Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (spoilers inside)

[Kev]

Originally posted by: sportage
Midnight showing.
In 8 theaters.
Parking was packed.
Must of been 150 just waiting in lines to get food.

The movie?
Im not a potter fan, seen them all but still not sure of the total over all plot,
other than its a wizard school.

However, this was the most entertaining of the series.
A long film, everyone was hooked throughout the film.
Several sub plots going on at the same time.

Effects were the best of all the series films. A+
Potter fans will not be disappointed.
Non Potter fans will enjoy a well made film.
Every character did a splendid job.
You can tell they have advanced in their acting abilities.
Entertaining...

That was a fantastic poem.

 

[BenSkywalker]

was the book that tame?

A bunch of murders, multi generational abusive incestual family story explored, death from abandonment/exposure, people getting mauled by werewolfs, and in general the rise of an incredibly powerful sociopath is the basis of the book. So yeah, pretty tame stuff

In terms of overall subject matter, Half Blood Prince is the darkest of all the Potter books. I was telling people not to bring their kids to the movie before seeing it, now I am telling them send the kids and go see something else.

I'm betting the whole 'sectum sepra' scene was omitted as well.

It was changed around a biit, but it is still in there. The potions book is only really in the movie twice, once during the first class when Harry wins the vial of Felix, the other right before the sectumsempra scene, only then to point out that is where Harry learned the spell(they actually lengthened the confrontation between him and Malfoy, nothing super but it was actually a brief battle instead of complete smackdown).

 

[Porter21]

I never read any of the HP books at all, but decided to go to the movie at 12:15 since all my friends were going (all of whom had read all books). I couldn't name but a few characters, probably since I fell asleep for most of it. It seemed boring, but like said before, if I was interested in the books it would make a huge difference. My friends mentioned that they left parts out and changed parts as well. 2 and a half hours is a long time too. Our theater sold 3000 tickets, and the one farther away even opened up shows at 3AM. Sucks to have to go to a late movie, not get home till almost four, and be at work from 8 to 5. Oh well, the joys of being young.

 

[Chiropteran]

I haven't read the books or seen the previous movies, but that shouldn't be an excuse to make a terrible movie. Had a couple interesting scenes but the plot made little sense and it was incredibly boring, I literally fell asleep a couple times.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Emma is hot, but she isn't deathly hot, harhar.

Man, we went to the midnight showing, and there were A LOT of little teenies running around....pedo bear anyone?

I liked the movie, it stuck to the book really well this time around...for the most part.

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
Emma is hot, but she isn't deathly hot, harhar.

Man, we went to the midnight showing, and there were A LOT of little teenies running around....pedo bear anyone?

I liked the movie, it stuck to the book really well this time around...for the most part.

I took my 8yr old with me last night to the midnight showing. He was the youngest and I was the oldest. It was a teen-fest no question (90% girls too). Entirely a pedobearfest.

All in all the movie was entertaining, but, even though I haven't read the books but have seen the movies many times over, I could tell there were gaping holes throughout the story up on the screen which left me a bit disappointed. But I realize they can't fit EVERYTHING into a movie ( even a 150min one). It seemed to me there was hardly a "story" in this movie. Nothing there wasn't much any traditinal arch at all it seemed like.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: ryan256
The movies have been steadily going downhill. The first ones were good. 4 was decent, 5 was meh. I haven't seen this one yet and will probably wait til it comes out on DVD before paying money to see it.

I've noticed a direct correlation between the size of the books and the degrading quality of the movies. The content of Rowling's books got so massive starting at 3 and really exploding at 4 and afterwards that trying to make a coherent movie out of them almost seems impossible. Each of the books from four onward could really be split into two movies and still cut significant content.

 

[Safeway]

Isn't Emma Watson ... 16 years old?

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: Safeway
Isn't Emma Watson ... 16 years old?

she hit 18 recently.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: Homerboy

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
Emma is hot, but she isn't deathly hot, harhar.

Man, we went to the midnight showing, and there were A LOT of little teenies running around....pedo bear anyone?

I liked the movie, it stuck to the book really well this time around...for the most part.

I took my 8yr old with me last night to the midnight showing. He was the youngest and I was the oldest. It was a teen-fest no question (90% girls too). Entirely a pedobearfest.

All in all the movie was entertaining, but, even though I haven't read the books but have seen the movies many times over, I could tell there were gaping holes throughout the story up on the screen which left me a bit disappointed. But I realize they can't fit EVERYTHING into a movie ( even a 150min one). It seemed to me there was hardly a "story" in this movie. Nothing there wasn't much any traditinal arch at all it seemed like.

Yeah, they missed a lot from the book too...I am curious how they do the next movie, the movies seem to get darker and darker, I like it...just like in the books .

 

[Kaido]

Just got back from it, I enjoyed it! Lots of cool graphics, fun story (in a dark way), the HD cameras looked really good.

If you've read the books, it doesn't follow the books very well - they added some scenes and removed some big ones, but that's what you have to do in a movie, I guess. Also, they kind of botched the ending - it had no emotion. I'm a Harry Potter fan, but if I wasn't, the ending wouldn't have been enough to get me to go and see part 2 of movie #6 - they needed to leave it at a cliffhanger so that you want more!

But it was a fun show, I enjoyed it

 

[MrChad]

My wife and I will be seeing it tonight. I'm looking forward to it. I've enjoyed the films so far, with the 3rd film probably being my favorite. It's been a while since I've read book 6, but wife recently re-read the whole series, so I guess we'll each have a unique perspective on it.

 

[MovingTarget]

There is one part of the movie where I had to muster every ounce of self control I had not to yell out FREEEBIRRDDD! at the top of my lungs. I don't think I would've made it out of the theater alive...

Hint: When everyone raises their wands in the air and lights them up. If lit wands = lighters and Hogwarts students = attendees of a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, yelling out "Play Freebird next!" is totally appropriate.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: MrChad
My wife and I will be seeing it tonight. I'm looking forward to it. I've enjoyed the films so far, with the 3rd film probably being my favorite. It's been a while since I've read book 6, but wife recently re-read the whole series, so I guess we'll each have a unique perspective on it.

Yeah that was the situation I went into - my wife just finished re-reading them and I haven't read them for awhile. I enjoyed it, she complained that it didn't follow the book

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Homerboy

Originally posted by: Safeway
Isn't Emma Watson ... 16 years old?

she hit 18 recently.

shes 19

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Homerboy

Originally posted by: Safeway
Isn't Emma Watson ... 16 years old?

she hit 18 recently.

shes 19

WTF post pics you guys know the rules.

 

[Dumac]

Originally posted by: KLin
hmm, 98% on rt, 8.3/10 on imdb, yet the OP says it's boring.

Make that 89% now.

Still, I'm surprised that it is even that high. According to the posters in this thread, it seems like they skimped on important details and just focused on bullshit school drama.

It makes sense in a way, as book 6 had an enormous amount of crappy drama. It was like reading a fanfiction...

 

[sactoking]

What I hate is that content like this could make some really good movies, but the writers/directors/producers mess it up. I have issues with LOTR, but I can understand why things were done they way they were. With stuff like this, it's just someone making changes because they can. It's a shame too, because movies like this will probably never be re-made, and they deserve much better treatment than they are getting.

 

[zoiks]

They killed the gay man?

 

[Babbles]

The wife and I just got home from watching it and we both enjoyed the movie.

With the exception of the last book, I have never read any of them (I think she has, but I don't remember). Based solely on the content of the movie I don't think there were any massive plot holes, with the possible exception of not touching in on the kidnapping of the wand vendor at the beginning of the movie. Anyhow, I think it is actually one of the better Harry Potter movies. It does a reasonable job of doing the entire teenage "coming of age" stuff, some humor, some drama, revealed more about the main characters and so forth. Obviously no movie is going to be as encompassing as the novels from which they come, but I tend to think that people who expect some sort of "perfect" adaptation are themselves being intellectually dishonest.

Also in regards to whomever said they only showed the potion book two times is just flat out absolutely wrong. They homed in on that thing over and over again and it was a pretty central pot device for a good chunk of the movie. It is absolutely disingenuous to say otherwise.

 

[Exterous]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Homerboy

Originally posted by: Safeway
Isn't Emma Watson ... 16 years old?

she hit 18 recently.

shes 19

Oooo! Game on!

I am not really a HP fan - I just go because then my wife goes to movies like Star Trek with me - however the movies strike me as incredibly predictable. (The whole using the cabinet thing to get the bad people inside, using the luck potion to get the answers HP wanted etc) Or is that just me?

Overall I was disappointed. Some of the imagery was amazing but the plot seemed to be lacking any well rounded feel to it (Probably because they tried to squeeze a giant book into a movie) and there wasn't that much action.

My wife enjoyed it though so that counts for something

*you now receive $0.02*

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: Exterous

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Homerboy

Originally posted by: Safeway
Isn't Emma Watson ... 16 years old?

she hit 18 recently.

shes 19

Oooo! Game on!

I am not really a HP fan - I just go because then my wife goes to movies like Star Trek with me - however the movies strike me as incredibly predictable. (The whole using the cabinet thing to get the bad people inside, using the luck potion to get the answers HP wanted etc) Or is that just me?

Overall I was disappointed. Some of the imagery was amazing but the plot seemed to be lacking any well rounded feel to it (Probably because they tried to squeeze a giant book into a movie) and there wasn't that much action.

My wife enjoyed it though so that counts for something

*you now receive $0.02*

And the target audience age for Harry Potter is ???

 

[ProfJohn]

Good movie, but disappointing.

I actually think they tried to cram too much into the movie and thus never let anyone subplot really develop.

The book: they talk about it, but they don't really get in depth into the book so when Snape says "I am the half blood prince" you are like "yea? So what?"

The romances: they bounce around the story too much and never really get any development out of it. Lavender is turned into a joke and Ramilda is also used only to set up two jokes and nothing else. The only romance related scene that I really liked was the one with Hermonie and Harry where she had cast the bird charm.

I think the big problem with the film is that all the scenes play out on their own, but don't really connect together to form a good solid plot. One event does not lead into the next like they should. It is like they read the book and decided to pick out which scenes they really liked but left out the stuff that really connects the scene.

Best part of the whole movie:
"She only likes you because she thinks your the chosen one"
"But I am the chosen one"
:thump:

 

[ProfJohn]

Mild rant:

Why aren't the doing extended DVDs of these movies!!!!!!

The books are huge and have tons more stuff they could film. Why not film an extra 30-45 mins of stuff and include it on DVDs only??

People will pay an extra $5-10 for those dvds too just like they did with the LOTR special versions.

 

[KeypoX]

Originally posted by: Xanis

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
I have read all of the books, the last two several times and the movie Half Blood Prince was shockingly bad(just got back from a midnight showing). Avoiding spoilers for the movie the book revolves around Harry discovering certain vulnerabilities that would allow Voldermort to be destroyed, the movie pays only a passing nod towards that element. Given what the final installments revolve around this oversight was profoundly moronic. Why Voldermort is the way he is, what kind of genetics and environment he dealt with and how that shaped him, how he made the choices in his life that led to the creation of powerful objects that are crucial to him, all absent from the movie. All utterly critical story points.

They removed a fairly good sized battle from the end of the movie, added in a very small skirmish that doesn't happen in the book near the middle, and pretty much totally rewrote the entire script. A great deal of the time they would reproduce the setup for something that happened in the book, but totally change what each character said for no savings in dialogue but for a MUCH weaker story overall. Whoever wrote the screenplay isn't worthy of taking out JK's trash. Not that I think she is the pinnacle of literature, but she is leagues beyond what the pathetic sap is who wrote this script.

They also changed some key elements that happen on top of one of the towers at the end of the book, I don't want to spoil anything but let's say that they made Potter seem like a pathetic pussy compared to what actually happened. The romantic relationship that Harry had was only brushed on slightly while the movie spent a hefty length of time dealing with Lavendar Brown. They may have actually included every bit of Lavendar Brown from the books, in the original story she was a non important side story(obviously they can't make a 12 hour movie, but if they did and followed the book in its' entirety her part wouldn't be any larger then it is in the movie).

Without comparing it to the book, the movie was boring, one thing of interest took place at the very end to do with the larger storyline, but other then that it was a fairly poorly done teenage romance flick with moderate humor. I don't think they could have done much worse then they did with the movie.

I covered some of those things in my post, but you're right on the money. The ENTIRE main plot of the 6th/7th books revolved around the Horcruxes, and it was only covered for what... maybe 15 minutes? Ridiculous.

Yeah i agree, the movie sucked, with or without reading the book (i did read the book, a few times). They high user reviews are due to it only being out for < 24 hours and only harry fanatics seeing it.

I was so fucking pissed about the end. I can't believe they fucked up the most important part of any harry potter movie/book.