Sectumsempra! (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (DVD))

Member Name: thehonesttruth

Product:	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (DVD)
Date:	28/08/09 (46 review reads)
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TITLE: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

CAST: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Jim Broadbent, Maggie Smith, David Thewlis, Bonnie Wright, Julie Walters, Helena Bonham Carter, Timothy Spall, Tom Felton and more .

DIRECTOR: David Yates

SCREENWRITER: Steve Kloves.

BASED ON : Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince , by J.K Rowling.

RATING: 12a

AVALABILITY: At Cinemas Now . DVD and Blu-ray release dates are yet to be announced, but very likely in time for Christmas.

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Introduction
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Unless you live in a cave with no access to the outside world, you've probably heard of Harry Potter, teen wizard . An ordinary boy until his 11th birthday, Harry suffered cruelty and neglect at the hands of his aunt and uncle, and particularly his cousin Dudley. His parents were dead , they dies in a car accident, or so he was told .

On the eve of his 11th birthday, Harry found out the truth . He was a wizard! His parents had not died in a car accident, but had died by sacrificing their own lives to save Harry form being cursed by Lord Voldemort , a dark wizard who was, many believed, defeated forever as his cursed bounced of Harry, killing Voldemort, but leaving Harry with only a jagged lightning shaped scar . Shortly after this, Harry enrolled at Hogwarts, a school just for wizards .

The books, and the films so far, have seen Harry face many challenges , including fighting Voldemort, whom nobody believed was back .

At the start of this film, the sixth in the series, the Wizarding world has finally aknowledged the truth that Voldemort has returned, and must prepare themselves to face more dangers than ever before, as Harry fights to make sure the prophecy - That neither of them can live while the other survives - turns out in his favour .

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Times like these, dark times, they do funny things to people. They can tear them apart ~ Arthur Weasley
***

Harry is about to enter his sixth year at Hogwarts. However, as the holidays drag on, Harry finds himself bored, riding around on trains all day as he contemplates the events that have led him up to this point in his life - the death of his parents, the repeated fights against Voldemort and his followers, and the recent death of his godfather, Sirius Black, at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange during a fight at the ministry of magic . Quite a lot for a young boy to think about.

So when Dumbledore turns up on the station platform with a task for Harry, it's a welcome interruption from his thoughts , and together they set off to provide a former teacher, Horace Slughorn (played by Jim Broadbent), to return to his old position at Hogwarts .

Proffessor Slughorn, however, seems not to want to take up his old post - in fact, he goes to great lengths to avoid it, staging a scene athis home that makes it look as if he's been taken, violently, by the death eaters. However, he hasn't really vanished, and is soon located, disguised as a chair!

Dumbledore excuses himself to the bathroom, where he spends a few minutes reading knitting patterns in muggle magazines (Muggle is the term used throughout HP to refer to anyone non-magical) leaving Harry alone with the the professor .

Harry learns that his mother Lily was Slughorns favourite student, and also gets an idea of Slughorns love of 'Collecting' people - people with influence, power, or potential. Slughorn eventually agrees to return to his old post- but imagine Harrys surprise when Slughorn ends up teaching Potions - meaning that professor Snape (Alan Rickman) finally gets his desire to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Add to this Malfoy acting suspiciously, and appearing to have Snapes help in his endeavours, and Dumbledore making him watch memories in the pensieve, and life is pretty stressful - especially when his two best friend fall out over romantic issues, and Harry is battling his opwn feelings for his best friends sister . Still, at least he's finally acing potions, thanks to a ratty old book, mysteriously marked as being the property of the Half-Blood Prince.

Then Dumbledore tasks him with retrieving one memory in particular from a very evasive Professor Slughorn . Will Harry retrieve the memory ? What secrets will it reveal ?

***
Why is it, that whenever anything happens, it's always you three?
~ Professor Minerva McGonagall
***

Harry Potter films would not be right without the three main characters, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) , Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson). Over the course of the films, I've seen this actors grow up from titchy tiny children into young adults - and I think it's great that they mature with the story .

Rupert Grint in particular stood out with a spectacular scene where he accidentally got a dose of a strong love potion - it was a scene that called for some very funny lines and some great facial expressions, and he pulled it off spectacularly . I was laughing to myself watching his performance of this particular scene, and felt it was handled brilliantly.

Emma Watson managed to pull of heartbreak pretty well too - from the initial tearful reaction, to the anger, the petty revenge, and the grudging resignation, she displayed a wide range of emotions in a very believable way .

Whilst Harry had a love interest in this film too, I don't think he particularly shone - none of his scenes called for anything much outside the range of acting we've previously seen from him - which I think is a real shame, and is at least partly to do with a fair few of the more touching, wordy scenes from the book having been skipped from the film altogether, or interfered with too much (more on that later). We do however get to see him , accidentally, do something completely out of character.

Alan Rickman as snape is wonderful as ever, portraying just the right level of menace by constantly glowering and speaking ever................so......slow.............ly. I do feel he should have had a more central role in the film (again, more on that in a minute).

We got to see a whole new side to Malfoy (Tom Felton) this time . No longer just an annoying, bullying, git, he's now driven by a purpose, his success a matter of life or death . He displays a wide range of emotions - secrecy, grim determination, anger, and fear , and becomes a much more human character in this film - someone you almost start to feel sorry for .

Michael Gambon, as ever, gave an outstanding performance, although I did feel in this film Dumbledore was a lot more serious than he was in the book .

Newcomer Jim Broadbent got Slughorn exactly right - a feeble little man who loves to collect powerful and influential people around him,lots of favouritism displayed, balanced out by genuine regret over some past actions .

Dame Maggie Smith as Professor Mcgonagall didn't have many lines in this film, due to the fact that during filming she was undergoing radio-therapy as treatment for breast cancer.

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In my life I have seen things that are truly horrific. Now I know you will see worse. ~ Albus Dumbledore
***

The quality of this production is excellent - stunning locations, the majority filmed in the UK, but with the winter scenes filmed in Norway . There are a couple of memorable locations in this film - particularly the Millenium Bridge over the river Thames in London, spectacularly destroyed with some brilliant CGI effects . Even the humans seen running across the bridge were created entirely with CGI, and I think it's stunning, you really can't tell they aren't real people .

The scene in the lake (I don't really want to go into too much detail for fear of spoilers) was also spectacularly done . Even though I knew exactly what was going to happen, having read the book many times, I still find myself jumping in my seat at one particular moment - and I wasn't the only person in the cinema to do so .

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I'm afraid we're on a bit of a tight schedule. ~ Bellatrix LeStrange
***

So far, I've been pretty positive about the movie - but it has one big negative . Trying to condense a book of 600+ pages into a movie is always going to miss a few minor details out - I accept that .

But a lot of scenes were missed out that, in the book at least, have a lot of bearing on how the final book unfolds .

Remember Bill and Fleurs romance ? Not there

Remember Bill being bitten by a werewolf ? Not there .

Remember the kick ass fight at the top of the astronomy tower ? Tats not here either .

Remember the Weasleys house getting burned to the ground by Bellatrix Lestrange ? Nope ? Well, it wasn't in the book, but it's in the film .

As well as leaving out scenes in the book that I feel were important and added depth to the story , they've actually added in entirely new scenes - such as the house being burned down - that while nicely executed, were not really neccessary . Perhaps that particular scene might relate to some changes in the plot of the next film, to cover up for all the bits they've missed out of this one . But I fail to see how the scene in the station cafe with Harry flirting with the girl added anything to the story .

I also feel that the actual Half-Blood Prince side of the story was sidelined an awful lot - in the book, it was a big thing , mysterious, a little frightening at times . In the book, there was a lot of thought on the part of Harry as to whom the prince could have been, but in the film, it was just a minor side story solved in a couple of words at the end .

Overall, I really enjoyed this film, I enjoyed the way relationships developed, I loved the CGI technology, the story moved at a good pace, and despite knowing what was going to happen I jumped in a few places . I am disappointed that so many good scenes from the book have been cut, and am curious to see how that will change the plot of the next two films (the last book,'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' is being made into a two part movie ).

I was impressed with the acting throughout, particularly Hero Fiennes as the young Tom Riddle - I think he's definitely a name to look out for in the future . I also, as previously mentioned, adored the scene with Ron after he ingests the love potion, and imagine that out of the three main actors in the film, he'll definitely go the furthest in terms of a future career .

I would recommend going to see this if you haven't already - I've seen it twice . But don't expect it to be closely accurate - it's not,and if you go in with this expectation you'll be disappointed.

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