Saturday, August 1, 2009

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

See my comments on Order of the Phoenix from two years ago. My criticism there applies even harder on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Generally faithful adaptation but extremely disjointed. Too many unessential scenes adapted from the book as fan service, yet nearly incomprehensible as a stand-alone movie. Case in point: In the end, Snape reveals he's the "Half-Blood Prince"-- with no explanation that his father is a Muggle and his mother's last name was Prince. The only way this revelation would have meaning is if you read the book.

It had its moments, but I think I liked this Potter film the least.

My current ranking of movies is as follows:
  • Goblet of Fire
  • Prisoner of Azkaban
  • Chamber of Secrets
  • Sorcerer's Stone
  • Order of the Phoenix
  • Half-Blood Prince
A disclaimer: My experience with the movie is probably affected by the fact that the state of Dumaguete's current movie theaters is completely unacceptable. Three power outages occurred during my viewing, including one during the climactic confrontation of Draco and Dumbledore. All together I spent 15-20 minutes sitting in darkness and waiting stupidly for the movie to continue. Add that to blurry visuals, muffled sound, poor air-conditioning, and a guy in the back sobbing loudly in an argument with his girlfriend... Even if the movie was brilliant, I would hardly notice.

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