Sunday, July 19, 2009

Bite-Size Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The sixth film in the Harry Potter adaptation franchise is very much along the lines of the five that came before it; that is to say, it is a solid, entertaining work of film that is ultimately flawed in its adaptation of its much superior source material.

The movie has some truly great moments, such as the spectacular visual effects and masterful cinematography. Certain performances--particularly Helena Bonham Carter's Bellatrix Lestrange, Emma Watson's Hermione Granger, Michael Gambon's Albus Dumbledore, and Jim Broadbent's Horace Slughorn--are amazingly spot-on and perfectly-executed. Unfortunately the same praise cannot be said for many of the cast. Key characters such as Harry and Snape are represented by serviceable actors, but pale when juxtaposed against the truly great. This is especially evident during virtually every impactful moment in the movie, when almost without exception poor acting turns a powerful romantic scene into one big awkward moment.

The adaptation itself suffers much of the same ups and downs that the cast brings to the film. Overall the film is pretty well-written, but there are plenty auxiliary scenes that unecessarily extend the film when they were lacking from Rowling's original perfect piece in the first place. Really, if you are a writer working around the contraints of adapting such a lengthy tome into a 2-hour movie, you shouldn't be adding your own shoddy, diluting material. The ultimate failure, however, comes in piss-poor direction. The aforementioned acting blunders in romantic sequences feel like the are the result of unassertive, complacent directing that lacks any sort of ambition. In addition, every single powerful scene outside of romantic ones--save for a certain death at the end of the movie--were incredibly flat. At one point, a key character states with little charisma, "yes, I'm the half-blood prince," and promptly walks off casually, leaving no emotional weight whatsoever. The director again utterly fails in creating a movie that can stand on its own; someone who has not read the book will likely be quite lost as very key plot points are thinly explained. A major love interest for Ron doesn't even have her named mentioned once until 3/4 of the way through the film when she plays a notable role in all the books.

So in conclusion, the latest Potter is by no means a failure, but when held up to the book of the same name, it definitely withers. The largest fault of the movie is that the director has done an absolutely terrible job in turning Harry's powerful sixth year into an equally powerful sixth trip to the cinema. It's not bad, but it definitely leaves you longing for a Lord of the Rings-caliber adaptation that truly captures Rowling's wild imagination.


Overall Grade: C+

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