Comments on: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

By: Megan

Megan — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:26:54 +0000

P.S….that isn’t my website…I just wanted to leave a comment so I typed in a random email and website. And what do you know, blahblah.com actually exists. Whoops. Sorry ’bout that.

By: Megan

Megan — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:20:21 +0000

I agree with you, too, frodopal. What I loved most about this movie is that it branched out from the book. Movies that follow the books word for word and only use scenes that were already spelled out for them can be extremely boring to watch. Many of the hilarious lines in the script would have had no place in the book, but they made the film much more entertaining to watch. Great movies have to recreate the book in a new light and give it more life than simply reading the dialogue out loud and adding a few props.
Love your review, Brandon, by the way.

By: Brandon Fibbs

Brandon Fibbs — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:11:11 +0000

I couldn’t agree more frodopal!

By: Susan Traversy

Susan Traversy — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:44:09 +0000

You don’t think he spent enough time with the bad guys? Without re-watching, how many times did Draco dramatically tear the bedspread (or whatever) off the little closet (Sorry, I forgot the technical term) that transported him to Burgin & Burke’s? A good movie is a good movie, and a bad one is a bad one, whether it stays to the spirit of a book it’s based on , or not. This was a bad one.

By: frodopal

frodopal — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:35:13 +0000

I so agree with you about the two mediums needing a different approach and want to tie that back in to what you said in the article about Chris Columbus and the first two movies. He was so intent on preserving the books verbatim that it became just a series of scenes that felt unconnected AS A MOVIE. I was also glad when he stepped aside for that reason.

Directors would do well to follow the lead of Peter Jackson and LOTR; he believed in finding the spirit of the book and honoring that spirit while also telling the story in ways that served both the medium of film and modern audiences.

By: Brandon Fibbs

Brandon Fibbs — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:51:32 +0000

Rory, I have read and very much enjoyed the entire series. Adapting literature is always such a difficult process, fraught with all sort of danger because those who love the book will almost always come away disappointed. The mediums could not be more different, books being subjective and film being anything but. Additionally, you can pack so much into a book–a book that may take you days or weeks to read–that a movie has to tell in only two hours or so. You have to condense and delete and sometimes even alter. You have to. The secret, in my opinion, is finding the core spirit of the novel and translating that on to the screen. And that, I thought this film did very well.

By: Rory

Rory — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:11:35 +0000

I have to ask, Brandon, did you read the book? If so, did it hurt the movie, knowing what stuff was left out or what was changed drastically? If you didn’t read the book, do you think that that (not knowing what was changed) help you enjoy the movie more?

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:08:48 +0000

I am huge fan of the books and of the movies. But at times when I was watching this film I felt bored and thinking to myself, “when is it going to be over. I felt like 75% of the movie was about love potions and there effect. they only talked about the joke shop once in the movie. I am really disappointted in the movie. I will go see it again maybe I missed something

By: aaron609

aaron609 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:13:41 +0000

i feel robbed of my ticket money, second best book in series – worst movie of them so far. great beginning, but about half way through it just got worse and worse with some scene’s not even making sense (yes lets lure harry out, all vulnerable and stuff then put his friends house on fire once we make sure everyone is out).

let down is all i can say, the last book (split into two) i hope will not resemble any of this time wasting style and will get down to the gritty story not love scene’s

By: Brandon Fibbs

Brandon Fibbs — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:26:26 +0000

You’re absolutely right! I stand corrected. I don’t count Malfoy’s cupboard scenes and addressed those scenes in the review, but so far as the unbreakable curse scene is concerned, you’re quite right.

By: bobby

bobby — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 06:59:50 +0000

They did spend plenty of time on the “baddies” what about the unbreakable curse scene???
That scene was from the books but what about all the shots of malfoy fixing his widdle cupboard?? They ruined any surprise element for the end for those who haven’t read them. Quite frankly they spent more time on the baddies than they should’ve!
Sorry, just had to say it as that was the one element that annoyedme!