Comments on: Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince Movie Review

By: DeLois

DeLois — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:25:23 +0000

I wish they made the rating PG-13. Then they could’ve added some of the darker stuff in.

Here’s my theory:
The moviemakers wanted to reach a broader audience, so they lowered the rating to PG. In order to do this, they had to take out a lot of the really dark scenes. To fill up the space, they put in romance scenes. Therefore, the movie has missing pieces, and the rating is PG. What do you think?

By: Bugbug

Bugbug — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:16:22 +0000

It’s just a book; it’s just a movie. It’s not real. I wish people wouldn’t be so influenced by books and movies. I liked it, but I like some of the other movies better.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:23:24 +0000

I cant do anything about it.

Coz if they did a 4 hour movie or 3,
it would certainly fill those gaps from the book.

first the earlier movies, the people are complaining about love and romance…
now that they put up some romantic scenes people get disappointed.

anyway,

I do hope that they will make the next movie longer. like 5 hour final movie.
so that they can put all what is written in the book, and post it up on the movie.

By: Hazel Charisse

Hazel Charisse — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:22:03 +0000

i agree with the author of the review. the fact that it has a very huge gap with the book makes it less enjoyable to watch. people who have read it basically watch the movie to watch the characters come to life. imagine my disappointment when the last part came and there isn’t a battle scene between hogwarts and the death eaters. i mean, Come on! what’s Harry Potter without those black, awful creatures fighting against Dumbledore’s Army and Aurors?

By: Euripides

Euripides — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:37:14 +0000

“I really hope J K Rowling understands the kind of influence she has on our youth culture…”

She knows she’s popular and now rich because kids love her books and movies, but I down she understands the social impact.

By: Media Influence

Media Influence — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:12:41 +0000

Hey Euripides,

Thanks for your comments. Two very good points.

I also agree that Harry Potter is definitely a product of the entitlement generation. It would be nice if Harry showed a bit of humility with all that he has been given, but so far Harry has acted as if one who is entitled. He sees himself as one that is chosen and takes it upon himself to assert himself or be rebellious against authority simply because he is THE harry potter. (By the way, the scene when he says “but I am the chosen one” and Hermione smacks him… that was my favorite scene, a picture of a true friend who anchors you in reality. Love it).

It was nice to see how weak and simple harry was in this movie (in the caves compared to dumbledore and his scene with snapes), yet Harry never seems to gain any sense of humility through those experiences or says anything about how much he owes the people around them (esp dumbledore and his 2 companions). I really hope J K Rowling understands the kind of influence she has on our youth culture…

Media Influence

By: Euripides

Euripides — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:26:51 +0000

I agree with your analysis of the movie and would like to make two points. First, none of these movies’ screenplays were written for anyone other than fans of the book. These are not stand alone movies, but fan movies to satiate the millions who love Harry Potter books. So of course the movies lack certain plot lines or character development because the screenwriters already assume that we have fully developed ideas of who the characters are.

Second, and this is more telling, Harry Potter himself is a product of the entitlement generation – the generation of children who have everything handed to them on a platter and expect to win all the time. Only with the foil of Dudley, do we get to see someone who feels more entitled than Harry.

Harry Potter doesn’t really do anything to deserve to win. He’s a mediocre student. He doesn’t solve any problems but rather has their solutions handed to him. For example, in this book/movie, he become brilliant in potions class only because he found the Half Blood Prince’s potions book. Snape’s book demonstrates a thousand times more talent and ability than Harry Potter.

So, in the end, we wonder what it was that made Harry Potter all that special. If it weren’t for Voldemort’s attempts to kill him, he’d be an otherwise unremarkable boy, wizard skills or no.

By: Open Letter to Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (the Movie) | NexGen Koinonia

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:44:16 +0000

[...] After having met you on Friday, I’ve been doing some thinking about what didn’t sit well with our meeting. My biggest issue is with the way you allotted the time to certain aspects of the story. You foregrounded the teenage romance stuff, which I understand is part of the story and is true to the development of the characters, but it’s in truth only a subplot, and a parallel plotline at best. But the feeling I got after meeting you was that the snog-fest was the whole point. You focused on the romantic lives of the characters at the expense of developing some crucial elements that would have made you make a lot more sense, especially to people who have not read your book counterpart. I don’t really want to spend any more talking about this part, because there are other pressing issues, but you can read what someone else has said in this movie review. [...]

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:42:36 +0000

Great review. I fully agree about the plot and character development. It bugged me so much. I didn’t talk too much about the romance part, because I knew you’d cover it here in this review, but I wrote a little open letter to the movie. As an English teacher, as a lover of a story well-told, I was superbly disappointed. I felt bad that people who have never read the books are getting this kind of representation of what the 6th book is about!!!

Open Letter to Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince Movie – Youth Koinonia

By: cam

cam — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:28:41 +0000

The movie was not as good as the previous ones. My main problem with it is the character development (where was it?). With the exception of Draco Malfoy there was only romance that was developed between the characters. I havent read the book so I didnt notice until Tonks called Remus Lupin ’sweetheart’ that I realised there was obviously some missing information between those two aswell.It wouldnt have been hard to add an extra 2 minutes to explain.
I was told that in the book there was a big scene at the end which is what they left out of the film. Thats a real shame and majorly affected the plot as one would expect Dumbledore to go out with a big bang and fight. I always viewed Dumbledore as a strong, powerful wizard but the way the moments before he died made him seem weak. It was like he made a mild attempt at defending himself then gave up.
The romance theme, although humourous at times, began to bore me after a while. It was prolonged for too long when it didnt need to be.
I think this will definately effect teenage culture. Many of them have grown up watching the harry potter films. They may think that because the characters in the film are subjected to romance and dating that they should aswell.

By: Media Influence

Media Influence — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:05:21 +0000

Thanks for the detailed response! Good enough to stand on it’s own as a movie review.

Glad to know there are others who share the same sentiments: Plot & Character Development was sacrificed for the over-focus on Teenage Melo-Drama. I too wish there was more character development with Tom Riddle \ Lord Voldemort. The only characters as a movie viewer you learn about is Lavender Brown (I suddenly thought of jar jar binks), and Ginny Weasley (only b\c she had such a tiny role in the previous movies). Draco Malfoy seems to be the only one with any weight, yet even there I wish they would have shown more struggle so the viewers could have had a bit more pity for him. Other than the final scene, it wasn’t as clear as it should have that he was struggling with what he was doing.

And yes the PG rating… I don’t know what to think of the MPAA. The standards has dropped considerably in the last few years.

- Media Influence

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:13:05 +0000

Actually, there has been much heated debate amongst fans of the books and movies regarding this movie and the choices made with plot and character development. While I admittedly found the teenage crushes plotline highly amusing, as the review mentioned, the “love stories” (if we can call it that, it’s more like high school melodrama) overtook the character development of Voldemort/Tom Riddle. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is perhaps the only book in the series that contributes the most to Voldemort’s character development — his heritage, his childhood and teenage years — and JK Rowling paints a complex character through these investigations done by Harry. This type of development is absolutely important as a setup to the final movies. While I think the filmmakers knew how important this development was, they seemed to compress that to a few scenes while the love stories nearly made up a bulk of the movie.

I think the plot was developed well enough to get an idea of what was going on — but that was it, just an idea. People who have never read the books may not fully understand the importance of the Horcruxes. Malfoy perhaps was the only character who had any real development happening (and thus was one of the most compelling characters in the film). If the filmmakers were so intent on focusing on the relationships of the movie (which may have been their purpose it seems considering the incredible focus on teenage love), perhaps they could have spent more time developing specific character traits of the main/supporting characters through dialogue instead of having blatantly awkward scenes. Instead, the script often demonstrated romance scenes (particularly the ones with Harry and Ginny) with spare dialogue that did little to develop deep character relationships and friendships.

Don’t get me wrong — I enjoyed this movie immensely. The acting was superb by the entire cast, special effects/cinematography were wonderful, and I liked how this movie attempted to focus more on drama rather than grand magical action. As a Harry Potter fan, I know that a person must differentiate books from movies as these films are merely adaptations. The ultimate importance of a film adaptation, I believe, is to keep the essence of the book, and this film does succeed in certain areas (plot points, humor, teenage life) but also comes short in others (character development for the sake of overdoing the romance). There is the defense that this is a movie about teenagers, and thus that is the reason why there is so much focus on the romance. However, one of the most interesting things about the Harry Potter series is the incredibly strong relationships developed and maintained between the characters. So yes, while the movie should focus on some aspects of the characters being teenagers, there is still much character and relational development necessary for other characters to set things up.

And yes, I do believe that films like these affect the teenage culture immensely. Harry Potter is a huge literary/social phenomenon in society, and the films are always highly anticipated by children, teenagers, and adults. Whether or not people believe that the “real” teenage culture is filled with awkward crushes and fights, this heavy emphasis in the films normalizes such behavior in reality, and allows questionable/uncomfortable choices to be “okay”. It may not seem obvious, but the effects are subtle and occur slowly over time. Just look at how Twilight and numerous other romantic comedies/dramas have affected the romantic ideals and notions of young adults everywhere.

On a final note — regarding the PG rating, the movie should probably not have been rated PG. I’m still uncertain of why the MPAA rated this movie PG when Order of the Phoenix was PG-13. Half-Blood Prince is clearly darker than Order of the Phoenix.