HP:HBP

[sarahmichelef]

We saw Half Blood Prince last night. It was really good. Really, really good. I still think Prisoner of Azkaban was better, but this was up there. Excellent performances from Jim Broadbent (Slughorn), Daniel Radcliffe (do I need to tell you who he plays?), Tom Felton (Draco), and Alan Rickman (Snape). Oh, and Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix), too, of course. Going through the movie you know they have edited it, but you don't feel like things are horribly missing. I had some issues with some of the changes they made, though, which I will detail below the cut for those who don't want to be spoiled for them. Also plot spoilers, but I figure everybody reading this has read the book already.

There were four changes that bothered me. First off, they might as well not have called it Half Blood Prince for all the screen-time that the "who is the HBP?" issue got. Seriously, there was one scene in the Common Room where they talk about it, one where Hermione says she has been doing research and found nothing, and then Snape revealing that he is the HBP in the final fight. Also, I really wanted the visual of Hagrid carrying Dumbledore's body. The wandlight obliterating the Dark Mark was a nice touch, but it didn't have the same emotional impact that the image of Dumbledore and Hagrid would have.

The other two bothersome changes are more major, and they are fairly intertwined.

• They edited out the battle at the end - Bella, Fenrir, and the Carrows just come in via the Vanishing Cabinet and Hogwarts is totally undefended. So we lose the fact that Dumbledore's death is part of a larger war between the Death Eaters and the rest of the world.
• In the death scene, Harry is not petrified, nor is he under the invisibility cloak. Dumbledore sends him down into the Astronomy Tower and he watches the whole thing through cracks in the floor. To me, this is a major, major change. There is some degree of symmetry in the book - when Draco petrifies him and then takes advantage of Harry's powerlessness to stomp on his face at the beginning, and then the end where Harry is again petrified and under the invisibility cloak and is powerless to protect Dumbledore from Draco and, ultimately, Severus. On top of that, with this version of events, on some level he CHOSE not to try to help Dumbledore. Yeah, he had given Dumbledore his word but it's not like Harry always blindly followed what Dumbledore told him. And my sense from the book has always been that Harry wanted to do something to stop Draco/Snape but couldn't. M argued that he was effectively "petrified" emotionally, but that's just not the same.

None of this took away from my overall enjoyment of the movie, though.

Comments

[childsplay7.livejournal.com]

I thought it was just a "transition movie" - it was okay - at times entertaining - but for me it was mostly just a movie. I did think the best actor in this movie was Draco. There were only 2 - "why the hell did they put that in the movie??" sceens which is not bad for a book into a movie.

[marajade648.livejournal.com]

I agree. There was no way Harry would have just stood there even though Dumbledore told him too.
Over all it was pretty good. I wish they hadn't redone the kiss scene but they left out everything leading up to it so it would have added some much more time.
And what was with the whole running in the reeds thing!? This is not a horror movie, though I jumped a foot at the Inferi even though I knew it was coming.

[almejor.livejournal.com]

I missed the battle too. I thought it was better with an epic battle on the side.