A Half Above the Rest - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Jamieson Villeneuve
July 19, 2009
I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince today; Iīm pretty sure that Iīm still in shock.
For those that havenīt read the books, here is the quick run down of the movie. Harry Potter must help Dumbledore with a grave task this year. He must help Dumbledore procure a memory of the teenaged Voldemort.
If Harry succeeds, they will know more about their enemy and defeat him. If he doesnīt succeed, Voldemort will win.
But there is more going on this time around. A wizarding war has begun and the damage and destruction has spread to the Muggle world. Neither Muggle nor Wizard or Witch is safe. Everything is in turmoil.
Harry also discovers an old potions book that used to belong to the Half-Blood Prince. Who is the Half-Blood Prince and will the book be more of a hindrance to Harry than a helping hand?
Will Harry get the memory from the new potions master, Professor Slughorn? Will they solve the mystery of Voldemortīs past? Will he be able to confess his feelings towards Ginny, Ronīs younger sister?
Will they succeed? And at what cost?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is, by far, the best movie out of the series. David Yates has built upon his already considerable skill and gone above and beyond with Half-Blood Prince. Though his direction of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was superb, Half-Blood Prince is even better.
Yates and Steve Knowles, the screenwriter, have taken what it perhaps the most difficult and clunky of the books in the series and transformed The Half-Blood Prince into something streamlined and beautiful.
The book was incredible but the flashbacks, while a good literary device, would have felt laborious and repetitive in visual format. Knowles has taken a book that goes all over the place (hormones, a country at war, dark wizards, love, secrets revealed, questions unanswered) and transformed it into something that is funny, touching, dark and emotionally moving. No mere feat, I assure you.
And the performances in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were incredible. Watson, Radcliffe and Grint are developing into incredible actors with great comedic and dramatic timing. Most notable, however, are Michael Gambon as Dumbledore and Alan Rickamn as Snape.
Both actors are downplaying their characters this time around, giving us more subtle, quiet performances that are incredibly powerful because of their quietness. Rickman as Serverus Snape is not as angry this time around but no less evil. Dumbledore is far more grim and serious and we can see the weight of the world on his shoulders.
However, I should mention that Freddie Stroma as Cormac McLaggen, Jessie Cave as Lavender Brown and Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy really make the movie. Though they are smaller rolls, they really shone in this movie and made it more than it could have been.
I was also surprised by how incredibly funny the film was. Yates and Knowles really know how to balance out the dark with the comedic and there were quite a few parts that had me snorting into my popcorn. I found this surprising as the book itself had an incredible dark and antsy tone to it. They took the movie in a direction I didnīt think possible and pulled it off incredibly well.
The effects were amazing, the acting incredible, the pace lightning fast, making for an excellent film. But be warned: this is not the warm Harry Potter we were introduced to in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince shows us the series at its most dark and grim. But it is necessary to prepare us for what is to come.
This is without a doubt my favourite in the series of films so far. I know that Iīm going to have to go and see it a few more times just to take it all in.
After watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I can believe that magic, real magic, truly does exist.
For those that havenīt read the books, here is the quick run down of the movie. Harry Potter must help Dumbledore with a grave task this year. He must help Dumbledore procure a memory of the teenaged Voldemort.
If Harry succeeds, they will know more about their enemy and defeat him. If he doesnīt succeed, Voldemort will win.
But there is more going on this time around. A wizarding war has begun and the damage and destruction has spread to the Muggle world. Neither Muggle nor Wizard or Witch is safe. Everything is in turmoil.
Harry also discovers an old potions book that used to belong to the Half-Blood Prince. Who is the Half-Blood Prince and will the book be more of a hindrance to Harry than a helping hand?
Will Harry get the memory from the new potions master, Professor Slughorn? Will they solve the mystery of Voldemortīs past? Will he be able to confess his feelings towards Ginny, Ronīs younger sister?
Will they succeed? And at what cost?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is, by far, the best movie out of the series. David Yates has built upon his already considerable skill and gone above and beyond with Half-Blood Prince. Though his direction of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was superb, Half-Blood Prince is even better.
Yates and Steve Knowles, the screenwriter, have taken what it perhaps the most difficult and clunky of the books in the series and transformed The Half-Blood Prince into something streamlined and beautiful.
The book was incredible but the flashbacks, while a good literary device, would have felt laborious and repetitive in visual format. Knowles has taken a book that goes all over the place (hormones, a country at war, dark wizards, love, secrets revealed, questions unanswered) and transformed it into something that is funny, touching, dark and emotionally moving. No mere feat, I assure you.
And the performances in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were incredible. Watson, Radcliffe and Grint are developing into incredible actors with great comedic and dramatic timing. Most notable, however, are Michael Gambon as Dumbledore and Alan Rickamn as Snape.
Both actors are downplaying their characters this time around, giving us more subtle, quiet performances that are incredibly powerful because of their quietness. Rickman as Serverus Snape is not as angry this time around but no less evil. Dumbledore is far more grim and serious and we can see the weight of the world on his shoulders.
However, I should mention that Freddie Stroma as Cormac McLaggen, Jessie Cave as Lavender Brown and Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy really make the movie. Though they are smaller rolls, they really shone in this movie and made it more than it could have been.
I was also surprised by how incredibly funny the film was. Yates and Knowles really know how to balance out the dark with the comedic and there were quite a few parts that had me snorting into my popcorn. I found this surprising as the book itself had an incredible dark and antsy tone to it. They took the movie in a direction I didnīt think possible and pulled it off incredibly well.
The effects were amazing, the acting incredible, the pace lightning fast, making for an excellent film. But be warned: this is not the warm Harry Potter we were introduced to in Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince shows us the series at its most dark and grim. But it is necessary to prepare us for what is to come.
This is without a doubt my favourite in the series of films so far. I know that Iīm going to have to go and see it a few more times just to take it all in.
After watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I can believe that magic, real magic, truly does exist.
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