Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince!

Last weekend we watched the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Well, I was waiting for this movie – it was supposed to release last year but they pushed it off. Also, I was looking forward to the movie because this was I think the most important book ‘cos it sets the background for the last book (next two movies) – as it has so much information in the book. So was curious to see how they depict all that in the movie.

The movie is good – not great, but ok. After the fifth movie, I had high expectations from David Yates (I thought he did a great job with the fifth movie) – maybe that’s why it fell a bit flat. Well, I can’t expect to have all the details from a 652 page book fit into a 2 and a half hour movie – but I expected the most imp details to be in there. I was looking forward to seeing how they show the life of Voldemort. So much for my expectations – Voldemort did not as much make an appearance. Not enough ground was laid to carry the story forward in the next two movies. Well, some may argue that you cannot have all the details fit into the movie – well there were scenes that were introduced which are not a part of the book at all. Burning of the Weasley house? What happened? What was the significance of that? That house was supposed to be enchanted and secure enough for Harry to take refuge in. Dumbledore’s death was anything but spectacular – it did not tug at the heart strings at all. And the funeral part was missing – the imp part where the three characters decide the course of their mission – well it was not clear. And the most imp part of the book – Voldemort’s life – most of it was missing.

Well, now to move onto the good stuff. All the kids are grown and quite handsomely so. The acting also has improved a lot from the kids. The romance part was quite nicely dealt with – and it was a nice change from the dark heavy tone the movie sometimes tends to take. Hormones were raging at Hogwarts this year and it was entertaining to watch. The star was Ron – the dude acted well and was pretty funny. But even here there were discrepancies from the book, especially the romance between Ginny and Harry – maybe the thing that everybody was waiting for the most. Again it was very unclear as to what happened – more screen time dedicated to them would have been welcome!

All in all it was entertaining – though was not consistent with the book always. It will be interesting how the director will tie the loose threads in the coming movies. Also, from the fourth movie onwards a HP novice (somebody who has not read the books) will not be able to make much sense of the movie – just ‘cos it is not possible to record all the details. Well am waiting for the next movie to come out and want to check out how they split the book into two.

- Moi

Song of the day: Dhan Te Nan (what else - it is addictive stuff!)
Mood of the day: Sunny