Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Recently I saw the new Harry Potter film… twice. This was a film I was looking forward to and, along with Terminator Salvation and Star Trek, one of only three films I was truly excited about at the start of 2009. Having read(listened to) the book a few times I was especially looking forward to seeing how some of my favourite bits from the book had been translated to the big screen. Having now seen the film twice and given my first impressions time to settle and become somewhat more thoughtful opinions, I thought I’d talk about the film; both as a sequel to the Order of the Phoenix film, and as an adaption of the Half-Blood Prince book. I won’t be looking at it from the point of view as a film in its own right; as the sixth film in a series of eight, based on the sixth book in a series of seven which the films have been differing more and more from with every release, the film was never going to be a great film by itself. There will be spoilers from both the book and the film, but at the end and I will warn you before giving anything away… though I imagine anyone with the slightest interest in this will have seen the film by now.
As a sequel to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Although the first film; The Philosophers Stone (or Sorcerers Stone) was the highest grossing Harry Potter film (in the US at least,) it is my opinion, and I don’t think I’m in a minority with this, that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was the best film in the series at that point. With that in mind, Half-Blood Prince had a lot to live up to. Unlike the Order, which followed on from the return of Lord Voldermort at the end of the previous film and subsequently focused a lot of attention on the Dark Lord, the Half-Blood Prince has very little Voldermort to show. Indeed, Ralph Fiennes is not in the film at all, with the exception of a fleeting image of Voldermorts face that could have easily been taken from one of the other films.
Instead this movie sets about explaining the back story of a previously one dimensional evil entity; the Sauron of J.K Rowlings‘ world. Instead, we are shown glimpses into the life of Tom Riddle; Lord Voldermorts childhood self, as Dumbledore and Harry try to learn more about the Dark Lord.
Sticking to the formula of each installment being darker than the previous, Half-Blood Prince is indeed a more sinister affair than its predecessors. The world is feeling the effects of the Dark Lords return and even the muggles are noticing the subtle changes. From the security checks at the gates of Hogwarts, to ominous words of warning from the schools headmaster; the tone is quickly set, the world is more dangerous than before and this is made clear in the early stages of the film.
While the jury still seems to be out on Daniel Radcliffe’s acting ability, there can be no doubt that the supporting cast put on a number of top individual performances. Michael Gambon successfully shows a range of emotions we have not seen in Dumbledore before, a fact that only adds emphasis to the the scene in question. Rupert Grint’s portrayal of a nervous, desperate, love struck and disenchanted Ron Weasley make him the heart of almost every comedic moment throughout, and Emma Watson’s pining, emotional Hermione is as convincing as any. The new addition to the cast, Jim Broadbent as teacher Horace Slughorn, brings a quirky, eccentric character to the fray. Broadbents performance is no less than you’d expect from arguably one of Britains best actors; the amiable personality expertly broken at times with remorse and regret.
Bonnie Wright and Helena Bonham Carter both put in adequate performances as Ginny Weasley and Bellatrix LeStrange respectively, though the lack of overwhelming praise is more to do with the scope of their role than any lacking in their acting skill. Before I move away from the cast, their are two actors that deserve high praise for their roles in this film. Though a large part of their impact was down to the role they played in the story, their skill in acting out those roles shouldn’t be overlooked. Tom Felton executes Dracos transition from a stuck up, cocky bully to a desperate broken man perfectly. His pain and anguish come across with biting realism, and come the penultimate scene you really feel sorry for the boy who has harrassed our hero for the last five films. Finally we come to Severus Snape. Alan Rickman, consistantly praised throughout the Harry Potter series, is on typical form in this installment and, though he has less actual dialogue and screen time than a number of the other cast members, he steals the show through his sarcasm and on screen presence.
The story itself concentrates a lot more on the love lives of Harry, Hermione and Ron; they are all sixteen now after all. Ron, who’s story this time out revolves almost entirely around qudditch and girls, has a particularily amusing sub-plot with Lavender Brown, played by the stunning Jessie Caves’. Things at Hogwarts get complicated as feelings begin to grow, presumably because of hormones. The whole teenage romance angle that takes up most of the in-Hogwarts action can be called endearing, and it shows a side to the main characters that we have not had in any great detail. The blossoming (and crashing) relationships of the students provide the lighter side of Half-Blood Prince, though I think too much emphasis has been placed on this portion of the story that could have been spent on the more interesting events of Voldermorts’ past.
The action scenes are well executed, though a little thin on the ground. The film starts off at a sprint with the scene you’ll no doubt have seen in the trailers, showing the collapse of the Millenium Bridge in London at the hands of the Death Eaters. The scene gives a real sense of being one of the Death Eaters, soaring through the city, especially watched on IMAX 3D. Unfortunately, there is not much more of this calibre action until Harry and Dumbledore’s “cave scene” towards the end of the film. The Death Eaters attack on Harry halfway through the film is not a bad scene, but overall the film has a feeling of never quite committing to one thing or the other.
And that’s the real feeling I have about The Half-Blood Prince; it never commits to a definate route. The plot seems to have neither enough action, or enough story, and more of one would excuse the other. Instead the film feels to be lacking in both, while showing too much of everything else. To sum up, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a solid addition to the series, but is by no means the best. As previously stated, and in the makers defense, Half-Blood did have a very difficult act to follow, and perhaps by topping Order of the Phoenix they would have left themselves an impossible task for the final two films. Fans of the series should enjoy the latest Potter installment, but don’t expect it to set the cinema alight with aww and wonder.
As an adaptation of the Half-Blood Prince book
This portion of this review/analysis is aimed at people who have read the book and are either thinking about watching the movie, or just want to compare opinions with others who have read the book and seen the movie. This part will contain spoilers from both.
I’ll get straight to the point, this film seriously dissapoints as an adaptation of the novel. A few things contribute to why this film could never be as good as the novel; the fact that two hours of film can never contain as much information as a 600+ page novel and the fact that the five previous films in the series have drifted further and further from the written story with every installment. Movie adaptations of books can never have everything that is in the source material (that is not to say that some adaptations aren’t better than their source material) but with each Harry Potter movie the writers had the unenviable task of not only modifying the story to fit J.K Rowlings words onto the big screen, but also making more changes to stay true to the changes made in the previous movies. And this is where the Half-Blood Prince falls down.
Though I accept that changes will have to be made, some of the writers decisions just didn’t seem to make sense. The omition of the chapter between the muggle prime minister and the new minister for magic was not a problem for me. The chapter was effectively a recap and the movie goers, who have two hours of film to remember, don’t really need reminding. The next change I believe was made as the corresponding chapter in the book has a lot of dialogue. However, the change from Dumbledore’s visit to Privet Drive and the subsequent conversation with the Dursleys to Harry sitting in a train station, chatting up a waitress and being somewhat surprised by Dumbledores arrival seems a seriously misthought omission. Though I can’t find the article on the web, I remember reading that Stephen King, while full of praise for the Harry Potter novels, was sick of seeing Harry stuck at the Dursleys at the start of every novel. Dumbledores visit to Privet Drive in the Half-Blood Prince explains in detail why. Instead, Harry calls himself a tosser, stands up an attractive but chavvy waitress and proclaims that he likes to ride around on trains, though this is never mentioned in the books (that I can remember.)
The next big change is the christmas break at the Burrow, in which the minister for magic, Rufus Scrimgeor, attempts to convince Harry to speak out in support of the ministries efforts against Lord Voldermort. This scene is replaced with brief, tender scene between Harry and Ginny, interrupted by an attack on the Burrow by Greyback and Bellatrix, ending in the destruction of the Weasley’s home. I can understand the change here, again the chapter is primarily dialogue and, as stated in the first half of this post, the action is already lacking. That said, I did say that I felt the film could have done with choosing either story or action and sticking to it, and I would not have objected if they had stayed true to the book during this scene. Overall I don’t have a major problem with this change.
There is one other major change, but I will get to that at the end of the post. So you might be wondering why I have found this film so disappointing when two of the four major changes I have mentioned, I have no real problem with. Well there is obviously a lot that is simply taken out of the story, but the biggest omission are Dumbledore and Harry’s many strolls down memory lane. I have always thought that Dumbledore and Voldermort were by far the most interesting characters in the film. Dumbledore’s past is explored in great detail in the Deathly Hallows, but the Half-Blood Prince is supposed to be about Voldermort! Harry and Dumbledore take many a trip into the pensive to explore the youth of Tom Riddle, learn about who he was and why he became who he did and to confirm what Dumbledore suspected about Voldermort and his horcruxes. Instead, we have just a visit to the orphanage to see the child Tom Riddle, and the doctored memory of Slughorns.
Other subtle changes that seemed uneceserry include Snape’s moment of hesitation during the scene where he makes the unbreakable curse. Now this could be just me, but when I read that part of the book I was left in no doubt that Snape was confirmed as a follower of Voldermort. This darkened the tone for the rest of the book. Sure Malfoy was attempting something, and in the book you didn’t know what until the end, but the fact that Snape was there, acting on Voldermorts behalf, made Hogwarts seem less safe. I began to believe Harry could be harmed in Hogwarts, the whole story became instantly more sinister. In the film however, Snapes seeming hesitation to commit himself to Voldermorts plan left me unable to believe he was truly on the side of evil.
Another change in character reaction that killed some of the book was the reaction of Dumbledore upon finding out that Riddle intended to make seven horcruxes. In the book, Dumbledore had guessed, and needed evidence to support what he had surmised. The film had Dumbledore looking like a distressed, fragile old man in the throws of a head rush upon learning of Riddle’s plans, and this takes something away from a character that, up until the end of this film is supposed to have planned for and thought of everything.
Now we come to the final major problem I have with this film, the death of Albus Dumbledore. This scene is not only bad, but it actually annoys me just how bad they have made it. The changes the writers made to this particular scene make Dumbledore look inept, Harry look briefly cowardly, and invasion of Hogwarts by Death Eaters look to initially cause no more disturbance than students sneaking around the halls after hours. Harry, instead of being paralyzed by Dumbledore while wearing his invisibility cloak, and thus being unable to do anything until the spell wears off after Dumbledores death, is told to hide under the stairs and not move. This leaves Harry, a character with a hot head and a tendancy to act on impulse, hiding under the stairs as Snape kills Dumbledore, and remaining under the stairs long enough for the Death Eaters to get a good head start before he starts chasing. The other problem with this change is that the disarming of Dumbledore is no longer down to the headmaster forgoing his one chance to defend himself in order to stun, and in doing so protect Harry, but the sucessful disarming of the greatest wizard of his generation by an average student. Even though Dumbledore was weak and dying, he should still have been able to defend himself against Draco Malfoy, and those who have read the final book will know why Dumbledore would not want to be disarmed. The final insult to the master set piece that Rowling envisaged in her novel, is the fact that after killing Dumbledore, the Death Eaters then stroll out of the school without any opposition from the brave students or security that had been placed around the school. The only reason that seemed to make sense to me would be if they had run out of budget for a big action scene… but I doubt that. The screen time and locations were used, they just had to put battling wizards there instead of a small group of Death Eaters walking through the halls.
This film falls very, very short of Rowlings sixth outing at Hogwarts, and Harry, Dumbledore, Snape and Voldermort all suffer at the hands of the writers.
