Hmmm, yeah. That title works for me.

Okay. So we went to the sixth Harry Potter movie today: Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince. Obviously I was less than impressed. However, I must preface my review of the movie with my thoughts on the sixth book.

After the Order of the Phoenix I was beginning to get tired of JK’s writing and the waste of great characters. (ex: Sirius Black is brought in as a great story plot only to be killed in the 5th book.) When I finished The Half-Blood Prince I was quite confused as to who the hell the Half-Blood Prince was when most a majority of the story was about Voldemort aka Tom Marvolo Riddle. I actually went on the internet to find some clarification on the story and I was surprised to learn that Snape was the Half-Blood Prince. I grabbed the sixth novel and found the chapter (one chapter, guys!!!) that was all about the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.

Time and time again it seems to me that Severus Snape was a pivotal character in these stories. I don’t think anyone who has read the books will disagree with me. Unfortunately, so many possibilities for the character and JK just continued to keep Snape either too far subdued or just downright flat.

Snape wasn’t the only fascinating character to suffer so. Luna Lovegood: it seems like she had a stronger presence in the films than in the books. I also think Harry and Luna were a more likely pairing than Harry and Ginny Weasley.

So, that’s more or less my gripe with the book. Now for the movie.

If you haven’t read any of the books, you aren’t going to be able to understand what the hell’s going on. I read the books and I was just annoyed. Even though the movie basically followed the book, it was flimsy. Too often I felt that much needed plot development was sacrificed so we could see more funny stuff with the students. There are obligatory gloomy shots to remind you that this is no longer a fun fairytale anymore. The kids are growing and Voldemort is out there sucking the life out of all wizardom.

As just a plain old entertaining movie, it’s quite good. Lots of neat CGI work, things being blasted, and a little blood, courtesy of Draco Malfoy.

Now, a few rants:

What the hell was going on with Narcissa Malfoy’s hair?? Blonde and black? Or was that some sort of dead animal on her head?

The Quidditch game was all right, but was it really needed? I would love to have seen more of the Sectumsempra scene – this is where Harry stupidly defends himself with a spell that he has no idea what it’s result is. It ended quite neatly with Snape kneeling beside Draco and healing him, robes billowing, but we totally missed out on Snape getting angry with Harry. Did it not matter that he nearly killed someone? I guess not.

The film also spent an inordinate time on the romances going on. In the books they were more of an afterthought. This move also took away from how serious the film should have been.

Then, there was the finale, the final act, in which Snape winds up killing Dumbledore. A well done scene, more or less, but two scenes reminded me about some of the reasons why I get bothered by the stories (all seven books) at times. Harry is the only one to give chase to the Death Eaters that were smuggled into Hogwarts? How many teachers are there at that damned school? And there were aurors (magical law enforcement) that were as useless as Red Shirts in Star Trek. Not one single adult tried to stop them? The Death Eaters were majorly outnumbered! The second scene that just made my jaw drop was students and staff raising their lit wands (ala rock concert audience lighters) over the dead body of the Headmaster (while Harry is chasing Snape). Again. Why the hell weren’t any of the adults going after the Death Eaters???

*slams head onto desk*

As a devotee of Severus Snape (and his fan fiction life) I was glad to see that Snape had a bit more onscreen time. He was wasted, though, because there weren’t enough scenes between Snape and Harry to confirm why Dumbledore trusted Severus.

I think I’ve about had my fill of Harry Potter movies.