The Half Blood Prince

I finally got to see Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince today. I was so excited to see it. The past several movies have been so good that I had every reason to believe that this one would be as well.

After having re-read the book just a couple of weeks ago, I had some questions about how they were going to fit it all in. This book more than all the others, except maybe the last one, has the most history and the pivotal pieces of information. There is a tremendous amount going on in this book. And I knew that it wouldn’t all make the cut, but I was worried about some of the choices they might or might not make.

And as it turns out, I had every reason to be worried.

It’s not a bad movie, don’t get me wrong. But I really disagree with a good many of those choices. Such as making up an entire scene which did nothing to move the plot forward (I think they just needed to make sure the special effects people were earning their keep) and then cutting out several other scenes that are vital to the story. I mean they cut out the hugely gigantic fight scene at the end. They cut out entire characters. They cut out huge pieces of history that are important to understanding the quest that Harry must now undertake.

The only thing I can hope for is that in organizing the last three movies (because they are splitting the last book into two movies you know) that they rearranged some of the plot points to make the movies flow better. I’m hoping against hope that that is their reasoning, because otherwise I’m not entirely sure how they got JK Rowling to sign off on this movie.

It just makes me sad I think, more than anything else. And disappointed. Except for a few scenes here and there, it just really didn’t feel like the actors had their hearts in this movie. And I guess that’s the crux of my response to this movie. In an effort to consolidate a gigantically huge story, they cut out its heart.