FG Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth installment of the ridiculously popular series, was finally released to theaters on July 15th after a studio-imposed delay of at least seven months. Was it worth the wait?
It’s always difficult to review an adaptation of a well-loved property. Does one review the film based on its own merits, or is it better to review it in light of the original work? Since the Harry Potter stories are so well-known, I feel that it’s probably good to do both — for the many folks who’ve read every book cover to cover as well as those that haven’t really ever jumped on the bandwagon but have at least been seeing the movies.
The movie. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a much-improved film over the previous movie, The Order of the Phoenix. It feels somewhat like the calm before the inevitable storm that’s looming in the seventh installment, The Deathly Hallows. Confrontation is coming between the darker forces of the wizarding world and…well, everyone else, and Half-Blood Prince establishes that fact nicely.
We see kidnappings, murders, and acts of intimidation and terrorism from Lord Voldemort’s increasingly large supply of batty Death Eaters. Professor Dumbledore and others are attempting to learn as much as they can about their opponents and trying to lay the groundwork for some sort of legitimate resistance. In the midst of all of that, Hogwarts School remains a safe haven for young students of magic (thanks to the defenses placed about the castle by the faculty and The Order of the Phoenix), a place where they can learn about their coursework and how to deal with their raging hormones.
For the most part, this movie focuses less on magical whimsy and more on essential character development. Recent films have taken for granted that we’ve already met and gotten to know the main characters earlier in the series and have looked instead to portrayals of action. However, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and others have grown up quite a bit and it was nice to have the time to reacquaint ourselves with who they are now. Director David Yates and the primary actors did a wonderful job of portraying the craziness of that time of life where relationships blossom awkwardly, feelings are easily hurt, and every interaction with the opposite sex seems more important than it probably actually is. All of this was accomplished in a lighthearted way without being heavy-handed or overly angst-ridden; in fact, it was surprisingly fun and enjoyable.
Throughout all of it, Dumbledore’s and Harry’s investigations have uncovered increasingly disturbing truths about Lord Voldemort’s past as young student Tom Riddle, and their research leads to a very dark and creepy climax to the film. While the adaptation of Order of the Phoenix felt rushed and overstuffed, Half-Blood Prince maintains a very nice pace and tells a good story. It still packs a lot in, but I feel as though it was handled much better than the previous movie, and it was quite fun to watch.
The movie, for those who are picky about the books. While the movie was very good, if you had been hoping for unswerving faithfulness to the book, you’ll be a tad disappointed. While this has always been the case and while I don’t mind having scenes removed or events slightly altered, I do find it frustrating to see major sequences changed or removed entirely just so that the filmmakers can insert entirely different scenes of the screenwriters’ devising that were never in the book to begin with.
Such is the case with Half-Blood Prince. While most of the changes made to the basic storyline made sense and were done simply because of time limitations and such, there were other alterations that made less sense. The first two-thirds or so of the film ran very true to the original story, but by the last third, major sections were being removed from the original plot entirely and several shortcuts were taken that made some expository elements feel clunky.
Making this all the more frustrating was the addition of several sequences over the course of the film that had never been in the book and served little purpose in the movie other than eye candy. I understand that dealing with the large (and growing) number of characters in the books and their increasingly convoluted subplots presents quite a challenge, but had the filmmakers focused more on developing the material that was in J.K. Rowling’s original work to begin with instead of imagining and shooting new scenes, it might have been a better adaptation.
One final note on changes, and it’s something that has bothered me in each of the Potter films so far: Rowling took a lot of time and effort to create magic with a very imaginative range of appearances, effects, and names, yet in the movies most of what we see is people aiming wands at each other and shooting white jets of light that knock each other around and blast holes into inanimate objects. Could we please see spells and potions that look different from each other and have noticeably different results? Thanks.
Final thoughts. Despite some disappointments with a few changes, additions, and alterations, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was still an excellent film, and one of the better ones in the series. I was happy to see David Yates redeem himself a little from Order of the Phoenix and demonstrate that he understands the Potter universe and can create a good movie about it.
At this point, I have high hopes for the Deathly Hallows two-film series. Perhaps by splitting the novel into two films, the cinematic wizards in charge can create a picture that is full of exciting action and deep character moments while still remaining as faithful as possible to the final moments and overall themes of the Harry Potter saga.
Have you seen Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? What did you think?
