the Half-Blood Prince

So I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night. It was the best Harry Potter movie yet!! I want to go and see it again LOL It was a lot more epic that the earlier movies. The characters are growing up, and their world is becoming more and more unsafe for those not aligned with the death eaters. I think the characters are becoming more likable as well. More three dimensional. Harry is less "poor little me", Ron is starting to find self esteem and courage, Hermione is being more ... emotional (Anna, don’t get mad.. I know, she cries a lot in the books, but I mean more emotional diversity). And I have to say, my favourite of the kiddies in this movie is Draco. I’m really impressed with the way he is being portrayed. His character actually has personality now. I found in the earlier movies he was like Dudley - a mere cipher - a stereotypical bully character. He was the little Big Bad, with a sneer on his face and surrounded by his cronies... In HBP, he is a step apart. He still has his followers, but you can see how isolated he feels..... and that he is doing the isolating, because of changes to the way he perceives the world. His daddy is no longer someone who he can publicly praise, his family has forced him to do an important task, yet one which betrays his love of Hogwarts, and he has realised he is vulnerable to harm from others. He is no longer the big fish in a little pond, but just another juvenile fish in the chaotic ocean. There are all these scenes of him walking through silent corridors - however you can see groups of teens sitting around, chatting, laughing, snogging, being the little social creatures that abound in highschool. Yet here he glides through silent corridors, not a laugh or whisper to be heard.. Its very poignant, beautiful, and sad.


I still find Dumbledore to be one dimensional. I know they try to make him mysterious, but I think by saying nothing about his past (what about his sister?) they dehumanise him. He is this larger than life benevolent being that is hard to get attached to. I thought I would bawl at the end of this movie... I know I was heartbroken and shocked when I read the book... But I was moved more by the scene in the sea cave that I was by the one at the top of the tower....

The more they show of Snape, the more interesting he gets... I've always liked him, and not just because of his penchant for the dark (and omg, Alan Rickman has have most hypnotising voice...). You never quite know which side he is on until the end of Deathly Hallows, and before I had finished the books I remember agonising over this. Now I know, I can more fully appreciate the character he is. And the heartache he must put himself in for the greater good in the end of the Half-Blood Prince. He is a good fellow with a strong sense of honour and the fact that you are never quite sure if he is a reallygood spy, or gone to the darkside emphasises this more so.

I couldn’t tell you one thing about this movie that makes it better than the others... I think it is a lot of little things all working together. I think I mentioned the poignant moments this film dwells on? They are just so beautiful, melancholic and introspective, and at times heart wrenching. The scenery is gorgeous, as ever, and the set of Hogwarts has always been a favourite of mine. Its really hard to critique this movie without referring back to the book. The simple fact of the matter is that Harry, Hermione and Ron, and all their other classmates, are no longer babies. They are at the stage where they are leaving childhood behind them - its both sad and joyful, up and down, confusing and exciting. Both Ron and Hermione, and Harry and Ginny are starting to show their interests in each other, so you have the joy, heartbreak and confusion that involves. I think one of the things I like about this film is how people interact with each other... bonds are getting more layered, more diverse. The characters haven’t really set out doing grand things in their 6th year of Hogwarts. Harry is now just one of the crowd (when he isn’t playing teachers pet) and he finally has acceptance. The adventures are small ones, and I think this makes the ending all the more effective.... Harry isn’t out slaying basilisks, or rescuing maidens, but just going to school and being a teenager.

The other facet of the Half-Blood Prince is of course, that the Death Eaters are loose and wreaking havoc on a massive scale. All might be well in the insulated world of Hogwarts, but outside it is full of the smell of fear and blood. We didn’t even see Lord Volemort in this film... the threat was ominous and hanging over it, and then there was seeing him growing up with sociopathic tendencies... you started to get a glimpse into what help make Tom Riddle into Lord Voldemort. Fascinating stuff!! Oh, and Helena Bonham Carter, is as always, a jewel! God I love that woman! She is perfect as Bellatrix LeStrange....


Anyway, if I had to give a rating the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it would be an 8.5 - 9 out of 10.