Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Movie...total spoilers

okay, i just typed this up for my liverjournal:

Overall, I really did enjoy the movie- I was cracking up through most of it, because it just had some truly hilarious stuff. Lavender was hilarious, love Hermione's reactions, loved the Ginny moments (just wish there had been more at the end), loved Ron and the love potion! perfect! and loved Harry during Felix, and quidditch was AWESOME- so much better than the quidditch used to be- in general, all the effects were the best they've ever been- like the putting of the room back at the beginning, apparating, etc. Slughorn was great. The memories they did have were excellent. The transitions were wonderful, Draco was beautifully tormented by his mission (though I'm not sure it got across how much he struggled with it... except with the bird dying)

Okay, now things that slightly annoyed me- the things that I was already expecting.

- The attack on the Burrow- obviously, I knew this scene was coming, because they had pictures and clips, but this was not in the book at ALL, and in fact, it should have been impossible, because of the protections around their house! So I found that frustrating- and it might have been okay if it maybe ADDED something to the movie, but it just didn't! And it took time at the expense of loosing crucial plot information at the end... I had hoped we were past adding extended scenes of pointless action or danger to play around with cool effects for no reason (car/train scene at the begininning of chambers, extended dragon fighitng scene in goblet)

- Harry and Ginny's kiss and events after- thinking about it, I understand that they had to rewrite the kiss some, because they kissed after the quidditch cup game, so they would have had to written in another quidditch match, Harry getting detention, Harry coming back from that, etc. which obviously was time- since they cut out detention and the other quidditch games for time (which i understand and am generally fine with), i know that then obviously the kiss had to happen differently- but it would've been nice if Harry had been a man and kissed her back!! hello?! and after they kiss, they dated in the book, and it's the only time we get for them to date, because they break up! *sigh* It just would've been nice to establish more that they both like, really really do like each other, and they hang out together, they are a couple. And the whole line of "this can stay up here, too, if you like" or something like that- um, okay, they could've had Harry come back with a "no! i'd quite like that to go down with us, because i really like you!" i just hate that it has ginny totally the only one taking any initiative in the relationship, when Harry totally did. However, if they get in maybe some good scenes with the two of them in the beginning of the next movie- i really hope they keep the kiss scene in her room at the burrow, and then they talk or whatever, i will probably be appeased in this...

- Horcurx information- okay, i totally understand that they couldn't do all the memories for time. that's totally understandable. but at the same time, if Harry doesn't know what other horcruxes he is looking for are, how in the world is he going to begin to search for them??? He doesn't even know what the real slytherin locket LOOKS like, and that's how he recognizes it when he sees it on umbridges neck. And he knows when he goes into the gringotts vault that it's either going to be a cup of hufflepuff or something with ravenclaw or maybe gryffindor's sign on it. and he knows the snake is one. and when he sees the ravenclaw diadem in the portrait, he remembers that he saw it in the room of requirment- how in the world is he going to know to look there if he has nothing to go on?!! *sigh* this is the most frustrating thing, because it is all sooo crucial for killing voldemort, and it seems like SO much information to totally leave hanging and have to try to find some way to push it into the 7th book. Now, I know that they are obviously going to have to get it in somehow in the beginning of the next movie- and depending on how they handle it, i may also be appeased on this point, as well. It just seems like they could have spent 5 minutes at the end after they see the real memory with dumbledore saying something besides "this is worse than i feared" or something like that (which, um, no, it isn't!!) but something more like, "i had suspected, but to have this confirmed is quite distrubing- Harry, I believe Voldemort did split his soul into 7, like he talked about in the memory- we have two destroyed horcurxes now, but there are still 4 out there- after much research into the memories I have collected on Tom Riddle, I have reason to suspect he used a Locket of Slytherin which looks like *this* (and pull a picture out of the pensieve- you know she does that in the book! you can do it, too!) , a Cup of Hufflepuff that looks like this, and then, I believe, he would have wanted something to complete his Hogwarts set- I know he can't have the remaining artifcat of Gryffindor's (point to the sword), but probably something of Ravenclaws. And I have strong suspicions he might have made his final horcrux be his snake- it does act oddly." Ta-da! and then we have all the info we need, in time it took to have some stupid attack on the burrow that added nothing to the movie. but i suppose that is much less exciting.

But really, these are the only changes that bothered me, mainly because I saw them as such critical plot points. And again, perhaps they will handle it all at the beginning of the next movie, and I will be appeased and be able to enjoy this movie much more. Since the biggest annoyance- lack of horcrux info- happened at the end, it left me with a slightly bitter taste of the movie, because during the credits the only thing i could think was "what about the rest of the horcruxes?! harry doesn't know!!" and i have to think back to the rest of the movie and remember that i truly did enjoy it.

All the other minor changes I noticed, I didn't really mind (expect the not immobolizing Harry on the Astronomy tower- leaving him to deal with all this guilt of not doing anything that he wasn't meant to have), because I see that they helped the movie flow as a movie better, helped get in character development while still hitting crucial points of the plot, etc. Like starting at some subway station instead of flirting- well, it did help establish that Harry and everyone has grown up and is noticing girls now. Having waaay more people, including lavender taking NEWT level potions, well, it helped get in more screen time with lavender to establish her character, which was very necessary, and hilarious, so again, no harm done overall, there. apparating straight out of hogwarts with dumbledore- it would have taken much more time and explination to walk down to hogsmeade, etc. and they did acknowledge the fact that they can't usually- so it wasn't like they ignored that fact. or getting in a little lupin/tonks interaction, even though at that point in the book it hadn't been established- it got it in, it set it up, it was something. or leaving out the battle at the end- seeing as there is going to be a HUGE battle for probably a large portion of the 2nd deatlhy hallows, this is understandable- it would have been repetative for viewers.

I think I may still like the 5th one slightly more- mainly because I think it had less that rubbed me the wrong way- but these are definitely my top two, and I'm so excited that David Yates is doing the last two, because overall he has done an excellent job- and his transitioning and connecting things has been so great- they flow like real movies, and it tells the story well, staying true to the characters. I'll be interested to see how I like it when I see it again, when I don't have the shock at the end of Dumbledore dying without passing on crucial information Harry needs to know, and therefore can leave with a less tainted picture of the movie...

I also would be really interested to see what David Yates has to say about leaving out the horcurx information- I wonder if he has addressed that at all... I watched a lot of the interviews that have been out recently, but haven't seen anything yet- I think I might feel better if I heard his explination and assurances about it...

~*~

Rose, I totally agree on the pinchers comment- it was hilarious!!!

it's true, it really was very hilarious, very enjoyable, and stayed true to the atmosphere of the book, i just am still in shock about the leaving out of all the horcrux info that i'm finding it keeps tainting my view on the rest of the movie...