Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - Movie Review

Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince - and wow, just for the thrill of seeing it on the first day on the big screen, though the 3-D is for the name sake.

Anyway, when I first read Harry Potter, I remember that I completed the six books in two days and two nights and it was still a year to go before the seventh one was to be released and I could hardly contain the excitement of touching the book and yes, I pre-ordered it the moment it was on sale and I think I got a good deal too, though I was ripped off on the game DVD that was promised along with it, but what the heck, it is Harry Potter and I watched Order of Phoenix the next day on the first day and man, was I thrilled to sit amongst all those fans waiting anxiously. If I thought the Harry Potter and Order of Phoenix was good, well, half blood prince, exclusively for its cinematography was splendid.

I could hardly restrain myself from standing in the queue in the theatre, knowing that it was still thirty minutes for the opening time and there was no one to even start examining the tickets, I just could not stop myself. My friend, Puri, has her first date with Harry Potter and she was not excited and I, on the other hand did have an experience, yet I could not just sit there, waiting for them to open. “Whether you enter first or last, the movie starts only at five, why don’t you chill?”, was what she said. Tsk! Harry Potter, was all I said.

Well, the drag of the tickets went and we got our 3D glasses and the most funniest thing was the guy who made some announcement about the use of 3D glasses and that got me laughing, well a good sign. Barely in control of my excitement as the names scrolled, I put on my 3-D glasses and man, was it an opening I saw there, oh, well, yes, I did and it was splendid. The dark forces reigning their power on the muggle (human) world and the “chosen one” who has a chance to put a halt to it, was immersed in a news paper in a cafe in the subway station, trying to impress a waitress and ask her out for a date, when he gazes at the flickering light across the station and realizes he has no time for cool ladies. Well, well, there stands Dumbledore, his elegant self, impressing upon the need to hurry in order to save the world and poor Harry was left to hold the hands of an aging old man than that of a cute chick! Ah, the wicked ways of fate!

The movie pretty much progressed in accordance with the book when Prof. Slughorn was asked to join the Hogwarts school and the first quidditch match when Ron Weasley performs brilliantly. The movie portrays the adrenaline rush of teenage hormones, of the intimacy and the frustrations of intimacy, which kind of seems to be a bit funny, since the world is literally at the mercy of these wizards who seem to be caught in the rush of puberty and associated feelings. Hermoine’s performance as a heart stricken teenager was commendable. Harry has always been the people guy and deceptively quiet for the challenges he poses and seems to have a better way of controlling his emotions when he is caught up in the feelings he has for Ginni, his best friend, Ron's sister.

Potions, the subject that has been a nightmare to Harry turns out to be a subject he seems to have mastered this year at Hogwarts without the help of Felix Felicis or the Luck potion, thanks to the book of the half blood prince, which turns out to be more than just a potions text book, teaching Harry new spells to counter his enemies. The unexpected turn of events allows Harry to take potions class and the first student who can make the Draught of the Living Dead drink will win a tiny vial of Felix Felicis, which, thanks to the half blood prince will be won by Harry Potter which plays a monumental role in the later part of the movie.

He also has private lessons with Prof. Dumbledore and goes down the memory lane to find ways of bringing Voldemort down. Pensieve impressed me when I first read about it and it does not stop making me feel that I wish I had a way of taking out bits and pieces of my memories and evaluate them as a bystander. Well, never mind! One such vital piece of information is a conversation between Prof. Slughorn and his favourite student, Tom Riddle (Voldemort), which professor Slughorn refuses to give Dumbledore. Now, Harry is assigned the task of retrieving this crucial information from Slughorn himself.

The way Harry goes about retrieving the information forms the important part of the movie and well, that’s about it. The movie left me for the want of more. There are quite a few things that are missed in the movie and more importantly the life of Tom Riddle was still left as a puzzle, as opposed to the book, which gives a peep into the character of Tom Riddle. There are a lot of memories that are missed in the movie. That Harry was left unpunished when he uses an illegal curse on Malfoy was not a good idea. The second quidditch match was left out. The funeral of Dumbledore was left out. I was wondering if all these will be part of the next two movies, but somehow the movie left out a lot of connecting pieces, for instance, about the horcruxes. How did Voldemort choose them? How will Harry know how to find those horcruxes? I wonder how it will lead into the next film, with Harry just knowing that Voldemort has split his soul and not knowing the number or count or having any idea as to how to go about them, without the guidance of Dumbledore.

If I leave the technicalities aside, the performance of the artists was brilliant. The ending to me was personally disappointing, tampering with the way the book was written. I mean, c’mon, Harry is not the one to stand aside when someone is getting hurt, least of all, when it is Dumbledore and to even conceive the thought that he would stand as a spectator is so unlike Harry that the book shows us to be. Harry is compassionate, courageous and above all ethical and I was seriously disappointed when he just gapes from below at the exchange and the climax. The innovativeness might be appreciated if it enhances the core of the character, not when the very essence of the character is tampered with.

Leaving all that aside, Harry Potter and half blood prince comes out as a teen romance flick than a fantasy flick, sad to say, but true. Disappointing for the audience who read the book, but then again, books do not have a time frame and so, the book makes a lot more sense. But then a picture is worth thousand words, so if a thousand words make a scene, for a movie of two and half hours without a break should definitely give a fair chance at taking the movie as an original rendition of the novel.

But don’t let me disappoint any of you who wishes to see Harry Potter, it is well worth it, for the visual affects and the cast performance and more importantly for the sake of brilliant cinematography.