Half-Blood Prince: A Review

I've been waiting for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to come to theatres since....well, forever. It was supposed to come out in November (if I'm not mistaken) of 2008 and Warner Brothers pushed it to July 2009. Man, was I ticked off. Eventually, I got over it, but anxiously awaited the summer release.

Last night, Robin and I went to see it. Overall, I liked it just fine. I almost wish I hadn't re-read the book before I went. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't know what they'd changed.

The cast were great. Radcliffe, Grint and Watson have all come so far in their acting. They were great as were the senior members of the group. I have to say I was a little shocked to see how old Maggie Smith looks to me suddenly. She's great as McGonnagal, but she's looking a touch frail to me; as is Robbie Coltrane who plays Hagrid. It just seemed odd. I guess I just never pictured them looking older and in my head, they didn't. Tom Felton, however, who plays Daniel Radcliffe's/Harry's nemesis Draco Malfoy was super in this film. Seriously a great performance!

Ok, so I now need to complain a little about the film. For as funny as it was tackling the teenage romantic side of it, there were some things I wish they'd done differently or stuck more closely to the book. Warning, spoilers ahead!

1. In the scenes where Harry and Dumbledore go through the memories in the pensieve. I would have loved to see them there watching the memories like it's portrayed in the books. Not a big deal in terms of the plot, but I kinda wished they had.
2. They left out, what in my opinion are, some major memories during the pensieve scenes. They left out the memory of Winky, the house elf. This is the memory that shows us the young adult Voldemort who eventually kills an elderly witch for her treasures she's foolishly shown him: the Slyverine locket and the Hufflepuff cup. I would have also liked them to show Voldemort returning to Hogwarts to ask Dumbledore for a teaching position because it would have lead to Dumbledore disclosing to Harry about the objects he suspects Voldemort has used to make horecruxes.
3. Dumbledore never expands on what the remaining horecruxes might be. He doesn't give Harry a clue about what they'll need to look for after they get whatever is hidden in the cave like he does in the book. I think that will be a potential issue in the next film as Harry hunts for them. I'm wondering how they're going to handle that.
4. When Harry uses the Sempra Sectum spell on Malfoy, Snape doesn't do ANYTHING to Harry. He doesn't yell or abuse him or anything we expect him to do. That's just not Snape and Harry's relationship at all.
5. After he's used the awful curse/spell on Malfoy, he's supposed to hide his copy of his potions book in the Room of Requirement. Instead, in the film, he and Ginny go there to hide it and he closes his eyes as she hides it. This will be an issue next film or the last film when he needs to find the diadam of Ravenclaw...that just happens to be on the bust of a warlock that is sitting on the old potions book. This disappointed me a lot.
6. I thought Harry should have been more on the ball with clueing in about the Vanishing Cabinet once Mr. Weasely told him about it at Christmas time. This wasn't in the book at all, but seriously, how stupid was it that he sees the cabinet in the Room of Requirement and then doesn't put it together?
7. The Astronomy Tower scene was just anti-climatic to me and I still can't figure out why it was. I was bugged that Harry wasn't wearing his Invisibility Cloak like he does in the book and that Dumbledore tells him to hide instead of using the body-bind spell. I felt like Harry in the film should have done something to help Dumbledore. I think I would have felt more emotion if we could see Harry "stuck" to the spot because of the spell and forced to watch and not act while Malfoy and Dumbledore have their scene.
8. I wish that the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix/Dumbledore's Army had actually fought like they do in the book. It just seemed so...sanitized. I don't know, it just seemed odd that the castle was under attack and NO ONE was there to protect it.
9. I wish that they'd included the funeral scene. That would have had everyone clutching their tissues. As it was, I barely teared up when Dumbledore died; although I do think they tried to make it emotional with all the students and teachers holding up their lighted wands in tribute to Dumbledore and the Dark Mark vanishing as they did that. That, I think, was fairly symbolic.
10. Snape and Harry's fight after Snape kills Dumbledore. It just seemed lacking in emotion on Harry's end. I don't know, I was just expecting him to be MORE upset and angry with Snape. It just didn't do it for me for some reason.
11. The attack on the Burrow at Christmas. I just didn't get the reason for it. It just seemed random to me.

I will probably go back to see the film at the theater again, only because I want to give it a chance. I want to really like it so I will watch it again this time trying to enjoy it as a movie unto itself as opposed to picking it apart for how it varied from the book. Jim Broadbent who plays Professor Slughorn, was great! I can't wait to watch him again. Regardless, this movie will be added to my Harry Potter collection once it's released on DVD later this year!