My thoughts on the HBP movie (and book)
I've always held that Half Blood Prince is a bad book, largely comprised of boring or distasteful 'filler' material that Rowling inserted to bide away the time until the critical death of Dumbeldore in the final act. The canon corrections incorporated within the movie adaptation of the novel confirmed my convictions, but also resulted in a much more pleasant experience with the Half Blood Prince this time around.
First of all, an apology to avidbeader, venus_ice and annearchy. While we hadn't made a formal pact to avoid seeing the sixth HP film I'd come over pretty strong in our LJ exchanges right after the release of the movie, stating that I wouldn't pay to see it. But, in the end, I thought I'd toddle along, more to enjoy the atmosphere and reactions of the audience than for any other reason. Something I wouldn't be able to experience watching it at home later on.
Sadly, there wasn't much audience reaction to sample. There were two or three scenes which had the entire theatre laughing and I heard one solitary choked sob from the rear when Dumbledore died. Otherwise it was a fairly subdued congregation throughout. No fangirls squeeing whenever Harry noticed Ginny or Hermione eyed Ron, thankfully.
It's really interesting to see how Kloves changed Rowling's words to make the book more palatable to a general audience. The whole thing about the mystery of the identity of the Half Blood Prince? Even more of an afterthought in the film. It was almost embarrassing to watch the scene where Snape makes his revelation; I doubt if anyone in the congregation really cared. Certainly no-one watching screamed or fainted when Harry discovered whom the Prince really was. :-)
Likewise I appreciated the reduction of the trips down pensieve lane to a mere two scenes, cutting out more of the superfluous filler of the book. I've come across fans who have stated that they found the Tom Riddle back story 'fascinating', but I personally never saw much value in many of those memories, even before Deathly Hallows proved they were unnecessary.
Harry's snooping after Draco? I thought that was handled much better in the film. In the novel we watch Harry try and discover what Draco's up to for the WHOLE SCHOOL YEAR ... with zero success. Really. What sort of 'mystery novel' asks the reader to watch the detective spend the entire book sniffing for clues ... only to fail? When was the last time you read an Agatha Christie novel where Hercule Poirot ends up shaking his head and admitting that the readers had followed him to a dead end? For all of Harry's running to and fro after Draco the novel still fell into Rowling's usual pattern of keeping the readers in the dark until everything is explained by Dumbledore - or explained *to* Dumbledore, in the case of the sixth book - in the penultimate chapter.
Thankfully the movie took a different path, keeping the audience apprised as to Draco's machinations, allowing us to do our own detective work, a much more pleasant experience than being subjected to Rowling's ploy of withholding critical information (something she practised to an abominable degree in Deathly Hallows). I thought the progression of Draco's tests of the cabinets, using the apple and then the birds, was a clever idea. A pity that Harry was too thick to work things out, even when he opens the cabinet to let the bird free near the end!!
The Half Blood Prince fizzle, the memories that went nowhere, following Draco around with zero results ... what's left in Half Blood Prince? Oh, right; the 'romance'.
It was truly hilarious to see the hoops that the movie went through to convince the audience that a Harry/Hermione pairing was not on the cards; that the viewers should follow and endorse the Rowling-sponsored relationships. Before *anything* pops up between Harry and Ginny (excepting the hug at the Burrow) we have Dumbledore assuming that Harry is romantically attracted to his distaff best friend, giving the lad a chance to help the audience out; NO, THE HERO WILL NOT BE MAKING A MATCH WITH HIS BEAUTIFUL BEST FRIEND AND LEADING LADY, PLEASE TO DIRECT YOUR ATTENTION TO THE MOUSEY GIRL IN THE CORNER YES THAT'S HER OKAY THANKS. The "like a sister" H/Hr killer, delivered 1.5 movies ahead of schedule, just to put a brake on the obvious, the scenario that the whole audience - certainly those who had not read the books - would have been expecting as a matter of course. Removing the obvious competition for the official Harry/Ginny relationship.
And then we're told - not shown - of Harry's burgeoning interest in Ginny, and all her good qualities, when he tells Ron that his sister is 'smart, funny and attractive', just to give the audience another helping hand in believing that Harry could find Ginny of interest. This happened before Ginny's first move on Harry, if I recall things correctly. A sad scene, and totally unconvincing, given how movie!Ginny has not been shown to posses any of these attributes.
Still, confronted with these two blatant and awkward signposts - IT'S HARRY AND GINNY FOLKS - the scriptwriter then deemed it safe to intersperse some H/G scenes throughout the remainder of the movie. Zzzzzzz. The word 'chemistry' has been used a *lot* the past week online in reviewing the movie pairings, but it's true - there's zero chemistry between Dan and Bonnie. It's interesting - and sad - to contemplate the inversion that took place when the movie people threw out every last bit of Rowling's canon for Ginny and H/G and substituted their own more palatable version. I'd always had the impression that Harry was the 'active' party to the formation of H/G in the book - well, his chest monster - snarling and fretting after the awesome Ginny Weasley while she happily ignored him and dated Dean. In the movie, though, it's Harry who is completely and utterly passive, with crushing!Ginny making all the (timid) moves on the object of her crush. Ginny hugs Harry; he stands stock still. Ginny ties Harry's shoe laces; he stands stock still. Ginny nibbles at Harry's lips in the Room of Requirement; he's petrified! He doesn't move his lips AT ALL! And he has his eyes shut the entire time.
(The weird thing is, though, that this is the very same Harry who was actively chasing waitresses and other girls all over the countryside before returning to Hogwarts! From what Dumbledore said at the train station our Mister Potter had been quite the Lothario! Yet as soon as he's parked in front of Ginny he runs out of steam. A breakdown in thermodynamics as well as chemistry.)
While I feel the movie folks definitely did the right thing with regard to their correction of the canon, eliding every last bit of Rowling's words on H/G, dismissing the brash and abrasive Ginny of the novel and inserting the gentle and timid continuation of crushing!Ginny from the earlier books and movies, the best I can say about H/G in this film is that it isn't offensive. Sadly it isn't attractive, exciting or interesting either. It just ... isn't much of anything. Bland, forced and definitely unconvincing.
Thankfully the movie people had better success with their version of Ron/Hermione. By cutting out all of the spite on Ron's side - no actively using Lavender to 'get back' at Hermione for kissing Krum, no 'cruelly' harassing her to the point of tears in class - he comes out looking pretty good, even if he's still chiefly occupying the slot in the Trio marked 'comic relief'. I truly detested Ron in the book for his jealous and mean behaviour, but in the movie he's just a boy who accepts Lavender's advances, totally oblivious of Hermione's feelings for him. Loud cheers for this particular canon correction!
Hermione's behaviour is much truer to the book - I read several reviews noting her 'unaccountable' attraction to the 'relatively dim-witted Ron Weasley' - I wonder if those critics were instructed by Rowling to 'go back and re-watch the movies'? - but at least her celluloid killer canaries didn't draw blood.
Some good things about the movie ... the image of the amassed students of Hogwarts dissolving the Dark Mark with their combined light was an excellent scene, I thought. Lavender's scenes were nicely done, fitting in properly with the 'lighter', non-malevolent movie version of the Ron/Hermione/Lavender silliness. In that final scene with an angry Lavender glaring at Hermione I honestly thought they were going to have the character bend her tablespoon in her rage against the girl who'd won her Won Won's heart. The fight between Harry and Draco was quite frightening. And Emma looked absolutely delectable in her party dress. :-)
It seems to me that a large number of (online) H/Hr fans were able to enjoy the movie, simply on the basis of it having more and better Harry/Hermione (friendship) scenes than all the OBHWF 'romantic' moments put together, but unfortunately I wasn't able to go that far; the artificial nature of the film's H/G proved difficult to ignore. I guess I'm a 'glass half empty' type of bloke. But I did take pleasure in seeing how the movie - in eliding such large slabs of Rowling's book - corroborated my own convictions as to the poor quality of that source material.
First of all, an apology to avidbeader, venus_ice and annearchy. While we hadn't made a formal pact to avoid seeing the sixth HP film I'd come over pretty strong in our LJ exchanges right after the release of the movie, stating that I wouldn't pay to see it. But, in the end, I thought I'd toddle along, more to enjoy the atmosphere and reactions of the audience than for any other reason. Something I wouldn't be able to experience watching it at home later on.
Sadly, there wasn't much audience reaction to sample. There were two or three scenes which had the entire theatre laughing and I heard one solitary choked sob from the rear when Dumbledore died. Otherwise it was a fairly subdued congregation throughout. No fangirls squeeing whenever Harry noticed Ginny or Hermione eyed Ron, thankfully.
It's really interesting to see how Kloves changed Rowling's words to make the book more palatable to a general audience. The whole thing about the mystery of the identity of the Half Blood Prince? Even more of an afterthought in the film. It was almost embarrassing to watch the scene where Snape makes his revelation; I doubt if anyone in the congregation really cared. Certainly no-one watching screamed or fainted when Harry discovered whom the Prince really was. :-)
Likewise I appreciated the reduction of the trips down pensieve lane to a mere two scenes, cutting out more of the superfluous filler of the book. I've come across fans who have stated that they found the Tom Riddle back story 'fascinating', but I personally never saw much value in many of those memories, even before Deathly Hallows proved they were unnecessary.
Harry's snooping after Draco? I thought that was handled much better in the film. In the novel we watch Harry try and discover what Draco's up to for the WHOLE SCHOOL YEAR ... with zero success. Really. What sort of 'mystery novel' asks the reader to watch the detective spend the entire book sniffing for clues ... only to fail? When was the last time you read an Agatha Christie novel where Hercule Poirot ends up shaking his head and admitting that the readers had followed him to a dead end? For all of Harry's running to and fro after Draco the novel still fell into Rowling's usual pattern of keeping the readers in the dark until everything is explained by Dumbledore - or explained *to* Dumbledore, in the case of the sixth book - in the penultimate chapter.
Thankfully the movie took a different path, keeping the audience apprised as to Draco's machinations, allowing us to do our own detective work, a much more pleasant experience than being subjected to Rowling's ploy of withholding critical information (something she practised to an abominable degree in Deathly Hallows). I thought the progression of Draco's tests of the cabinets, using the apple and then the birds, was a clever idea. A pity that Harry was too thick to work things out, even when he opens the cabinet to let the bird free near the end!!
The Half Blood Prince fizzle, the memories that went nowhere, following Draco around with zero results ... what's left in Half Blood Prince? Oh, right; the 'romance'.
It was truly hilarious to see the hoops that the movie went through to convince the audience that a Harry/Hermione pairing was not on the cards; that the viewers should follow and endorse the Rowling-sponsored relationships. Before *anything* pops up between Harry and Ginny (excepting the hug at the Burrow) we have Dumbledore assuming that Harry is romantically attracted to his distaff best friend, giving the lad a chance to help the audience out; NO, THE HERO WILL NOT BE MAKING A MATCH WITH HIS BEAUTIFUL BEST FRIEND AND LEADING LADY, PLEASE TO DIRECT YOUR ATTENTION TO THE MOUSEY GIRL IN THE CORNER YES THAT'S HER OKAY THANKS. The "like a sister" H/Hr killer, delivered 1.5 movies ahead of schedule, just to put a brake on the obvious, the scenario that the whole audience - certainly those who had not read the books - would have been expecting as a matter of course. Removing the obvious competition for the official Harry/Ginny relationship.
And then we're told - not shown - of Harry's burgeoning interest in Ginny, and all her good qualities, when he tells Ron that his sister is 'smart, funny and attractive', just to give the audience another helping hand in believing that Harry could find Ginny of interest. This happened before Ginny's first move on Harry, if I recall things correctly. A sad scene, and totally unconvincing, given how movie!Ginny has not been shown to posses any of these attributes.
Still, confronted with these two blatant and awkward signposts - IT'S HARRY AND GINNY FOLKS - the scriptwriter then deemed it safe to intersperse some H/G scenes throughout the remainder of the movie. Zzzzzzz. The word 'chemistry' has been used a *lot* the past week online in reviewing the movie pairings, but it's true - there's zero chemistry between Dan and Bonnie. It's interesting - and sad - to contemplate the inversion that took place when the movie people threw out every last bit of Rowling's canon for Ginny and H/G and substituted their own more palatable version. I'd always had the impression that Harry was the 'active' party to the formation of H/G in the book - well, his chest monster - snarling and fretting after the awesome Ginny Weasley while she happily ignored him and dated Dean. In the movie, though, it's Harry who is completely and utterly passive, with crushing!Ginny making all the (timid) moves on the object of her crush. Ginny hugs Harry; he stands stock still. Ginny ties Harry's shoe laces; he stands stock still. Ginny nibbles at Harry's lips in the Room of Requirement; he's petrified! He doesn't move his lips AT ALL! And he has his eyes shut the entire time.
(The weird thing is, though, that this is the very same Harry who was actively chasing waitresses and other girls all over the countryside before returning to Hogwarts! From what Dumbledore said at the train station our Mister Potter had been quite the Lothario! Yet as soon as he's parked in front of Ginny he runs out of steam. A breakdown in thermodynamics as well as chemistry.)
While I feel the movie folks definitely did the right thing with regard to their correction of the canon, eliding every last bit of Rowling's words on H/G, dismissing the brash and abrasive Ginny of the novel and inserting the gentle and timid continuation of crushing!Ginny from the earlier books and movies, the best I can say about H/G in this film is that it isn't offensive. Sadly it isn't attractive, exciting or interesting either. It just ... isn't much of anything. Bland, forced and definitely unconvincing.
Thankfully the movie people had better success with their version of Ron/Hermione. By cutting out all of the spite on Ron's side - no actively using Lavender to 'get back' at Hermione for kissing Krum, no 'cruelly' harassing her to the point of tears in class - he comes out looking pretty good, even if he's still chiefly occupying the slot in the Trio marked 'comic relief'. I truly detested Ron in the book for his jealous and mean behaviour, but in the movie he's just a boy who accepts Lavender's advances, totally oblivious of Hermione's feelings for him. Loud cheers for this particular canon correction!
Hermione's behaviour is much truer to the book - I read several reviews noting her 'unaccountable' attraction to the 'relatively dim-witted Ron Weasley' - I wonder if those critics were instructed by Rowling to 'go back and re-watch the movies'? - but at least her celluloid killer canaries didn't draw blood.
Some good things about the movie ... the image of the amassed students of Hogwarts dissolving the Dark Mark with their combined light was an excellent scene, I thought. Lavender's scenes were nicely done, fitting in properly with the 'lighter', non-malevolent movie version of the Ron/Hermione/Lavender silliness. In that final scene with an angry Lavender glaring at Hermione I honestly thought they were going to have the character bend her tablespoon in her rage against the girl who'd won her Won Won's heart. The fight between Harry and Draco was quite frightening. And Emma looked absolutely delectable in her party dress. :-)
It seems to me that a large number of (online) H/Hr fans were able to enjoy the movie, simply on the basis of it having more and better Harry/Hermione (friendship) scenes than all the OBHWF 'romantic' moments put together, but unfortunately I wasn't able to go that far; the artificial nature of the film's H/G proved difficult to ignore. I guess I'm a 'glass half empty' type of bloke. But I did take pleasure in seeing how the movie - in eliding such large slabs of Rowling's book - corroborated my own convictions as to the poor quality of that source material.