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Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince. Spoiler Alert!!!
Yep I saw the premiere of the much awaited movie of the year : Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince. Happy that the midnight sales alone crossed $22.5 million dollars..haven't heard such big numbers for the 1st day first show ever. but I thought I should share what I thought about the movie overall.
Half Blood Prince is my favorite of all 7 books. So yes I had lots n lots of expectations on it being filmed on-screen. But after watching the movie for 2hrs 33 mins yesterday I dint get the same feeling I got after I completed the book. Came back and thought about why that could be and realized that the director missed many things in the movie and he somewhat completely changed the mood of the plot.
Cons:
Firstly the plot dint have so much romance n comedy and somehow I felt it was the most prominent part in the movie..
Secondly, the plot was supposed to be DARK..where it was written in such a way that u wld hate Snape and Voldemort a lot throughout the book. You were not supposed to find out Snape as a nice guy until before last 3 or 4 chapters but in the movie they never concentrated him as a bad person nor gave importance to the half blood prince concept. In climax, he just says I am half blood prince and goes off and that was not how it was supposed to be the whole plot.
Furthermore, in this book we came to know a lot about Voldemort and his childhood, his family and all and how he had committed a murder before he joined Hogwarts and how bad a person he was. But the movie dint have nething about ne of this...they just showed couple of memories which lasted maximum 5 mins n said so less about his childhood. This movie should have made you hate and fear Voldemort even more to because you finally understood how Voldemort came to be.
Thirdly, the book starts off with the conversation between prime mister and ministry of magic n he resigning n all and it was never even mentioned in the movie..I thought if they could show death eaters in London city demolishing stuff and muggles getting to know abt them , they should have pictures the scene as a must.
The saddest part and the important part of the book is the funeral at the end. It was of the most important character in the book and it should have been given importance in a better way.
The mood and the anticipation we readers got at the end of the book 6 to read book 7 wasn't there at the end of this movie coz this is the book which paved path for the 7th. May be coz I am talking in point of view of a reader n not that of a from a non-reader.
Pros:
I think this is the best Harry Potter movie so far. The cast is matured and they keep gettign better in their acting skills. I thought they have shown a mixture of dark, thrilling and comedy together and did a good job of what they have together. More than nethign it was visually stunning and made me not complain on wat scenes which were there. I could only complain in those stuff they mis
sed, but the ones which were takes where taken to perfection. Camera work was awesome to see and wonder how they move the camera around the castle from outside. The most favorite among this work which I could recollect was the scene where Ron n Lavender are snogging in one castle top and the camera just shifts to the next castle gradually where Draco is staring at the sky with some dark secrets inside him. I loved that scene.Snape has always been one of my fav character n Alan Rickman suits this character a lot. Felton was really good as Draco this time though I would have been happier if he had more dialogues n part to play as in the book. for a change nice to see Hermoine's emotions, reaction and matured acting. Was so different from previous movies. She seemed to have changed all of the sudden like a love-bug had bitten her. But it was cute. Radcliffe was really good too this time. Like I read somewhere"Radcliffe's growing maturity as Harry gives the role a touching gravity. His scenes with Gambon, superb as Dumbledore, exude ferocity and feeling, notably when they seek a horcrux, where p
art of the Dark Lord's soul resides, on a lake teeming with undead corpses." Wondered if non-reader understood about horcruxs at all.book concentrated about that for a chapter. guess it would be covered in next movie which is in 2 parts. I am sure the director would do justice n make it a grand finale...But it would have been nice if 6 and 7 where taken together n screen in a span of 6 months like LOTR did. Only diff LOTR , all 3 parts were finished filming and then they released the 1st one..Overall I was completely entertained with the movie and was happy to go n watch it with 1000's of fans like me..sitting next to me..cheering for all scenes. Yes, the disappointment may be coz it was my fav book and I wanted all parts to be in but perhaps its not possible and they have to sell the movie commercially to the audience to get all the $ 355 million dollars they have put to it.
So my final verdict is..a complete entertainer which is the best among all 6 but could have had less romance as romantic angle takes up too much time of the movie. Next one is in November 2010..long time before I could even think about it..for now I have lots of stuff to do and next year I might have lots of stuff happening in my life..So Harry Potter until next year end..Goodbye...
