Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Synopsis: Harry and pals 6th year at Hogwarts. Wow, Microsoft Word capitalized Hogwarts for me.

Stars: I’m not going to list all the stars that have been in previous Potter movies. The only new actor of note is Jim Broadbent, who plays Professor Slughorn.

I have read all of the Harry Potter books. I have loved them all. They are such amazing pieces of literature that grew up as their first audience also grew. Not that I was in that group. I was in my 20’s when I started reading them. Still am, in my 20’s, cough cough. Having read the book that this movie represented, I find myself doing what everyone does, comparing it to it’s counterpart. And this movie as all the others, was found lacking. I really want to love these movies, but I always seem to walk away a little disappointed, feeling sorry for all the people who haven’t read the books. Oh those fools, they don’t know what they’re missing. They don’t know about Harry’s secret love affair with Neville Longbottom. Wait, never mind, that’s just my sick imagination. Or is it?

Things I liked:
I’m not going to put individual points of like here. It was the same director as the last movie, same actors. I like how dark it was, because the books did become progressively darker and more serious. And the actors always do great. I’m just being lazy around here I guess, heh.

Things I Didn’t:
See things I hated.

Things I Hated:
Once again, a lot was missing- I understand that this is a kids (or kid at heart) type movie with the intention of keeping the short attention spans us movie goers have for 2 and a half hours, but come on. Cut out the quiditch scene, put in some more Voldemort flashbacks. Cut out extra Deatheater stuff, there has to be more things, that are important, that happened in the book, that could have been put in! And why wasn’t Ralph Fines in the movie at all?? What the hell? Sigh.

In the beginning- Dumbledore is such a cock blocker. See the movie, you’ll know what I mean. What an asshole.

Verdict:
So. That was rather negative wasn’t it? I have been milling this movie over and over in my head. What I really wanted to get out of it was to be reminded of all the great things that happened in the book, the things that made it so hard to put it down at night. And it just did not come through for me. It seemed to hit most of the major plot points, and call it a day. Whatever, as a sort of OCD completetist about such things as stories, I had to see this movie in the theater. And everyone who has seen all the other films should go see it too, I’m not gonna tell you not too. But do yourself a favor, and see a matinee. I am going to go re read the books now. Maybe that’ll cheer me up.

Oh yeah, I just remembered. THEY BARELY EVEN MENTIONED WHY IT IS TITLED THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE! WTF!!! Ok, less caffeine.