Film Review: Half-Blood Prince
Jul. 16th, 2009 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabrinaA few non-spoilery overall sorts of comments. I really enjoyed this film. Pretty much, anything that is not as bad as Prisoner of Azkaban was, is a good film for me, and this one managed to be a good film. There is something nagging at me a little bit, but I can't figure out what it is so I'm going to ignore that for the time being.
I've read all 7 books so consider this to be spoilers for all books as well as for the film.
With both OotP and now with HBP, I've felt that although there are things I'd have liked to have been in there the director has managed to capture the spirit and intent of the books, with most of the essential items, while paying homage to the larger canon for things that can't be in there, while working within the limitations of a change to medium from book to film. Because let's face it unless you are going to do HBP: Extended Edition, there is a lot that is going to have to go.
Things I really liked:
And Snape. He's half the title billing in this book, being the half-blood prince and all. Now to be fair it's been a while since I've reread books 6 & 7, I've read bits and pieces of both, but I haven't read the entire things, but overall, despite some mild quibbles about overall age of the character, I ♥ Alan Rickman's portrayal of Severus. And there was enough Severus in this film to keep me happy. I would have loved more, obviously, but there was enough.
I already mentioned that Spinner's End was visually perfect, but the scene worked too. Oh, there's not as much story between him and Bella, the spying stuff is essentially dropped - no doubt for time, but I wonder if some of this will make it into DH with the two films - but his commanding of Bella 'shouldn't touch things that aren't ours', his handling of the scene, it all worked for me. There's the right pull for people who've read DH and know what's behind it, and I did like it a lot.
The other scenes that really stood out for me was first, the scene where he heals Draco in the bathroom. To begin with, must write down that spell the next time I go see this (these things are important when you RP Snape on a regular basis!), but the overall caring that he approached to the entire thing.
Snape's a hard bastard. He can be nasty and he can be cold, but so much of that covers up a deeply felt sort of emotion, and when he heals Draco, it's with genuine caring behind it, and I appreciate that so much. And I wondered for a moment there how much of himself he saw in Draco.
The other scene was towards the end when Harry is on the ground after Snape's hexed him back, and the cabin is burning on the other side and the Death Eaters have moved off into the forest and they pan out and Snape is just standing there, and something about that was just perfect to me. It's this sort of visual demonstration of the two world's he's caught between.
Things I might have changed, I would have liked to have seen at least one DADA class with Snape. It would not have had to be many, but one would have been nice. We didn't get a lot of Riddle's backstory. We got the essential parts, I think, and I certainly understand why they cut it - it's a lot of extra time and it's nice in the book, but it's not necessarily necessary to get the point. I think if anything, possibly one of the scenes with Merope might have been nice, but again, unnecessary I think.
What else? No battle scene at the end. I haven't read too many reviews, but someone said they thought the inserted the Burrow destruction in place of the battle scene, but it didn't quite work for me. To begin with the Burrow destruction needed more of a battle there if that's what they were trying to do. You've got Tonks & Lupin, you could have had at least a more significant duel, heck even Harry and Ginny are not completely inept, and it's clear from book seven that Molly can handle herself with a wand if necessary. While I liked Snape stalking through Hogwarts and pretty much just pushing to the side anyone that they came up against, it also didn't quite work.
The astronomy tower scene was well executed, but I think more trouble getting out of Hogwarts, even if just fighting the Aurors that were guarded around the castle, would have been a good thing - and I don't think would have caused to much problem with the scene at Hagrid's hut between Snape/Harry.
I'm not certain I'm articulating well why it didn't work, and maybe 'didn't work' is too strong - but that I feel it could have been executed better is certainly a truth.
I do like that in HBP we really see Slytherins of all persuasions for the first time. It's not as clear perhaps that Slughorn is Slytherin, but we see him regretting his part in Voldemort's rise, we see Blaise just being like, w/e, and I do wish that had been more clearly followed through on in DH, but that's a complaint for the book, and not for the film.
Overall, really enjoyed it. I have quibbles, but PoA remains my least favourite film, and I think this one remains pretty even with OotP in terms of having enjoyed it.
I've read all 7 books so consider this to be spoilers for all books as well as for the film.
With both OotP and now with HBP, I've felt that although there are things I'd have liked to have been in there the director has managed to capture the spirit and intent of the books, with most of the essential items, while paying homage to the larger canon for things that can't be in there, while working within the limitations of a change to medium from book to film. Because let's face it unless you are going to do HBP: Extended Edition, there is a lot that is going to have to go.
Things I really liked:
- Spinner's End. I loved the inside of it - a perfect visual representation of what I'd always pictured Snape's home looking like. It's odd, cause while it was dark, a little dreary, it also felt vaguely homey at the same time, but maybe that's just me with my book infatuations. I suppose it had soul. But the outside was brilliant too. The shots of industrial England, really, those long narrow alleys with nothing but row houses one after another, it was a very visual representation of where Snape has come from, and it was perfect.
- Draco. I am not a Draco fan girl. It's kind of interesting when you consider that I adore Snape, but I've just never felt for Draco. I find him bratty, entitled, whiny, and I never really felt for him in the books until sometime in DH. Perhaps my perspective has changed somewhat, but I really felt for him in this film. The scene in the bathroom where he breaks down, was just heart rending. The scene on the tower, where he says 'I've got to kill you, or he'll kill me', equally so. This boy has been thrust into an impossible position. Could he have killed Albus? I don't know, I don't think he could have and certainly that's the impression you get in the film, but I suppose you never quite know what people can do. But, there's a lot of Regulus there, I think.
- R.A.B. So, Regulus was left out of OotP, something I was always a bit confused by - luckily with the same director doing HBP, he was able to slide in references to him from Slughorn - which is good. At least when he comes up in DH, the movie audience won't be completely taken off guard. But it certainly isn't as obvious in the film who R.A.B. is, because Regulus has received so little mention up until this point. If you hadn't read the books, I'm not certain you could connect those dots. Still, I'm glad he at least got introduced before the locket.
- Snape. So, he could have had more screen time, certainly, but it could also have been much worse *cough*PoA*cough*. He got enough, I think, considering that the audience is not necessarily, 'people who are obsessed with Snape' but you know, all Harry Potter fans and people who are not Harry Potter fans. The important pieces of his story were there. And I'm going to devote much more time to Snape below, I think.
- Lavender. Stole. The. Show. The moment where she draws hearts into the glass on the train is absolutely priceless. I LOLed. That whole subplot was not that amusing to me in the book, but it was funny in the movie and I really think that the film managed to capture a good balance between exploring all the teenage romance and angst, without turning it into, Merlin forbid, Twilight.
- Slughorn was pretty much amazing as well. I think I liked him and felt for him a great deal more than I did in the book. The scene where Harry gets the memory from him was really touching, actually.
And Snape. He's half the title billing in this book, being the half-blood prince and all. Now to be fair it's been a while since I've reread books 6 & 7, I've read bits and pieces of both, but I haven't read the entire things, but overall, despite some mild quibbles about overall age of the character, I ♥ Alan Rickman's portrayal of Severus. And there was enough Severus in this film to keep me happy. I would have loved more, obviously, but there was enough.
I already mentioned that Spinner's End was visually perfect, but the scene worked too. Oh, there's not as much story between him and Bella, the spying stuff is essentially dropped - no doubt for time, but I wonder if some of this will make it into DH with the two films - but his commanding of Bella 'shouldn't touch things that aren't ours', his handling of the scene, it all worked for me. There's the right pull for people who've read DH and know what's behind it, and I did like it a lot.
The other scenes that really stood out for me was first, the scene where he heals Draco in the bathroom. To begin with, must write down that spell the next time I go see this (these things are important when you RP Snape on a regular basis!), but the overall caring that he approached to the entire thing.
Snape's a hard bastard. He can be nasty and he can be cold, but so much of that covers up a deeply felt sort of emotion, and when he heals Draco, it's with genuine caring behind it, and I appreciate that so much. And I wondered for a moment there how much of himself he saw in Draco.
The other scene was towards the end when Harry is on the ground after Snape's hexed him back, and the cabin is burning on the other side and the Death Eaters have moved off into the forest and they pan out and Snape is just standing there, and something about that was just perfect to me. It's this sort of visual demonstration of the two world's he's caught between.
Things I might have changed, I would have liked to have seen at least one DADA class with Snape. It would not have had to be many, but one would have been nice. We didn't get a lot of Riddle's backstory. We got the essential parts, I think, and I certainly understand why they cut it - it's a lot of extra time and it's nice in the book, but it's not necessarily necessary to get the point. I think if anything, possibly one of the scenes with Merope might have been nice, but again, unnecessary I think.
What else? No battle scene at the end. I haven't read too many reviews, but someone said they thought the inserted the Burrow destruction in place of the battle scene, but it didn't quite work for me. To begin with the Burrow destruction needed more of a battle there if that's what they were trying to do. You've got Tonks & Lupin, you could have had at least a more significant duel, heck even Harry and Ginny are not completely inept, and it's clear from book seven that Molly can handle herself with a wand if necessary. While I liked Snape stalking through Hogwarts and pretty much just pushing to the side anyone that they came up against, it also didn't quite work.
The astronomy tower scene was well executed, but I think more trouble getting out of Hogwarts, even if just fighting the Aurors that were guarded around the castle, would have been a good thing - and I don't think would have caused to much problem with the scene at Hagrid's hut between Snape/Harry.
I'm not certain I'm articulating well why it didn't work, and maybe 'didn't work' is too strong - but that I feel it could have been executed better is certainly a truth.
I do like that in HBP we really see Slytherins of all persuasions for the first time. It's not as clear perhaps that Slughorn is Slytherin, but we see him regretting his part in Voldemort's rise, we see Blaise just being like, w/e, and I do wish that had been more clearly followed through on in DH, but that's a complaint for the book, and not for the film.
Overall, really enjoyed it. I have quibbles, but PoA remains my least favourite film, and I think this one remains pretty even with OotP in terms of having enjoyed it.
