Review of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) by Megg — 14 Jul 2009

I am utterly aghast that the parts of the story I looked forward to most were barely brushed upon. I very much desired to see all of Voldemort's past explained and illustrated on screen: how his mother and father were connected, the Gaunt family, the murder of the three Riddles (not even mentioned!), etc.

The memories we did see on-screen were bare-boned; we did not get to hear about the shenanigans young Tom was up to on his beach trip, only that he was a highly disturbing child. The Slughorn story-line was carried out effectively, but I felt like so much was missing.

There was no scene with Dumbledore and the Dursley (which would have been highly amusin on-screen), no acknowledgement of Harry's grief for Sirius (which was redolent in the beginning of the book), nor did we see him receive his inheritance of Kreacher.

I felt this movie missed the whimsy, magic, and familiarity of the first five films. It was dark, and I don't say this to imply that it should be daffodils and sunshine. While the sixth book was the darkest yet of the series, it still maintained a level comfort, of consistency, of familiarity.

There was gloom and doom and sorrow, yes, but was taking place in a settings most familiar. Immediately, I felt like the presentations of the locations did not stay true to the first movies. For instance, the inside of the Weasley house beared no resemblance to the interior was saw in movies 1-5.

The sixth year's bedchamber also looked (felt?) different. Even the panned out view of Hogwarts against the expansive sky and the mountains did not have the same feel to it. I suppose it had a lot to do with the camera and lighting work.

Even the usual lively castle accompaniments, such as Peeves and Nearly-Headless Nick, or even the daily grind of classes, homework, and studying, were no where to be found. The one light-hearted departure from the gloomy affair of the story-line was the over-done teenage romantic adventures.

Even the music was missing character and familiarity. When there was not silence behind the dialogue and action, long chords droned, void of variations on old themes and presentation of new. Still, it did cover the main bullet points of the film and stayed "true" to the book about as well as the other movies.