Meh (Beware:HBP movie spoilers)

I am DONE with one of the two classes I am taking this summer. I finished this Wednesday with a class that was driving me INSANE!!! It was full of teachers in training who were so idealistic - great for reflecting on how much I have grown as a teacher, but not so great for discussion where I had hoped to generate ideas.

I went to see Half-Blood Prince yesterday afternoon in celebration with my buddy Renee.

Neither of one of us were pleased.

This review pretty much sums it up: http://www.reelviews.net/php_review_template.php?identifier=1717

Things I Loved:

- Jim Broadbent: ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT! I love this actor and he is amazing as Slughorn. He has a really cool story involving Lily that made my cry.

- Lavendar Brown: Hee - Dead on!

- Young Voldemort: A bit of a berk but REALLY well done! Captures the great manipulation and darkness of the future Voldy.

- Harry on Felix Felicitas: HA!!! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Super funny - not quite the sensation described in the book, but it was so d@mn funny!

- Cormic & Blaise: Can they be shirtless in the next film? HOT!!! Cormic was captured very well (though more handsome than I envisioned him in the book)

- Ring + Harry = Harry is a Horcrux forshadowing. Well done and interesting.

- Overall cinematography: really beautiful.

-Draco: FINALLY a character! He did a terrific job and had some great lines. Loved the Katie Bell scene and the sectumsemra scene.

- Snape: Allen Rickman is made of awesome and had more lines that were not just for comedic effect. He got to be Snape and his hair did not look like a bad wig.

- Olivander captured! Really quite scary!!! (brief though)

-OVERALL: beautifully shot, finally a blend of young and adult actors, and some nice set up for the final films.


Things I Did NOT like (WTF = What the Frak):

- WTF: we waited THIS LONG FOR THE MOVIE - it still seemed slapped together and not polished. And they used music from Order of the Phoenix. LAME.

- Hermione: FLAT. Her characterization was so 2-D and written such that she seems shallow and not interesting. The film drove home the point that she and Ron liked each other, but Hermione seemed just as vapid as Lavendar (though slightly less annoying).

- Fenrir: Is he a werewolf? Or just a DE with a really hairy face and collection of 70's open shirts to reveal his manscaped chest? Just give him a medalion and he could be a wizard pimp. No back story with Lupin.

- Narcissa: not AS bad as I thought, but her HAIR?!?!?!?!? And she didn't speak the lines of the unbreakable vow!!?@>!?!>?@ So weird...liked her shoes though.

- HORCRUXES: no tiara, no back story with the ring, no Helga Hufflepuff cup. Harry and Dumbledore mention 7 horcruxes, but I don't see how the film makers will exposition this in the next films. Unless Voldemort had some secret diary where he recoreded all of his horcruxes and Hermione finds it, I doubt there will be seven horcruxes in the final film.

MY PREDICITON: no Gringotts break in - it will be 5 horcruxes: diary, ring, Harry, nagini, and locket.

- RON: WTF!?@#?@ Ron was a real character in the last film. Then Steve Kloves got his hands on him and made him a silent statue that eats, gets snogged, and looks rather silly.

- Dozens and Dozens of Gollums: Seriously. The inferi in the cave were dozens and dozens of gollumses. Lame.

- Slight Return of Creepy Dumbledore: Ew. Asking questions about Harry and Hermione, telling Harry to "get collected" by Slughorn - it was weird.

- Dumbledore: He had more lines, excuted them well (cave scene was good), but his hand looked slightly burned instead of sinister. AND THERE WAS NO FUNERAL!!! WTF!!!! I did cry when Faulkes goes flying by, but it wasn't nearly as sad or beautiful as Dumbledore's death should have been.

- Top of the Astronomy Tower: WTF!?!@!@$!>?>!@#>?!>@#?!

?^&%^*#@!?^&(^*&#$%#

Harry over hears the "you ask to much of me" Snape & Dumbledore interaction. Later Snape "shushes" Harry who is hiding in the lower part of the Astronomy Tower (? When did that happen?). Renee felt it was giving away that Snape was good - perhaps she is right. I am of the opinion that it had to be written this way so that movie-only fans could get the idea that Snape is not all that he seems to be.

NO BATTLE AT HOGWARTS!!! NO BATTLE AT HOGWARTS??? That alone made me mad, never mind the stuff above.



Overall: the film was not its own adventure. It was a slight stepping stone into the final films. They had to make the characters grow up, set up for the next film, and move along. It was like watching a stage being set up for a play - interesting, but not riveting.