Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Movie Release Rant/Review

In case you didn’t already know, I am an avid HP fan.  So my husband and I bought our tickets in advance, waited in line for over three hours, and cheered with the rest of the crowd when the lights finally dimmed and our exuberant wait came to an end.

I have three words for you. Read The Book.  After watching the movie, my husband and I (who was much angrier than I am) think that perhaps all the writers, directors, and executives should have dusted off their copy and given it a reread before proceeding.

Did I think the movie was horrible.  No.  There are some things they did incredibly well.  The acting and the special effects were great!  What has me upset is how much they left out.  Now I understand that they are going to cut things, because they insist on keeping the length to 2.5 hours (which I still think is stupid, after all that’s what intermissions were invented for).  However, I can’t stand it when they’ve cut important things from the book and then put in made up scenes that didn’t happen.

I did like they way they opened it.  They showed, someone being taken from their home (probably one of the murders that the ministers talk about in the beginning) and they showed the brockdale bridge being destroyed.  Okay, that was a pretty cool opening.  But then it skips the ministers (which I expected) and it SKIPS the Dursleys.  So if you really wanted to see Dumbledore lecture them (like I did) then you are out of luck.  Instead, Dumbledore picks an unsuspecting Harry up outside a diner.

Moving on.  He does go to the burrow, but is dropped off and left alone to walk a bit of a distance to the burrow.  Bill and Fluer have been completely cut out of the movie.  O.W.L.s are never discussed.  They show Fred and George’s Joke Shop (barely) and the Trio are wondering around Diagon alley, apparently alone.  No Mr and Mrs Weasley.  No Hagrid.

They do follow Draco (no invisibility cloak–you only see it once throughout the movie) but Draco is accompanied by his mother, Bellatrix, and Fenrir Greyback.  They show Draco looking at the vanishing cabinet–so the Trio know what he is after, they just don’t know why.

They DID show Malfoy breaking Harry’s nose on the train, but then they have Luna find him instead of Tonks.  Snape does NOT take him up to the school and he enters the Great Hall in school uniform.

Potions class was done well, but Defense Against the Dark Arts is never seen.  The school interactions were good and well done for the most part.  They do not show apparition lessons, it’s not even mentioned.  They DO show quidditch tryouts and the first game.

They show Draco in the Room of Requirement working on the cabinet.  Also, house elves never appear in the movie (which I was very upset about).

After Harry uses Sectumsempra on Draco, Snape does not give him detention.  Therefore there is no other quidditch games after the first one that they show, which means Ginny does not kiss him in a crowded common room.  But the kiss still happens, just at a different time.

Ron and Lavendar are hilarious and Ron does get poisoned, as well as dosed with the love potion from Romilda Vane.

Harry goes back to the burrow for Christmas BUT (and this is one thing that gets me mad)  Rufus and Percy don’t appear (at this point you don’t even know that fudge is not the MOM anymore)  Tonks and Lupin are there (obviously a couple–she calls him sweetheart)  and then Death Eaters Attack the Burrow and Harry runs out after them, followed by Ginny and then the entire burrow is set on fire!  Which does not even come close to happening in the book.  I mean, they are leaving so much out and then they put this in.  It didn’t even make any sense.  It doesn’t do anything for the plot except leave you sitting there confused and wondering what on earth they were thinking.

I forgot to mention, they DID do a GREAT job with Katie Bell and the necklace.

They did a good job with the memories that Dumbledore shows Harry, but they left out at least three–one being rather vital–the Badger Cup memory is never seen, nor is it mentioned.

They did Harry retrieving the memory from Slughorn very well.  But when Harry shows it to Dumbledore and they talk about it afterwards—they screwed up, a lot.  Dumbledore never explains what he thinks the other Horcruxes are.  It is not explained why they would have been chosen.  Basically they only thing conveyed is that there are probably 7 horcruxes and 2 have been destroyed.  That’s it.  They even have Dumbledore say something to the effect of “they could be anything” which is not true.  They would not be just anything, as it is explained in the book.

Now we’re getting toward the end.  They did the locket retrieval well, but they left out striking dialogue and embellished certain aspects.

I for one loved the dialogue after Dumbledore drank the potion where he says he is not afraid because he with Harry.  Harry essentially apparates them back into hogsmead (when they left, they apparated Out Of Hogwarts, supposedly Dumbledore has that ability being headmaster).  This does not happen in the movie.  Instead, After the drinking of the potion, Harry goes to get water (he never does get any water to dumbledore) and is attacked by inferi and pulled down into the lake.  Then flames erupt in the water before him and we see Dumbledore wielding a storm of fire (this actually looked amazing.)  Then after Harry climbs out of they water Dumbledore apparates them into the tower at Hogwarts. At this point there is NO dark mark above the school and Madame Rosemerta is not even mentioned.

Harry doesn’t share the Felix potion with his friends before leaving with Dumbledore.

There is NO battle in the school.

Harry is not petrified under the invisibility cloak

He is hiding under the floor or something like that.

Snape does kill Dumbledore.  That scene is Incredibly well done.

Bellatrix is the one who now sets the dark mark over the school.

The death eaters then flee and harry chases after, it is revealed that Snape is the half blood prince.  Bellatrix sets Hagrid’s hut on fire (apparently it must have been empty because no one comes out)  and they get away.

At this point, because there is no battle, Bill has not been attacked by Fenir.  No one is aware that Snape killed Dumbledore, except for Harry.

Harry goes back to the school and a crowd is gathered around Dumbledore but nobody says anything. They all raise their wands and make the dark mark disperse.  That’s about it.

The trio talk a little bit in a tower somewhere.  Hermoine makes it clear they are going to accompany them.  But they don’t talk about the fact they have several Horcruxes to find.  He doesn’t break up with Ginny.  And the biggest issue (my husband was very upset about this)  They DO NOT SHOW DUMBLEDORE’S FUNERAL.

The ending was very anti climatic and could have been done better.

When the movie ended, we were all left there sitting, expecting more, and then the credits started rolling.  A smattering of applause sounded (no where near matching the cheers at the beginning) and we filed out, disheartened.

Overall it was ok.  Will I watch it again?  Probably, yes, because I’ll buy the dvd since I own the first five.  What they did put in from the book (and when they bothered to do it correctly) was very, very good.  But what they left out and what they chose to make up and add affected the movie, in a very negative way.

So, again, my point is, READ THE BOOK, because the movie doesn’t come anywhere near doing it justice and will probably leave you more confused than wanting for more.

I truly hope that they do not butcher the last book the way they did this one.