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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
19.07.2009
Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts for his sixth year only to finds a book with the text "This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince". He must find out who the book belonged to and at the same time help Dubledore discover information about Voldemort's past.
After catching up by watching the previous five movies, I was very much looking forward to the new sixth movie in the series. I had heard mixed thought about it, but of course I had to go seeit myself to make up my own opinion.
My first reaction was the different feeling the movie gave me. Director David Yates has mixed in a good potion of humor into the story and also focuses quite a bit on relationships and dating. This is both negative and positive. It is only normal that as Harry Potter and his friends grow up this is an element that is natural to include and it also adds a new way for the characters to evolve and grow. However I was not entirely happy with the execution and felt that Yates might have overdone it a little.
The movie also features some very dark and serious scenes and this was a warm welcome. As the story progresses the situations become more serious and "grown up" and this is portrayed well. Especially the scenes in the cave with Harry and Dumbledore is a good example. I was happy with Steve Kloves' screenplay and he has included the essentials from the book, but there are some scenes that could have been cut in favor of others. For example the scene at the Weasley house with all the running in the grass dragged out and had no major purpose to the rest of the story. They could instead have included the battle at Hogwarts that is at the end of the book.
The movie has problems standing on its own. This is clear already in the first scene where we get a flashback to the previous movie. The Half-Blood Prince is in my opinion the movie with the least ability to stand on its own in the series. However it works great as a continuation of the story and for anyone that has seen the "The Order of the Phoenix", The Half-Blood Prince will be a natural successor.
Acting is top notch and especially Emma Watson has really found her character. Newcomer Jim Broadbent is also wonderful as Professor Horace Slughorn. I was also happy that they gave Bonnie Wright more screen time. Her character (Ginny Weasley) is important and has not had enough focus in my opinion.
This brings me to the music and this is probably the movies weakest part. Nicholas Hooper is the man responsible and I felt that he it did not live up to the Harry Potter feeling at all. John Williams did such an awesome job with the first movies and the quality has only gone downwards after he was replaced. Special effects are as always great and not overdone which is the case in to many movies these days. The special effects are a big contributor to the overall magical feeling which is essential to the series.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a good addition to the series but it has flaws that prevents it from being perfect. I hope that the last movies (the last book will be split in two) will return the quality of the series to the standard of "Prisoner of Azkaban" which in my opinion is the best one so far. Half-Blood Prince gets a 7/10 from me.
14.01.2012
8/10
After catching up by watching the previous five movies, I was very much looking forward to the new sixth movie in the series. I had heard mixed thought about it, but of course I had to go seeit myself to make up my own opinion.
My first reaction was the different feeling the movie gave me. Director David Yates has mixed in a good potion of humor into the story and also focuses quite a bit on relationships and dating. This is both negative and positive. It is only normal that as Harry Potter and his friends grow up this is an element that is natural to include and it also adds a new way for the characters to evolve and grow. However I was not entirely happy with the execution and felt that Yates might have overdone it a little.
The movie also features some very dark and serious scenes and this was a warm welcome. As the story progresses the situations become more serious and "grown up" and this is portrayed well. Especially the scenes in the cave with Harry and Dumbledore is a good example. I was happy with Steve Kloves' screenplay and he has included the essentials from the book, but there are some scenes that could have been cut in favor of others. For example the scene at the Weasley house with all the running in the grass dragged out and had no major purpose to the rest of the story. They could instead have included the battle at Hogwarts that is at the end of the book.
The movie has problems standing on its own. This is clear already in the first scene where we get a flashback to the previous movie. The Half-Blood Prince is in my opinion the movie with the least ability to stand on its own in the series. However it works great as a continuation of the story and for anyone that has seen the "The Order of the Phoenix", The Half-Blood Prince will be a natural successor.
Acting is top notch and especially Emma Watson has really found her character. Newcomer Jim Broadbent is also wonderful as Professor Horace Slughorn. I was also happy that they gave Bonnie Wright more screen time. Her character (Ginny Weasley) is important and has not had enough focus in my opinion.
This brings me to the music and this is probably the movies weakest part. Nicholas Hooper is the man responsible and I felt that he it did not live up to the Harry Potter feeling at all. John Williams did such an awesome job with the first movies and the quality has only gone downwards after he was replaced. Special effects are as always great and not overdone which is the case in to many movies these days. The special effects are a big contributor to the overall magical feeling which is essential to the series.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a good addition to the series but it has flaws that prevents it from being perfect. I hope that the last movies (the last book will be split in two) will return the quality of the series to the standard of "Prisoner of Azkaban" which in my opinion is the best one so far. Half-Blood Prince gets a 7/10 from me.
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