Please share your favorites as well as your thoughts on the film if you’ve seen it! Here are a few links sent to me by friends around the country:
Quoth the Maven: Janet Batchler’s Sneak Review of the Half-Blood Prince film
Paste Magazine: Potter in Universities a Harry Subject (featuring friend of this blog, Yale Prof. Tumminio)
Your Religion is False: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood of Christ {Nutter of the Week nominee] (H/T Travis Prinzi!)
Time Magazine: Lev Grossman’s Intro to WRock
Welcome to Azkatraz 2009! Yes, Travis Prinzi and the Hogwarts Professor are mentioned… (H/T RHT!)
HogPro Bryan B catches a talk by David Heyman in Santa Monica at the local Apple store: Neat!
The Hogwarts Professor in Forks, WA: Oh, yeah — YouTube video of the event! (H/T A-L)
USA Today: Half-Blood Prince is Draco’s star-moment
The Wall Street Journal: Romance in Half-Blood Prince a response to Twilight success?
Kansas City Star: Harry Potter and the Have-To-Drink-Blood Vampires (H/T to Kitty S for most of the above!)
Yahoo News (AP): Daniel Radcliffe celebrates Dumbledore’s homosexuality (what a daring young man — to embrace homosexuality and atheism publicly in the same month — imagine the great risk he is taking of a right wing back-lash! Pardon my sarcasm. Can you say “sophomoric conformity”?)
I was interviewed by a Washington Post reporter and responded to a query from the Wall Street Journal earlier this week. Maybe I will get a mention somewhere — or Bookshelf, at least, which has been selling well at Amazon.
More on Azkatraz 2009 tomorrow and our HogPro meet-up times!
Well, this article doesn’t go very deep, needless to say, but apparently the Vatican has given the film “two thumbs up.” So to speak. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-07-13-vatican-harry-potter_N.htm?obref=obnetwork
Thought you’d find that of interest, John!
Haven’t seen the film yet and not sure when I’ll be able to — but looking forward to it!
For the Hogwarts First Kiss, A Tough Act to Follow Washington Post, 15 July 2009
snip
For an analysis of these two approaches in teen romance, let’s go to John Granger, the author of “Harry Potter’s Bookshelf” who is also working on a book about “Twilight.”
“Harry is basically a Gothic heroine,” Granger says. He “may have a love figure, but you get the [romantic] payoff after a long wait.” Meaning . . . ” ‘Harry Potter’ is ‘Pride and Prejudice’ with wands.”
The LA Times ran a series of interviews with the actors. I really enjoyed the one with Tom Felton (Draco). We’ve heard very little from him. To read the series: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/
Forgot, congrats John on the pickups of your HPA response and quotes re your books and insights!
A little bit of this and that from Entertainment Weekly that John asked me to post:
Sense & Sensibility and Sea Monsters (more “classic” fun!)
http://shelf-life.ew.com/2009/07/14/new-pride-and-prejudice-zombies-book/
HBP Breaks Midnight Records
http://news-briefs.ew.com/2009/07/harry-potter-and-the-halfblood-prince-breaks-midnight-record.html
Harry vs. Twilight stats
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/07/harry-potter-vs-twilight-whos-more-popular.html
Twi graphic novel first exclusive look (wonder if we’ll see this with HP eventually)
http://shelf-life.ew.com/2009/07/15/twilight-comic-book-manga/
Films judged by books or vice versa?
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/jul/16/half-blood-prince-poised-to-keep-harry-potters/?print-friendly
Great review this morning in our paper from The Baltimore Sun:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/jul/17/half-blood-exciting-from-start-to-finish/
Just in from the film. The story arc is maintained however discombobulated from the book story. One understands the script as advancing the story. One misses the books richness, but hey, it’s still 2.5 hrs in length. I was personally disappointed in the Tower scene as climax. NO real feeling of climax. The end bit with Snape was also disappointing. No instructions for Harry to lend the ambiguity needed.
Initial and probably final thought: Yes, I will buy the video – if only to complete my collection.
Books are best!
i did not like the movie to much on the relashionships and the climax was the wrost bit of the movie i mean harry would never just stand there. the other thing is the fire at the burrow never happen just more for the thing between ginney and harry. they could have done so much with the fight at hogwarts, but they stuck with just knocking over tables and cups. I personally was disappointed with the movie, if i buy the movie it will only have all the movies
jbv’s Dad:
High marks on the duplicity/angst of Snape. Nice and ambiguous. High marks on Slughorn. Loved the Liquid Luck scene. Didn’t mind the romance; thought it should have been a bit more grim. Like the feel of a WW2 London type of relationship. Like the book. I got the feeling the good guys are playing around with puberty while Malfoy’s fighting a war. High marks on Malfoy.
The last half hour was dismal. Why didn’t Dumby stupify Harry? Harry wouldn’t have stood there. He wouldn’t have trusted Snape. Why NOT do the largest battle of all the books up ’til this time? The denoument in the bell tower was way too cheerful. Hermione’s lines were . . . bland. Tell me there’s a director’s cut and that stuff got left out at the last minute. Yikes.
Big let down. Anticlimatic. The credits rolled and I went, “Oh . . . .” If the movie was three hours, how many fewer people would have gone? I think we’re in for a penny, in for a pound.
I do have to say that John, your reading is right on, but we are in the vast minority. Look at those articles at the top. No wonder many Believers are put off.
There’s a director’s cut, but it has yet to be made! 😉
Don’t forget Snape’s jawdroppingly meaningless “I am the HB Prince!” at the end, which completely caved for lack of joist. So much for the film’s title.
Arabella, right on with the meaningless, punchless HBP line! Anyway, the more I watch the films the less I feel any sort of real hatred between Harry & Snape. Animosity, yes. The closest we came to hatred, though, was in the occlumency lessons in OOTP.
I actually liked the movie. OK so the book is better. Books that have had movies made out of them are usually going to be better than the movie itself, no matter how much of the book is actually in it. The only exception is with the book Wicked, because the musical Wicked will always be the best.
What happened with the Weasley’s house was the only thing I’d have to go against. Seriously, are they going to rebuild or what? I mean, in the 7th book, they have Bill and Fleur’s wedding there in which Shaklebolt sends news that the Minister of Magic is dead (if i remember right). If anything, it was just to show people that the Death Eaters are serious business.
As for the major fight scene, I saw on the local news channel with one of the anchor persons saying that this one was a bit too violent. Violence my foot! The only violent thing that happened was Dumbledore getting killed, which was the main part of it. The rest of the stuff- the cursed necklace, the love potion/poisoned mead, and the vanishing cabinents, etc- were all done pretty well. Kudos to this movie.
My thoughts post-viewing of HBP: ….well, just let me say that I found the movie relatively entertaining in spite of my overwhelming disappointment. The Burrow’s burning sequence was unnecessary and the astronomy tower/ Dumbledore’s death scene was so woefully inaccurate (in my opinion) that I felt cheated out of a great screen moment a la OoTP/Dumbledore vs Voldemort in the MoM. The humor was good…a nice counter to the tension overall. Still, the lighter moments do not make up for the gaffs and poor interpretation of the book.
I hope Yates doesn’t mess with DH…it’s not like we don’t all know how the story ends, right? Guess that’s the privilege of “adapting” from book to screen. Ah well, I’ve camped on this idea before.
It topped the Movie Blooper list! So…
It wasn’t faithful to the story —
It didn’t capture the biggest moments and themes (e.g., “I am with you”) —
and it had sloppy production values, even after an extra few month’s special attention.
Why do we go to the movies again?
I was more than ready to enjoy the movie. It was the first we all went to see in the theater rather than waiting for the dvd to come out (my wallet is still smarting).
Alas. My favorite of the stories turned into my least favorite of the movies. It lacked charm. Narrative elements were strung together with very little sense of narrative! And then this happened, and then this happened, and then this… Characters seemed to pop up and depart without any characterization. Relational moments were smashed in without any time for the audience to come to appreciate the relationships. We were given no time to linger over a funny or profound or dramatic moment. Time to move on! Sorry Dumbledore’s dead, Harry. Oh, and Ron’s okay with you and Ginny. Yeesh.
I’ll grumble my way to movie(s) number 7 and hope that someone in the editing department comes to understand that there’s more to telling a story than stringing episodes together.
My 11 year old daughter – who is a huge HP, not fan, but reader (and listener – I think she knows half the books by heart) told me her judgment after watching it: “Boring. For a long time, nothing happens, and then all of a sudden too much happens.” That sort of sums it up…
Personally, I had difficulties remembering even one scene after watching HBP, either positive of negative, which is a problem since I have to do a public discussion on it this weekend… Somehow it just rolled along, a nice-ish illustration of the book, with a very disappointing ending – especially the out-of-character scene with Harry just standing there. As such it’s typical of the whole franchise, I guess – trailers for the books. Too bad for the cast, most of whom I like.