Playfully mixing several genres such as comedy, horror, romance, action, adventure and even a bit of a detective story, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth Harry Potter film and the second from director David Yates, is a fun and thrilling summer movie dealing with fear and tremors --of teenage love -- and the battle between good and evil.
In this sixth instalment of the Harry Potter series, Harry begins his sixth year at Hogwarts knowing that the world is now in serious threat because the Dark Lord Voldemort and his fellow Death Eaters are on the loose, causing havoc, death and destruction to the wizarding and the muggle world. He then finds an old potion book mysteriously marked “This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince” and, with Dumbledore’s help, begins to uncover Lord Voldemort’s dark history.
First and foremost, this is undeniably the most gorgeous-looking movie this year. Thanks to the graceful directing of director David Yates and the genius of the director of photography, newcomer Bruno Delbonnel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince gives us an outstanding visual effect and cinematography. With much control of the CGI and special effect, David Yates shows us a whole exceptionally new atmospheric world using bigger set pieces that actually help the flow of the movie without really showing too much that it was edited by computers and thus making it a total eye-candy. And the choices of camera angles, extreme close-ups and the editing were very impressive. Furthermore, the score, consisting of orchestra and choir, really complements the movie and give each scene more emotion and a sense of nostalgia with the hint of the memorable sounds from The Order of the Phoenix.
Next, we can definitely see that the three main actors had grown up, not only physically but emotionally and also in the sense of acting skills. The story has to follow JK Rowling’s increasingly mature and darker books, and so have the actors. The sense of longing and raging hormones, plus the tense feeling towards danger and death makes this a more adult movie in the Harry Potter series thus far. But the PG rating seems fair. In The Goblet of Fire, Cedric Diggory’s death was shocking, but in The Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort is at full power, making us feel the constant presence of danger and evil and that anyone on screen could die at any moment (but do not fret, body count: 1).
But the thing is, this movie does not only deal with the three actors like the films before it. They are a few outstanding performances. One, by the amazing Tom Felton (who plays Draco Malfoy) who shows true emotion and sadness in what he was forced to do. And then there’s Jim Broadbent (who plays the new Prof. Slughorn) who could actually received an Oscar Buzz for ‘Best Supporting Actor’. He plays the old yet loved professor effortlessly and did the best with his time on screen without having to drown the other actors around him. A natural.
As for the action: yes, some action scenes were omitted from the movie, but those that were left behind are astoundingly thrilling. The most outstanding and chilling sequence is perhaps the cave scene. It is layered with horror, sadness and suspense and not to mention top notch special effect. The extra 7-month post production did the movie good!
Despite its long running time, over 2 hours and 30 minutes, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince seems adequate as David Yates pushes the movie to a running pace and some of us might even crave for more. But after entering the first two hours, you might already forget about the titular Half-Blood Prince. The mystery of the owner of the book is gone and drowned by some needless fillers (hint: too much romance is never good). The storyline itself missed some key points that made the book such a masterpiece.
If you see this movie as an adaptation, then, yeah, it’s not that good. But as a movie on its own, then Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a beautiful epitome of a true summer movie. Epic is definitely the word for it.
Playfully mixing several genres such as comedy, horror, romance, action, adventure and even a bit of a detective story, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth Harry Potter film and the second from director David Yates, is a fun and thrilling summer movie dealing with fear and tremors --of teenage love -- and the battle between good and evil.
In this sixth instalment of the Harry Potter series, Harry begins his sixth year at Hogwarts knowing that the world is now in serious threat because the Dark Lord Voldemort and his fellow Death Eaters are on the loose, causing havoc, death and destruction to the wizarding and the muggle world. He then finds an old potion book mysteriously marked “This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince” and, with Dumbledore’s help, begins to uncover Lord Voldemort’s dark history.
First and foremost, this is undeniably the most gorgeous-looking movie this year. Thanks to the graceful directing of director David Yates and the genius of the director of photography, newcomer Bruno Delbonnel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince gives us an outstanding visual effect and cinematography. With much control of the CGI and special effect, David Yates shows us a whole exceptionally new atmospheric world using bigger set pieces that actually help the flow of the movie without really showing too much that it was edited by computers and thus making it a total eye-candy. And the choices of camera angles, extreme close-ups and the editing were very impressive. Furthermore, the score, consisting of orchestra and choir, really complements the movie and give each scene more emotion and a sense of nostalgia with the hint of the memorable sounds from The Order of the Phoenix.
Next, we can definitely see that the three main actors had grown up, not only physically but emotionally and also in the sense of acting skills. The story has to follow JK Rowling’s increasingly mature and darker books, and so have the actors. The sense of longing and raging hormones, plus the tense feeling towards danger and death makes this a more adult movie in the Harry Potter series thus far. But the PG rating seems fair. In The Goblet of Fire, Cedric Diggory’s death was shocking, but in The Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort is at full power, making us feel the constant presence of danger and evil and that anyone on screen could die at any moment (but do not fret, body count: 1).
But the thing is, this movie does not only deal with the three actors like the films before it. They are a few outstanding performances. One, by the amazing Tom Felton (who plays Draco Malfoy) who shows true emotion and sadness in what he was forced to do. And then there’s Jim Broadbent (who plays the new Prof. Slughorn) who could actually received an Oscar Buzz for ‘Best Supporting Actor’. He plays the old yet loved professor effortlessly and did the best with his time on screen without having to drown the other actors around him. A natural.
As for the action: yes, some action scenes were omitted from the movie, but those that were left behind are astoundingly thrilling. The most outstanding and chilling sequence is perhaps the cave scene. It is layered with horror, sadness and suspense and not to mention top notch special effect. The extra 7-month post production did the movie good!
Despite its long running time, over 2 hours and 30 minutes, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince seems adequate as David Yates pushes the movie to a running pace and some of us might even crave for more. But after entering the first two hours, you might already forget about the titular Half-Blood Prince. The mystery of the owner of the book is gone and drowned by some needless fillers (hint: too much romance is never good). The storyline itself missed some key points that made the book such a masterpiece.
If you see this movie as an adaptation, then, yeah, it’s not that good. But as a movie on its own, then Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a beautiful epitome of a true summer movie. Epic is definitely the word for it.
I completely agree with everything you said :) To be honest, if you want my thoughts... just... well, they're yours :) I don't have much else to say other than what you've written.
ReplyDeleteI was stunned by the cast. It was clear that they have improved SO much. And the older ones, well Jim Broadbent was great and Michael Gambon was... lets just say that it was by far his best performance as Dumbledore yet.
The run time was satisfying. I enjoyed being in the cinema for that long and I did want more. However, I was a little disappointed that it hadn't completely stuck to the book. There was a lot that had been missed out. Like the Gaunt family. I was really looking forward to it and I feel that if it were included in the film, it would have been so much better! Furthermore, I wasn't to sure about all the romance... sure, it made it a little more exciting, but again I was slightly annoyed because there isn't really much in the actual book and it felt as though David Yates was just trying to please EVERYONE, rather that make it the film is should be.
But other than that, absolutely brilliant. One of the best films I've seen this year :)
And as you can probably see, I am no good at writing reviews... I'll leave that to you :) It's good to hear that you also want to become a journalist... I'm sure it will work out for you! You're amazing at writing, honestly.
Take care
xx
wow, that was great! You're really good :)
ReplyDelete