Comments | mycenae: Harry Potter and the Titular Plotline that Mostly Got Dropped

mycenae

Harry Potter and the Titular Plotline that Mostly Got Dropped

Jul 20, 2009 18:05

Finally got around to seeing Half-Blood Prince on Saturday. Ok, I'm just going to say this: David Yates cannot do epic. I rewatched OotP the other day and got the same feeling. The timing was just off in both movies, especially the "climactic" endings ( Read more... )

movie reviews, harry potter

Comments 8

scorpion_gem July 21 2009, 02:24:41 UTC

I disliked that they cut out several of my favorite lines as well.

And you're right. That last scenes was very strange.

bruinbown July 21 2009, 03:17:58 UTC

I agree completely. but in no point do i agree more then the lack of Snape's final (for that book) teaching moment to Harry. That was amazing in the book and the whole reason to suspect it was possible he was still good.

UGH!

Though there were some well done scenes and such. But yeah, it bugged me in a lot of places.

mycenae July 21 2009, 04:41:47 UTC

I wonder if someone who hadn't read the book and just saw the movie would even question Snape's sudden evilness. The movie made it seem pretty straight up "Well, Snape's evil now!"

I think Snape is one of the most complex and interesting characters in the seiries, and they went and flattened out all the ambiguity about his motives in this movie. Disappointing.

bruinbown July 21 2009, 04:46:52 UTC

Yes. Exactly.

Also, as a whole, i think they completely missed the tone of the book. The book, to me, felt almost like it would have in Britain during WWII. The story of how a group of kids at a school try to live a normal life while a war is going on around them. How the horrific becomes mundane. How they have this constant fear and darkness over their heads but at the same time are able to learn, live, laugh, and find love.

Also the opening was completely unnecessary (the bridge attack).

mycenae July 21 2009, 05:40:35 UTC

Apt parallel! I hadn't thought of it explicitly as like Britain during the blitz. I haven't actually read HBP in a few years, and I sort of forgot that atmosphere. I should just reread it. I was looking at my paperback copy of HBP earlier, though, and this is what the first paragraph of the summary on the back says:

"The war against Voldemort is not going well; even Muggle governments are noticing. Ron scans the obituary pages of the Daily Prophet, looking for familiar names. Dumbledore is absent from Hogwarts for long stretches of time, and the Order of the Phoenix has already suffered losses. And yet... As in all wars, life goes on ( ... )

jedifreac July 21 2009, 07:11:35 UTC

It's not Yates fault. I fully blame Steven Kloves. He just can't PRIORITIZE his freaking adaptations.

mycenae July 21 2009, 07:45:16 UTC

Some of the pacing and editing felt weird to me, and I do think that falls on the director's shoulders. I thought the end of OotP had the same pacing issues (plus Sirius's stupid looking death) and that wasn't a Kloves script.

tamanth July 21 2009, 11:43:42 UTC

I knew this wasn't going to end well when I saw they only had 15 minutes until the movie was over and they had just arrived at the cave. But I have no idea how they could have transformed the ending into a more fitting "showdown" other than making the movie even longer than it already was.

I agree that the Draco storyline was done really well, as was the Slughorn one. And I enjoyed the quidditch (seemed more... dirty, more like real sports). Apparently eople are upset that Dumbledore's funeral wasn't in the movie? Idk I can live without it...