Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

IMO the movie was pure solid gold pwnage, but I am most amused at the "DO NOT CHANGE THE BOOK CROWD" being annoyed at, well, lots of things.






(Minor spoilers below)






And I can't be the only person who wanted to yell "Avade kedavre, mother******!" at one particular point . . . only took Hans Gruber a couple of decades to throw someone else off a building in slow mo!

Just watched it tonight, and yes, I had to control myself not to yell out something like that and giggle... getting my ass whooped.

There was a great comedy moment in our showing near the end.

I saw it in the late afternoon, and there were quite a lot of children there, though all well behaved with no talking. Just behind us there were a couple of kids who looked abuot 11 or so. I don't think they'd read the book, because when the first Inferus grabbed Harry by the ankle, one of them suddenly yelled out, with perfect diction, "HOLY SHIT!" at the top of his lungs <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: --> <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: --> <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

Archer Wrote:There was a great comedy moment in our showing near the end.

I saw it in the late afternoon, and there were quite a lot of children there, though all well behaved with no talking. Just behind us there were a couple of kids who looked abuot 11 or so. I don't think they'd read the book, because when the first Inferus grabbed Harry by the ankle, one of them suddenly yelled out, with perfect diction, "HOLY SHIT!" at the top of his lungs <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: --> <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: --> <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

Oh, yeah. I went to the midnight premiere and it was great to watch the *entire* auditorium's worth of people jump at that moment. LOL

It's a shame it was rated PG, maybe they could have put the epic battle at the end of the book in the movie. That, and that movie was SO not PG.

Random emoticon: We should have a Harry Potter/witches and wizardry emoticon. Protesting.

I didn't read the book but "something in the water will jump out" is completely obvious...


... but I still jumped.

Amourosa Wrote:Oh, yeah. I went to the midnight premiere and it was great to watch the *entire* auditorium's worth of people jump at that moment. LOL

The whole auditorium jumped? Were they all, like, seeing their first ever movie? <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s -->

Quote:It's a shame it was rated PG, maybe they could have put the epic battle at the end of the book in the movie. That, and that movie was SO not PG.

It was a 12A in the UK, which seemed about right. The only thing that I think would have raised the rating was the child abuse (with hinted incest/paedophilia) flashbacks - but the really nasty stuff there was subtle enough that I don't think children would have picked up on it anyway.

I'm actually glad the battle was gone, for four reasons:

1 - The Death Eaters were rather more sinister if they could walk into Hogwarts, kill Dumbledore, and walk out . . . rather than having to fight through an army of Aurors to do it. In the context of the films, we know they can go in with wands blazing: now we know they can come like thieves and do their worst before anyone even notices.

2 - While Liquid Luck saved Harry's friends in the book, on the other hand, if a bunch of 16 year olds (and younger!) are a credible threat to Bellatrix Lestrange's posse, that neuters them a little bit. They're a hell of a lot more intimidating if they can't be fought to a standstill by luck-inspired teenagers.

3 - The previous film ended with a large, epic, Order + pupils vs Death Eaters battle - as will the final one. Having it in this film would have made things far too repititious. (I think that was Steve Kloves' main stated reason for changing the ending a bit.)

4 - The two main plot points that come out of the battle are Bill Weasley being mutilated, and Lupin and Tonks becomming a couple. The latter is important for the rest of the story, and it was established rather well in the extra scene at the Burrow (which also did a great job of establishing Lupin being somewhat reluctant about it all, IMO.) So that leaves poor Bill. In the books, werewolfism has parallels with various things including AIDS, homosexuality, and paedophilia. This led to some great Lupin moments with him trying to deal with prejudice, health problems, worry about infecting loved ones, and knowing his abuser was still wandering around free. Unfortunately, aside from a brief scene in PoA, that entire subtext isn't in the films. And I think Bill being mutilated by Greyback is relevant only with all of that - with that subtext, a crazy butch gay man beat the shit out of him and fucked his face up and possibly gave him AIDS just for fun and his very, very attractive financée loves him so much she doesn't even consider leaving. Very powerful scene. Without that subtext, though, Bill being bitten would mean nothing other than "Damn, those Weasleys are having a REALLY tough time" . . . but that was established very viscerally with their house being blown up.

I'm not going on a rant, heh, it's just that some things that work brilliantly in books do not work at all on the screen, and vice versa. What's amazing about Harry Potter is that the story is so strong the vast, vast majority of it works equally well on both.

Oh and Jim Broadbent deserves a goddamn Oscar. The regret, and pathos, and shame he put into that role was magnificent, it was Shakespearian. Alan Rickman was yet again fantastic, and especially with knowledge of the final book he was layering on the emotions and conflict like crazy - the whole cast was astoundingly good in fact, and I'd say that isn't just the best-acted Harry Potter yet, its's possibly the best-acted fantasy movie I've ever seen. But Jim Broadbent? He was Godly.

And I'm gonna have a late breakfast, get on my bike, and ride out to the cinema to see it again <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":D" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s -->

I'm a book snob...I was disappointed with a lot. I view it the same way I view the LOTR movies. There are the movies and there are the books and they are not the same. All the same, both *stories* are entertaining and powerful. I mean I cried after all. But...still...I want movies to be the book because that's what I want to see.

Granamyr Wrote:I want movies to be the book because that's what I want to see.

I just don't understand this at all. If you want something to be exactly as the book . . . you have the book.

Film and novels are two completely different mediums - "characters do things" is the only thing that's absolutely the same and in fact that's stretching it. Different things simply do not work in different mediums; the most obvious is exposition (in a book it's easy as anything for the author to give huge amounts of background information that has to be conveyed other ways, or not at all, on screen) but that's just scratching the surface.

Aside from the book/film discussion, would Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat work as-is in a computer game? Would Knights of the Old Republic be a good stage play? No and no, because the conventions, limitations, and strengths of their respective mediums allow them to tell different stories.

I understand being annoyed about specific ommissions, additions, or changes (I'm still raaaaaagin' that the hospital sequence was cut from OotP - though I just re-watched it and I admit it would have ruined the pacing horribly); that makes sense to me, wanting to see a favourite bit on the big screen. But wanting the movies and the novels to be identical? I don't understand that at all (especially as it would also require things like no music, and chapter breaks.)

Have yet to see it, and I just can't wait. It sounds excellent.

Plus, out of the 7, HBP is my favorite book.

Miniar Wrote:I didn't read the book but "something in the water will jump out" is completely obvious...


... but I still jumped.

I've read the book and read the posts here so I was expecting the Inferi to grab Harry. I still jumped though as did everyone in the theater I think. It just happened so fast and so suddenly that one can not help but jump. I suppose that after repeated viewing one would get used to it enough that it would not make them jump. I did enjoy the movie though.