Bellatrix Lestrange. Narcissa Malfoy. Romilda Vane. Jo Rowling certainly has a knack for names (including her own pseudonym ? the "K" is pure affectation).
Persecuted by such alarmingly exotic creatures, it’s no wonder the scrupulously mundane Harry Potter keeps his nose in his books and leaves the lovey-dovey stuff to his best friend Ron. Weasley even swipes the chocolates drenched with a love drug meant for Harry.
| Top rated films | View all |
|---|---|
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011) | |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010) |
One book, in particular, commands Potter’s attention during his sixth year at Hogwart’s: a battered old textbook he inherits in Professor Horace Slughorn’s potion class, brilliantly annotated by a mysterious old pupil, “the half-blood prince”. How can Potter trust the integrity of such an enigmatic pen name? A true book-worm, Hermione is sufficiently intrigued that she looks him up in the library – the school is still a Google-free zone – but she comes up blank.
Meanwhile Dumbledore is urging Harry to get to know Slughorn better – intimate soirees and all. His repressed memories of teaching the young Voldemort – then known as Tom Riddle – could hold the key to the encroaching showdown between the forces of darkness, and the light.
Pointless to complain that Rowling has teased out this story so cautiously that for every three steps forward we always seem to move two steps back. The movies have always rewarded Rowling’s devoted readers with their fidelity to the source, leaving the hold-outs to go hang.
With only (only!) two more films to go before the charm’s wound up, the notion of watching the entire series back-to-back presents itself, a marathon prospect that would be both exhausting and exhilarating.
Exhausting, because Rowling repeatedly falls back on the same measly narrative tropes (which shady member of staff will Harry investigate this time?) and because there are only so many computer-generated magic tricks anyone can take.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Exhilarating, because the chance to watch half a dozen kids grow up before our eyes – eight years telescoped into fifteen hours or so – is itself quite magical. And because, whatever you make of the slouching story arc, the films routinely supply exciting set-pieces, marvelously idiosyncratic British character acting, and no shortage of spectacle (and I don’t mean Harry’s signature eye-glasses either).
Directed - like The Order of The Phoenix – by the deftly self-effacing David Yates, The Half-Blood Prince is very much up to par, and perhaps a little better than that.
Ron’s surging hormones (and Hermione’s matching embarrassment) ensure plenty of chuckles, while the estimable Jim Broadbent steps up as this episode’s de facto guest star. His Professor Slughorn turns out to be a surprisingly sympathetic reading of a foolishly solipsistic scholar with a soft spot for his star pupils. (First spotted in the guise of an armchair, he keeps one foot planted firmly in the closet.)
As for Daniel Radcliffe, he’s grown immeasurably as an actor, underplaying neatly and sprinkling light comic notes where the opportunity presents itself. If we don’t care so very deeply for the character, even after all these years, that’s not Radcliffe’s fault. Harry’s courage is beyond question, but he’s a little on the slow side. He still hasn’t figured out where Severus Snape stands in the grand scheme of things… Tune in next November for The Deathly Hallows, Part I.
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Click here to read our exclusive interview with Daniel RadcliffeHarry shaves! Harry snogs! But stay your wand, there... read more on Time Out
I read the book and it's really good
peace outt
This movie has all the hype of a typical Harry Potter film but does not have the story to hold you for the 2hrs 30mins of its running time.
The whole plot line could be wrapped up into a 30 minute 'short' at the beginning of the next movie, as absolutely nothing happens at all for 2hrs!
This movie instead seems to focus more on the love story between existing characters that have been met in the previous films - it all comes to a crescendo that lasts approx. 10 minutes long and leaves you feeling deflated, robbed of your hard cash and a waste of your time.
Other than for the demise of a main character I really would find it hard to tell you what actually happened.
GIVE THIS ONE A MISS and skip to the next one... you honestly wont have missed much at all!! and I am sure you will peice together what happened in no time at all.
I get the feeling Warner Bros are just milking this cash cow for all they can get!
A REAL SHAME!
AJ.
i read the book and i didnt think it was that good
but i liked all the films so far so it should ok!
I read the book and it's really good
peace outt
I have always looked forward to seeing each new Harry Potter film and they have never disappointed till now! This new one is really long (and not in a positive way) with no sense of the usual Potter Magic. I got the feeling that whoever put this together (whether it was Rowling or the film makers who I am told changed quite alot from the original) had run out of ideas and was just fumbling along making up some uninteresting semblance of a story as they went along. I think this film paid far too much attention to teenage love interests that seemed to take over the theme of the film. While I am an adult watching the film, I watched the previous Harry Potters because of the make believe world of magic and wizardry: I'll be perfectly honest, I couldn't care less about who is snogging who and their raging teenage hormones. It's minutae that does not interest because that is not one of the reasons I like seeing Harry Potter on screen and it certainly detracts from the magic and the fantasy land. I guess this is indicative that the HP franchise is coming to an end, which is just as well, however I seriously doubt this installment of Harry Potter is one I will remember in years to come.
i read the book and i didnt think it was that good
but i liked all the films so far so it should ok!
Oh god.
Thats what i have to say to this film. I went to see it today and was totally gutted.
Good points:
Graphics
Special affects
Bad points:
Everything else
It just was really long and boaring. So much was missed out and so much happened that didnt in the book.
Was there any point in this is my question?
I know its impossible to fit everything in from the book but come on e film missed like everything.
It starts on like chapter 5 of the book and even the start isnt what actually happenes in the book.
What a let down. This should have been an exciting film, as the book is. Instead what you get is an indepth look into the development of adolescent crushes and a lot of confusion for those people who haven't read the books as to just what is going on and why. One understands that it is necessary to sometimes change book stories somewhat to accomodate the film making process, but this was just poor scripting and screen writing and very poor direction. The last 25 minutes of the film should be the exciting finale. But it's a damp squib of an ending with the exciting fight in the castle completley left out. There are whole tranches of the story missing on the understanding Voldemort and his development and psyche. And no link to the final two films on searching for the remaining horcruxes and what they might be. There was a pointless scene added in the middle at the Weasleys' house for Xmas that contributed nothing to the story. The time and money spent on that scene could have been used to make the films ending the glorious, exciting and sad ending it was in the book. Sorry guys but you well and truly messed up on this and unless the next two films stick a bit more closely to the spirit of the books, and the actual stories, I won't be going to see either of them.
Click here to read our exclusive interview with Daniel RadcliffeHarry shaves! Harry snogs! But stay your wand, there... read more on Time Out