and their film adaptations. Half Blood Prince is the one I blame for my no longer being a Harry Potter fan. I've heard mixed reviews from my friends about the film, so I'll just have to wait and see what it's like for myself. I think my brother is taking me to see it tomorrow.

I really enjoyed it, and loved the way that it juxtaposed the comedy of all the love triangles and other teenage stuff with Malfoy, who was in the background of a lot of the shots but barely said a word until the end of the film. I thought he did a great job, as did the girl playing Lavender (who is hilarious).

In all - enjoyable but not my fave, which is still Azkaban.

Thought the film was okayish, got a bit bored about half-way through but then very disappointed with the ending - where the hell was the huge battle???
Helena B-C looked damn sexy again though

There were no events in that film until the last twenty minutes. Nor did the central characters develop. The teenage stuff was all very well but it ended up underlining the fact that nothing much else was going on.

Gambon's a good actor ain't he?

I'm doing a naughty download. It is going to be a crap camera recording but I don't feel it is worth getting my Mum to babysit to go and see...

I'd assumed they decided against including it, cos it would be too similar to the final battle at hogwarts in Deathly Hallows?

Yeah, I think I read that somewhere.

I was more annoyed about them missing out the memory of Voldy's mother, uncle and grandfather, because that was one of my favourite bits of the book, but I guess it wasn't really central to the plot. Still a shame, though.

That's interesting, since I felt the exact opposite about 5. I thought that the first three films represented a continuing trend of improvement, but that the fourth film was pretty dire and that the fifth represented a massive upsurge in quality.

Still haven't seen it, will probably see it on Wednesday since I've got the day off and will be able to watch it during the day.

I need to rewatch the 5th now I have actually read all of the books; I can only remember being really bored and nothing happening when I seen it at the cinema.

I enjoyed the latest one alot more.

The Gaunts were my favourite memory too. My friend concurs with me that they are Tubbs & Edward style squitty-eyed mentals. In my head, I saw Tim Healy as Marvolo Gaunt but that is cos I'd love to hear the word 'Marvolo' spoken in a Tees accent. They couldn't have put them in because it would have been too tangental. The focus was on the teen-love.

Although I have to say - creepy kid and Family-of-Blood schoolboy Riddle were pretty amazing and just as I picture them. I also like the visual of the memories when Harry touched the ring - Peter Jackson couldn't have done better .

I also loved Luna (who is funnier in the films), bunny-boiler Lavender and the highlarious Cormac. Ron and Harry were convincingly matey this time and that was nice to see. Ginny is just lovely and looks like my friend and Harry's mum (as I said elsehwere). She really has been a find, IMO.

Grint seems to be getting cuter by the second and a real talent for goofy physical comedy. Draco was given something to do other than shout insults and the 'sectumsempra' scene was very atmospheric. Sadly - Emma Watson clearly hasn't improved as much in acting as the others so the scenes requiring her to be emotional were a bit ... well ... school-play. Shame because the twins and Neville (not enough of him) have improved immeasurably and are now rather good.

Jim Broadbent was enjoyable but not how I imagined Slughorn. His non-JK stuff about the fish was a bit daft. Helen McCrory wore an amazing coat - I would like to see more of her because she promises to be very compelling. I thought Helena was at times, over-egging the acting pudding with her Amy Winehouse-meets-The-Joker stuff. I imagined someone who looked noble - like Angelica Huston or even, Ronnie Ancona. Not a gothed-up Mrs Rochester cackling away. But she was okay, I suppose. Snape and Hagrid - yes, not much screen-time but it was what we expect from them now. And Amycus Carrow is Chris Finch. Brilliant!



This is the same in the book aside the big battle. I realise two-thirds through that nobody had mentioned the word horcrux. That was the best bit about 6. The dark stuff.



He is totally kick-ass. The scene in Superman-crystals cave was pretty much as good as I imagined and he could give Gandalf AND Yoda a run for their money as cool-old-wizard. My only consolation is that he may come back as Aberforth?

Main bugbear of changes is at the end - Harry was prevented from joining in to save Dumbie by spells and not inaction, which made not sense. Plus, Snape didn't know he was there. They could have organised that better. The raising of the wands was nice but like lighters at a concert.

I liked the film - the washed out look was at times, a bit draining and sometimes the cinematographer was not as good as the 4th film.

Saw it last night.

I really enjoyed it, and thought Broadbent's Slughorn was hilarious.

He was brilliant!

I loved the way he kept changing Ron's name

"What's wrong with Wibbley?"

I'll be waiting for video. The last one I saw in the theatre was #3, and since then no one has directed them better. Cuaron should have been contracted into directing the rest of the series IMO.

My favourite line was Ron to Harry "Did you and Ginny do it yet"?
Film was pretty good actually, first one I've actually liked I think

I really enjoyed it, thought it was very funny in places too. It's been such a long time since I read the book it makes me want to go back to it again.

I think I will have to have a second viewing with Miss Sefi if she's up for it.

Ax

We'll arrange something, lady.

I'll have my specs and fake scar at the ready.

Ax

The sexual innuendo was rife in that film. My friends found more than I did, so at least I know it wasn't just me being dirty minded.

Finally watched The Half-Blood Prince yesterday afternoon - it wasn't bad, certainly better than Chamber of Secrets and Order of the Pheonix.

Kev W

I liked it, much better that the last film and it has built things up for the two final films.

Saw it on Thursday and was spell bound (waff, waff, waff). I thought it was great and didn't focus too much on the romance aspect. I liked phoenix too as it also cut out a lot of the pubic school "Guff" from the novel (which I found sluggish to read). I also agree that Goblet was a pants movie despite being a better read than phoenix. It seemed to keep more of the guff and cut some of the more interesting aspects of the book. I don't know why they need two films for Hallows. The guff in Hallows is guffing around in a tent and if I wanted to see that on the silver screen I'd watch "nuts in may". Maybe they're pulling a peter Jackson and leaving all the unnecessary detail in the final movie.
Lastly I think Emaa Watson has improved as an actor as she no longer leaves all her emotional responses to her eyebrows.

She really hasn't.

I agree.

Too much of Hermione lusting over Ron, I thought.

I can't remember their relationship being mentioned that much in the book. Not until Deathly Hallows.

I thought Hermione spent most of The Half Blood Prince being annoyed with Ron?

I thought Hermione spent most of The Half Blood Prince being annoyed with Ron?

I thought Hermione spent most of The Half Blood Prince being annoyed with Ron?

Hermione!

Hermione!

Hermione!

Watched it the other day and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It continued on from Order of the Phoenix nicely (was anyone else surprised by how subdued the opening was? I know it's not a happy beginning, but the beginning with all the photographers transitioning into the title with barely any music seemed like a really jarring choice for the opening of a kid's film) and felt much leaner and tighter than most of the films have before (coughGobletofFirecough).

It suffers from the same basic problem that Order of the Phoenix did which is that, apart from the obvious character deaths and the introduction of the Horcruxes, not much of import happens between the end of Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows. There's two whole books of padding and waiting around for the big event to happen, so it's to David Yates' credit that the film winds up feeling so propulsive and interesting, even though we know that nothing is going to happen until the end. The two and a half hours flew by, and I'm not just saying that idly; I had no idea it was that long and was shocked when I found out. I thought it clocked in at under two hours.

As ever, the three principles are either good, functional or annoying (Radcliffe, Grint, Watson) and the supporting cast are great. I really liked how they kept Malfoy in the background for pretty much the entirety of the film. It kept creeping up on the audience, casually reminding us that something was going to happen.

I've no major criticisms with regards to the adaptation. It felt more cohesive than previous entries, far less like just bits from the book strung together in order (though I would need someone who hasn't read the books to confirm whether or not I'm just too close to the source material to extract myself from it). If anything, the title of the film was the problem. It focused so keenly on the stuff that will be important for the series as a whole that it neglected the whole idea of the Half-Blood Prince, making Snape's announcement at the end seem oddly pointless; who cares if you are the Half-Blood Prince? Was anyone wondering who it was? It just seemed like a burden that they couldn't shake off entirely, so they reduced it to its barest elements. Probably for the best, but distracting nonetheless.

Its the fundamental problem of adapting a book about somone reading a book isn't it? I thought they made a very strange choice, especially for a kids film, of not having any clear internal narrative voice reading the book in a voice over, at some points you actually have to read the book on screedn to get what's going on.

Personally I quite disliked this film. I felt like it was forged by some sort of demographic focus group research in which it had been decided that what people like about Harry Potter is all the teenage romance so Ron's personal life seemed to take up about a third of the film at which point there's suddenly a jarring amount of werewolves and stabbings.

I've said it before and I'll say it again (in fact I think I've said most of this before) Michael Gambon is a shit hot actor and no mistake. Really shit hot. He can convey so much through actions and little signs that to watch him act is like reading an internal narration in a novel.

Well yes - it makes a lot less sense than the book. It was a "Spy WHo Loves Me" level of trying to shoehorn the title into the dialogue. Clunky.

Gambon makes Dumbledore far more formidable. This is good.