Rate Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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RangerWickett
Legend
I'm normally pretty critical, but I really liked this movie.
Psionicist
Explorer
How's the editing of this movie compared to Phoenix? I liked the first four Harry Potter movies, but the fifth one was borderline unwatchable because of the poor editing, especially how the scenes were cut. Thinking about it, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is actually the only movie I've seen where the editing is actually a distraction. There are too many scenes changing too often.
Steel_Wind
Legend
I have to dissent. I have it a seven...though the more I think on it, the more it deserves a six. I plan to go see it again this weekend with my kids, so perhaps my second take on it will be different. We'll see.
I don't think the movie flowed particularly well at all. Indeed, much of the film seemed to be a collection of vignettes, rather than a coherent whole.
The choice to leave out the major battle between the aurors and the Death Eaters at the end, left the death of HIM to be without any dramatic context. As one writer put it on the Qt3 forums, it was as if you decided to leave out the battle in the Chamber of Mazurbul, the running battle with the orcs, the chase through the mines of Moria and "You Shall not Pass" on the bridge...and instead just had the Balrog pick up Gandalf and lob him down a mine shaft.
Dead is dead, sure, but it loses its dramatic context - and that's what happens in this film.
There were choices the director and writer made in terms of how the movie flowed. Gone was the reasoning behind the novel being called the Half-Blood Prince. There was no growing and enthusiastic admiration of Harry for the HBP, only to discover at the end it was all Snape the Villain. Sure - Snape tells Harry who he is - but the context is wholly missing.
They could have done this film like the others showing classes of magic and the amazing discoveries Harry makes using the book. Instead, they opted to make the film about teen romance. You may agree with this choice, but I don't.
There were still elements of the movie I liked and I really do love this movie series. I have them all on DVD, but I went out and purchased the first four on BluRay last night (I already had OotP on Blu-Ray) for a HP fest this weekend.
Having watched Philosopher’s Stone last night on Blu-Ray, it's pretty clear that the structure of the novels - the fact that these are HOGWARTS tales, has been lost since OoTP and the loss continues in HBP. It certainly won't be present in Deathly Hallows - for the very good reason that that novel IS NOT a Hogwarts Tale at all and never was. Which is fine...for Deathly Hallows.
The problem is, OotP and HBP ARE Hogwarts' Tales. But that is not what we got to see. Instead, we got to see something else. I don't think the movies flow nearly as well as a consequence. I don't think they are as much fun to watch - and I don't think they tell the tale that most HP fans want to see.
Prisoner of Azkaban is still far and away the best of the movie series. Because it balances the needs of the movie's meta-plot with the context of the tale taking place at Hogwarts.
While it might be that the final eighth film may end up as the best in terms of its visual "Magic Porn" in a hopefully epic portrayal of the Battle of Hogwarts...I no longer have much faith that this director will deliver on any of this. It might happen sure, but I wouldn't count on it.
I don't think the movie flowed particularly well at all. Indeed, much of the film seemed to be a collection of vignettes, rather than a coherent whole.
The choice to leave out the major battle between the aurors and the Death Eaters at the end, left the death of HIM to be without any dramatic context. As one writer put it on the Qt3 forums, it was as if you decided to leave out the battle in the Chamber of Mazurbul, the running battle with the orcs, the chase through the mines of Moria and "You Shall not Pass" on the bridge...and instead just had the Balrog pick up Gandalf and lob him down a mine shaft.
Dead is dead, sure, but it loses its dramatic context - and that's what happens in this film.
There were choices the director and writer made in terms of how the movie flowed. Gone was the reasoning behind the novel being called the Half-Blood Prince. There was no growing and enthusiastic admiration of Harry for the HBP, only to discover at the end it was all Snape the Villain. Sure - Snape tells Harry who he is - but the context is wholly missing.
They could have done this film like the others showing classes of magic and the amazing discoveries Harry makes using the book. Instead, they opted to make the film about teen romance. You may agree with this choice, but I don't.
There were still elements of the movie I liked and I really do love this movie series. I have them all on DVD, but I went out and purchased the first four on BluRay last night (I already had OotP on Blu-Ray) for a HP fest this weekend.
Having watched Philosopher’s Stone last night on Blu-Ray, it's pretty clear that the structure of the novels - the fact that these are HOGWARTS tales, has been lost since OoTP and the loss continues in HBP. It certainly won't be present in Deathly Hallows - for the very good reason that that novel IS NOT a Hogwarts Tale at all and never was. Which is fine...for Deathly Hallows.
The problem is, OotP and HBP ARE Hogwarts' Tales. But that is not what we got to see. Instead, we got to see something else. I don't think the movies flow nearly as well as a consequence. I don't think they are as much fun to watch - and I don't think they tell the tale that most HP fans want to see.
Prisoner of Azkaban is still far and away the best of the movie series. Because it balances the needs of the movie's meta-plot with the context of the tale taking place at Hogwarts.
While it might be that the final eighth film may end up as the best in terms of its visual "Magic Porn" in a hopefully epic portrayal of the Battle of Hogwarts...I no longer have much faith that this director will deliver on any of this. It might happen sure, but I wouldn't count on it.
Last edited:
Psionicist
Explorer
This is what I feared. Please tell: would you say the same of Phoenix?
Steel_Wind
Legend
I would, but I think that the flow here was a little better than OoTP, which is the worst of the lot to date, imo.
I'm not sure at who is to blame for this. The writer for HBP is the same as for all of the films...except for OotP. So it's hard to blame him for it.
The director is the same OotP, so perhaps the fault lies there. In the end, the director is where the buck stops (in theory).
But that's theory only. JK Rowling is the overall architect of these films even still...and we cannot ignore that OotP is the longest of the novels. In fasct, I think it's fair to say that OotP was unfilmably long, really, and the HBP is only slightly shorter. So perhaps Rowling must suck up some of the blame here as well.
It really makes you wish that Time Warner had had the vision to "pull a Peter Jackson" with these films. To film another hour or so of each of these films, starting with Goblet of Fire, in order to release an Extended DVD version of each movie.
It would have made them gobs more money, and relieved us (maybe) from the butchery which seems increasingly evident in these films as the series progresses.
In a sense, they have finally made this choice with Deathly Hallows. Except, there we wil get two films instead of one and a half. *shrug*
I think I would have preferred 1.5 films for each book from #4 onwards.
Oh well.
Do go see it. It's not a bad movie by any means. I just don't think it's as good a movie as it could have been.
cignus_pfaccari
First Post
I gave it an 8, too.
The actual end was a bit of a letdown. But I can understand why they made most of the choices they did, and it worked pretty well.
Brad
The actual end was a bit of a letdown. But I can understand why they made most of the choices they did, and it worked pretty well.
Brad
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