Several days ago, I was fortunate enough to see the film that is considered to be the greatest in the Harry Potter film series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince . Now, before I begin, I must start off by saying that I am not the biggest Harry Potter fan. I am not even at that level of being a decent Harry Potter fan. I never read any of the books, nor collected any of the action figures, and I didn’t even see most of the films when they were first released. But I saw this latest film and finally concluded that there is not that much to say about it. It was fun, entertaining, and whimsical, but I just can’t help feeling that it is simply not that good as the past 3 films. It surely passes the Sorcerer’s Stone and the Chamber of Secrets, but it just doesn’t go that far as the Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, or the Order of the Phoenix.
I am a huge Star Wars fan, as you all know, and I feel that this film is somewhat the Empire Strikes Back. It was somewhat dark, climatic, and filled with many surprises, but still had them silly and charming points. One of the funniest scenes in this film in my opinion is when Harry flirts with this African-American waitress at a restaurant. This scene somewhat cracked me up. There are also many scenes in this film that involve love. Ron Weasley falls in love with this somewhat rambunctious and lunatic girl called Lavender. Hermione Granger, who seems to be developing feelings for Ron, gets very jealous, resulting with many arguments with Ron. Harry himself also begins to develope feelings for Ron’s sister, Ginny, but is afraid it will interfere with Harry’s relationship with Ron.
Also in this film, we are introduced to a new potions teacher, Professor Slughorn, played by Jim Broadbent, who ironically played the Duke in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (I felt that I should point that out). He is described as yet another charming yet silly character, for in one part, he disguised himself as a chair, and scared the daylights out of Harry. Though funny, Broadbent did a fantastic job playing the character, and I consider him a highlight of the entire film.
We also draw attention to Draco Malfoy, Harry’s rabbling rival from the past 5 films, who had been given a mission from the magical baddy himself, Lord Voldemort. Though seeing him as sort of a snotty, ignorant, adolescent in the last films, he has really developed into a major badass Death Eater in this film, and he’s another highlight in this film.Though most of the film revolves around certain characters, we can not forget about Harry Potter. In this film, Santa Claus, I mean, Albus Dumbledore is training Harry for what he is going to have to do to end the rule of Voldemort. This includes battling Gollems, drinking vulgar potions, and going back in time to see why Lord Voldemort is the bad guy we all know him as today.
Now, I will not spoil anything for any of you that have not seen the movie yet, but something terrible happens at the end of this film. Those who read the books and those who saw the film or some clairvoyance person probably know exactly what I am talking about. But rather then spill the beans for all of you, I will not reveal any of this information. So overall, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a good film, despite it’s controversal elements like the floating screaming girl, or the Wolf Man's appearance, or the chopped up and brewed battle at that end. I wouldn’t consider one of the last of the series, but a pilot of the upcoming two films. It is intended to set up the events on the films, and explains all that will occur. I guess you can say this is the Phantom Menace of the Harry Potter series from a certain perspective, but overall a pretty good film. It gave us a good book that was exterminated and slaughtered, but it was still a good film, I am sure you all agree with me.
But now, let me bring up the fact on why people must shorten movies based off of books, especially the Harry Potter series. If it had everything from the book, the movie would take 10,000 years to end (again, I speak in hyperbole) and we would all be bored out of our minds. Luckily, the brave and couragous men and women that make book based movies find a way to shorten them up, but still give us a good film that is not only entertaining, but a hell of a lot of fun!
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