A Statement About the Harry Potter

Now there are two ways to review this movie: one is in comparison to the book, the other is on its own as a film, independent of anything except the films that have come before it.

Two guesses as to where Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince fails miserably as a movie. Go on, guess. I'll wait.

OK, maybe I won't. So here's the deal. As a film, HPATHBP (hell, even the abbreviation is long) is... fine. Just fine. It certainly has its moments of humor and action and suspense (although if you've read the books, not really) but it's long and the acting isn't always stellar (Hi Daniel Radcliffe. You're really cute, and you're trying. I get it. Try harder, k?), the special effects are great, the story is long and complicated.

Trying really hard to separate from the book for a moment, I have to say that I would be very, very dissatisfied with these films as a casual observer. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would find them pointless and superficial. There are too many things going on that I wouldn't understand, too many peripheral characters who show up for no discernable reason, and too many main characters suffering as a result of trying to stuff 700-odd pages into a very, very long (but not quite long enough) movie.

So it's just fine. No jumping up and down, no LOTR comparisons, no waxing poetic about how this is changing the face of cinema.

And now on to the rant (See? You thought the rant already occurred. Not so.) Before I start, I want to say that I get it. As readers, we all have different interpretations of what the Potterverse is supposed to look like, and there is just so much of it. Honestly, how could they possibly do it justice, nevermind live up to expectations?

But even letting go of that, there are some creative choices that continue to befuddle me even three days after screening the film. Dumbledore discovers Harry at Surbiton station in the film. Really? Does he really? Because there's a pretty frakking important point to be made about Harry's safety and the reason he has to go home to Privet Drive every summer. The whole point is that he can't just go wandering around. And you know what? When the Dursleys kick him out at the beginning of THBP (much better) book, Dumbledore shows up to lay the smackdown for putting Harry's life at risk.

Which, by the way, also sets up the electric opening sequence in The Deathly Hallows in which Harry has to be removed from the house at midnight on his 18th birthday and Hedwig... Nevermind. I can't even get in to it.

Another thing that is sticking out (significantly) is the placement of Harry during the tower scene. Not going to get all spoilery, but if you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking out. Great pains are taken (and time is wasted!) at the beginning of the film to show how effective it is to disable Harry by paralyzing him with Petrificus Totalus and then covering him with the invisibility cloak. No one can see him! He can't move! How effective!

To then send Harry below in the tower sequence and give him complete free will as to whether or not to interfere kind of makes him a coward. Not to mention the complete lack of proper view of the proceedings, and the interference of Snape? Uh... how ambiguous?

No funeral. No Weasley is our king. No time to see Harry and Ginny be happy for a little while. Because we all know it doesn't last long. No reason for Fenrir Greyback to show up at all (Except, apparently, to burn down The Burrow. What. The. Frak.)

A word about the next film: They've gone and split it in two, which is vaguely comforting (more time to delve more deeply into things! Hooray!) but the question still lingers as to whether or not it's a great idea. Show me the natural pause point in TDH, and I'll write a favorable review of New Moon. Deal?

(I could get into a discussion about how Twilight-ers will use this as evidence that Twilight is "better," while they completely dismiss the fact that the reason those books translate so well into films is that there's nothing to them, but I don't want to bore you)

OK, I'm done now. Happy?