Loaded Couch Potatoes

I started writing this as a comment on Honk Mahfah’s post, but it ran a little long for that section. If you haven’t read his review, you’re going to want to do that now….

and then continue past the break for more

I do “love” the Harry Potter series… at least more so than Mr. Mahfah. And my take on this movie isn’t terribly different. Though my remembering the book more does lead to slight different interpretation of some things.

I’m not someone that demands that a movie based on a book be exactly like the book. I don’t even really care if it’s a real adaptation, or if it’s something that just uses the same title and situation as a jumping off point. With Harry Potter that’s not really possible, but I’m just attempting to give you an idea where my perspective lies here.

I’ll also start with the negative:

There are huge, gaping things missing from the book. I know that contradicts with what I just said, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is true.

The two things that are missing that will bother folks the most are: Dumbledore’s funeral; and the battle between the aurors protecting Hogwarts and the Death Eaters that invade the castle.

The battle sequence being excised creates a bit of a problem for the next two movies, since an injury to Bill Weasley is rather important to a plot line that takes up about 60 pages of book space. It’s also really, really damn cool, and would have been an awesome scene. I can understand why it’s been cut, though… and I’ll explain that a bit later.

Dumbledore’s funeral is a bit more puzzling. It is an iconic scene in the book series, and likely would have made for not only a hell of a cinematic scene, but might have offered some of the emotional release that wasn’t achieved successfully during Dumbledore’s death scene.  I am somewhat hopefully we’ll at least get a peak at it during the beginning of the next movie – even if it is just in a newspaper photo.

The music is, as Mahfah pointed out, weak. Hooper clearly has the ability to compose good music – see the scene that Ron and Ginny share in the room of requirement as proof. As Mahfah pointed out, that scene is amazing, and the score enhances it in a way that music should enhance a scene. Had the entire score been that good, then we would both be here praising Mr. Hooper.

He needn’t be John Williams, either. Patrick Doyle’s score for The Goblet of Fire is quite nice, and a score of that quality would have likely been sufficient here.

Further Mahfah’s argument that Hooper struggles with telling the whole story is the fact he totally dropped the ball on explaining why the damn thing is called … and the Half-Blood Prince. I am guessing that folks who have not read the book have no clue as to why the title is what it is. Yeah, they understand that Harry has a book, and that it turns out that it was Snape’s book.

But that doesn’t quite cut it. When that title was announced for the book, the fans went nuts trying to figure out who the “HBP” would be. Hell, Harry is darn near obsessed with it in the book. He spends and enormous amount of time with that book, and grows very attached to not only that object, but the person who wrote it. And that type of obsession is actually vital to understanding the obsession that Dumbledore and Grindewald shared over the Deathly Hallows in the last book.

Yates tried to convey some of that. Harry is rarely seen in the movie without the book once he uses it. And the characters do talk about that some. But lost is all of the angst over not knowing who the “HBP” is. In the book, when Harry finds out that it is Snape, it is an emotional wound. In the film, it’s just a trivial fact thrown out there for us to justify the title.

When I wathed the movie the first time, I was pretty aghast at those missing things. The fact that I still enjoyed the movie should tell you something. When I watched it the second time, I tried to forget about the book, and just take the movie as is.

And the result is a really wonderful movie.

Because I know what happens in the seventh book, I know that this movie perfectly sets up the idea of what the seventh and eighth films will be about. This entire movie exists to show us what love does to the characters in this world.

That is vital to Harry’s relationship with prett much everyone in the stories, but specifically to Ron and Hermione. It is vital in understanding why Ron and Hermione’s fight and “break up” is so important. It is vital in understanding why Snape would turn on Voldemort and begin working for Dumbledore.

Without this movie we don’t really have any real grasp for what love means in this universe, and it would make it difficult to understand the “whats” and “whys” of the next two movies. And don’t get 100% caught up in the romantic stuff, either. There’s a lot more love in this movie than just the romantic kind.

Take a look at Mrs. Weasley’s face as she watches her home burn. Think she didn’t love that place and feel a real loss at its destruction? Watch Mr. Weasley’s face just before he runs off to check on Molly when the explosion happens. Think he doesn’t feel a real fear over his loved one? What about Ginny running after Harry in that same scene?

Hagrid losing Aragog perfectly sets up Harry’s loss of Hedwig. The fact that Harry is a raving lunatic in that scene will only serve to make his loss that much worse in the next film. Slughorn’s love of Lilly Potter is pretty crucial, wouldn’t you say?

Then there’s the love of everyone at Hogwarts felt towards Dumbledore. The scene where the students/faculty eradicate the dark mark while mourning Dumbledore’s death is a brilliant addition to this story, and is also one scene where Hooper’s music is spot-on.

All of these different types of love matter in the last book, and will almost certainly matter in the next two films. The fact that the producers/writers/Yates understood that so clearly should make the last two films that much better.

Getting back, for a moment, to what I referenced above regarding the battle at Hogwarts not being in the film… I think this was a choice made for two reasons. First, it would have possibly earned the film a PG-13, and I think the producers wanted a PG. Second, it works better thematically without it.

Not only is this movie about love, but it is about the children becoming adults. All of the action in the film done by “the good guys” is done by the children. Lupin and Tonks are unable to get through the fire to Harry, but Ginny is able. Draco and Harry have the huge duel, instead of Dumbledore and Voldemort (like in Order of the Phoenix). Harry has to make Dumbledore drink the poison. Harry saves Ron’s life with the bezoar when he is poisoned. Draco is the surrogate hand of evil for Voldemort. Voldemort is only seen as a child in this movie.

The battle scene, had it been in the movie, would have been between adults – specifically Greyback and Bill Weasley. And as such, it doesn’t fit in this movie. I do hope that they figure a way to have Greyback disfigure Bill in the next film,  if only so that nugget of Weasley suffering is present in the films.

As for the acting… Mahfah is correct here, as well. All of it is brilliant. The three kids have come an incredibly long way in their overall skills, and this movie is their best as an acting troupe. The adults don’t have a hell of a lot to do in this movie, aside from Gambon and Broadbent, but they are all great in their respective scenes.

Broadbent is particularly fantastic. Slughorn is a total douche of a character, yet you have to at least like him a little bit. You especially have to feel pity for him, otherwise his scene with Harry in Hagrid’s hut is worthless. Broadbent simply nails the role, though I doubt he’ll get any real notice for it.

(On a side note, the pity Harry has to feel for Slughorn should nicely set up the pity that he has to feel for Kreecher in the next film.)

Gambon was once againt great. As wonderful as Richard Harris was in his films, I don’t know that he would have been right to play the Dumbledore of the later films. Gambon is a much more fierce prescene, when he needs to be, and I’m not sure Harris would have been capable of that at his age.

Wright and Cave are, as Mahfah pointed out, wonderful. These are two roles that could have been totally butchered, with one being subtle and the other over the top. Those extremes are tough to pull off, but these two young ladies nailed it.

I’ll brag a little more on Felton than Mahfah did, though. The combination of Yates and Felton (with a lot of help from J.K. Rowling) made Draco Malfoy a simpathetic character in this book. When you consider the despicable things he does, that is quite an accomplishment. The seemingly throw-away shots of Malfoy in this movie are wonderful :

He does not clap when Snape is announced as the Dark Arts professor; he’s sitting alone before Slughorn’s Christmas party; he’s alone in the tower when Ron and Lavender are making out and Harry and Hermione are consoling each other.

Not only do those scenes 100% set up the theme of the next two movies (love and companionship defeat hate and isolation), but they work wonderfully in tandem with the scenes of Malfoy orking in the room of requirement. Yates shoots them well, and Felton acts the hell out of them without being over the top.

It will be interesting to see how the fans react to this film. It is a pretty big departure from not only the book, but from the other five movies, as well. I’ve liked each movie in this series better than the one before it – until this one. Though I do really like this movie.

I’m guessing that once we see exactly how things play out in ine the next two films, this one will play better – almost as one part of a three part film.