Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Sucked!

So I watched Harry Potter last night. And these are my thoughts on the movie. The content below does contain several spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the movie and intend to watch it, you can stop reading now.

Word of advice though, it will do you well not to read the book again before watching the movie. Or else you’ll be sorely disappointed like I was.

In a nutshell, HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE sucked! Let me tell you why.

Overall, there wasn’t enough “magic”. If we remembered the previous movies, there was always something new and “magical” that we see. Be it moving staircases and people in paintings, dragons, duelling, ghosts, brooming... there was always something new. In the book, Rowling recognises this and spends considerable time in Fred and George’s shop. In the movie, the production was so lazy that in the last scene with Potter in Dumbledore’s room, the pictures were not moving at all! You can’t help but feel that the producers had let the previous success of the movie go to their heads. There were no ghosts, very little peripheral magic effects, all leading to a feeling of blah...

The adaptation was flat. There were very few crests and ebbs in the movie. One couldn’t help but feel the length of the movie. Yes, there was one scene with Belatrix attacking the Burrow (which was uncessary to the adaptation in my view and did not appear in the book). I blame the writers. They revealed the cupboard and room of requirement too soon, without fanfare (as opposed to the book – which drags out Potters frustration of not knowing where Malfroy went). The “budding romances” so beautifully played out in the book were reduced to disjointed scenes here and there. The sessions of counsel which Harry has with Ron and Herminone where he fills them in his suspicions are all missing, leading to you wondering how Herminone knew Harry had gone to retrieve the Horcrux with Dumbledore. And yes, Harry was holding on to the Potions book, but that was not all of it! It made a difference to him in the book. But the way they wrote the screenplay, you wonder why it was called the Half Blood Prince in the first place?!

All in all, the storyline felt like a letdown, an unsatisfying meal. The scriptwriters sucked.

And what is it with them wearing Muggle clothes throughout? Yes, I know they are 17 and doing their N.E.W.Ts. But Fred / George and Percy were in Hogwarts in their N.E.W.Ts and they wore robes!

Dumbledore was supposed to have been weakened by the potion. But you see him standing up, strong setting fire to the Infreti, and speaking with a strong voice to Malfroy on the Astronomy Tower. He was supposed to have been severely weakened! And thats only why Malfroy could disarm him!

There were several loopholes besides those above! The Millenium bridge collapse is supposed to have led to several deaths, but in the scene where the bridge was bucking, there was no one on the bridge!

I have a one more other question. Why did Snape gesticulate to Harry to keep quiet in the Tower? Why was it not a blast of Peruvian Darkness Powder and all the Deatheaters rushing into the room?

Oh, did I mention I dislike this Dumbledore? He seems too crazy (his eyes are murderous), too dangerous and not the genial person we are familiar with in the book. I'm so glad he's gone.

Gosh. It was a bad movie. I came out of it angry. But we still have to watch it because for the flow to the last book. Grr... Argh!