There was some verbal spell casting, Sectumsempra and the more complex Lumos spell springing to mind. One part of the spell casting angle that annoyed me a little was that from what I remember of the book Draco attempts to cast the Cruciatus curse on Harry in the bathroom but that wasn't in the film, I thought that in the book it helped to further emphasise not just how far Draco had fallen but it also helped to justify Harry's use of Sectumsempra.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - Opinions?
- Thread starter Morgoth
- Start date
Meh, made little differance as they removed any form of back lash to Harry using the spell because they rushed the ending so much.
I read the book last week (eventually, only had it 4 years!), and watched the film last night. I'm not sure which book the film was based on, but it certainly didn't appear to be the one I read, concentrating far too much on relationships, etc, and not on the ever growing threat of Voldemort, and missing out about 50% of the very important parts of the story, very disappointed! 
I just think this film, was awful.
If I had the same budget, and actors ect ect I'd have done a better job, I'd have had help, but christ I don't think I could have done any worse.
I think after the 3rd they went downhill very quickly.
I read the book last week (eventually, only had it 4 years!), and watched the film last night. I'm not sure which book the film was based on, but it certainly didn't appear to be the one I read, concentrating far too much on relationships, etc, and not on the ever growing threat of Voldemort, and missing out about 50% of the very important parts of the story, very disappointed!
What was missing? I've only read book 6 once, so don't remember much about it.
.Everything.
No no I'm seriouse, let me list them.
Dumbledore drops harry at the burrow, and then buggers off, he also drops harry in a river.
No mention is made of the worries of the wizarding world or inferi, no funny scene between molly and arthur.
No Owls reults
No mention of new minister for magic
No Dursleys
No Bill Weasly and the chick from book 4
Snape is made defence teacher, then ignored.
All the memories are gone except slughorn and the one with voldy in the childrens home
No mention of Sirius's will or harry getting the house.
No mention of Mundungus stealing items (aka the brooch)
No mention of Voldy's mother
No mention of the other Horcrux's, also Dumbledore seems to not have a clue until the very end.
No mention of Fenrir Grayback
Lupin and Tonks getting together is not even mentioned apart from some dodgy "darling" comment from tonks
Apparating lessons is out
End battle is gone
No repercussion for harry nearly killing Malfoy
No mention of bill getting hurt by Grayback
Dumbledores funeral is out
plus dozens of little things.
Yes I know these books way to damn well.
Harry AND Ginny go to hide the book and then kiss?
Luna saves Harry on the train, and not Tonks?
No mention that Harry must continue the quest for the Horcruxes if anything happens to Dumbledore?
Biggest thing for me though, Harry hiding rather than having a spell cast on him at the end, he would never have done that, he'd have been unable to resist coming out and fighting to protect Dumbledore!
Luna saves Harry on the train, and not Tonks?
No mention that Harry must continue the quest for the Horcruxes if anything happens to Dumbledore?
Biggest thing for me though, Harry hiding rather than having a spell cast on him at the end, he would never have done that, he'd have been unable to resist coming out and fighting to protect Dumbledore!
Ok. So what i've tried to do is fairly add some rough time values to extending, adding or playing out the addendums you guys have mentioned. I'm not trying to create an argument, i also thought the film was a bit sparse... but y'all can't deny it was a huge book and getting it all into a film, especially when you're setting up for a 6 hour finale, would have been difficult. Some of this stuff could still be carried over (bill and fleur, bill being hurt by Fenrir etc could all be carried over quite easily and will be much more comfortable when you've got 2 films to play with).
Of course some of th below could be fixed just by a character saying it outright in under ten seconds, but most things in the HP world need a little bit of explaining, especially seeing as a huge % of the audience wont have read the books and have the background knowledge.
Just those things alone, and i know my time values are obviously not exact, just the amount of time i think it would have taken to adequatly play them out, will make the film over 6 hours long.
Edit:
try to think of these things from a films perspective too. Some things just dont work by film, because books have narration and films dont. If Dumbledore had Petrified Harry atop the astronomy tower, normal non-HP fans would have been very confused. And why would he suddenly become un-petrified? There's no voice talking over to explain that the spell wears off when Dumbledore dies, and no voice to explain why he did it in the first place.
Of course some of th below could be fixed just by a character saying it outright in under ten seconds, but most things in the HP world need a little bit of explaining, especially seeing as a huge % of the audience wont have read the books and have the background knowledge.
Just those things alone, and i know my time values are obviously not exact, just the amount of time i think it would have taken to adequatly play them out, will make the film over 6 hours long.
Edit:
try to think of these things from a films perspective too. Some things just dont work by film, because books have narration and films dont. If Dumbledore had Petrified Harry atop the astronomy tower, normal non-HP fans would have been very confused. And why would he suddenly become un-petrified? There's no voice talking over to explain that the spell wears off when Dumbledore dies, and no voice to explain why he did it in the first place.
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Oh of course I mean they couldn't logicaly follow the plot, it would be stupid, as you say it would be insanely long and insanely dull for the most part, but my grip with it is WHAT it missed out more that how much it missed out.
It removed, and changed, a lot of the realy important scenes that define quite a few charcters, and then turned it into some god aweful teen love drama crap.
I mean WHY miss out the funeral? WHY?! It's the single more powerful scene Rowling has EVER created and is an ENDING, yes it is gone, I mean what is it going to be at the begging of the next one? how crap would that be?
All the other movies have managed to follow the books well enough and only change a few things here and there, this just ignored that and has essentialy changed the entire bloody plot.
It removed, and changed, a lot of the realy important scenes that define quite a few charcters, and then turned it into some god aweful teen love drama crap.
I mean WHY miss out the funeral? WHY?! It's the single more powerful scene Rowling has EVER created and is an ENDING, yes it is gone, I mean what is it going to be at the begging of the next one? how crap would that be?
All the other movies have managed to follow the books well enough and only change a few things here and there, this just ignored that and has essentialy changed the entire bloody plot.
2nd part? there is no 2nd part, the last movie is 2 parts, not this one.
Iv never been into harry potter but the girlfriend made me watch them all and take her to see the new ones in the cinema for the last 4 years and i have grown to enjoy them especially the goblet of fire. My first words when the half blood prince finished where "well that was crap"
She herself was dissapointed with the film. Shame as i thought they where really picking up.
She herself was dissapointed with the film. Shame as i thought they where really picking up.
No time at all added on, could've been done in exactly the same amount of time as the garbage they replaced it with!
As was there no voice over in the book, you play the scene out in your mind as you're reading the text on the page, and anyone could've worked out that Dumbledore did it to protect him, and for no other reason.
Also, surely non-HP fans wouldn't have gone to see the movie in the first place?
Of course they would. Until HBP, i hadn't read any of the books so would have been none the wiser. I can assure you, my poor mum would have been thoroughly confused if Dumbledore had petrified Harry.
And not voice over per se, but there's dialogue that doesn't belong to a specific character that opens plenty of avenues of thought for the reader. You dont have that in movies. The only dialogue is what people speak.. and yu couldn't exactly have Dumbledor crying "i petrified Harry so he couldn't try to save meeeeeee........." as he fell over the side.
It was clearly the simplest (although not best) way of producing an easily understandable scenario. plus, it opened up a new scene for Snape (under the stairs) that gave half a hint of his intentions. He could have petrified Harry himself and left him for the Dark Lord under the stairs but didn't, which gives a little bit of insight into his intentions. Even my mum (who is my reference for everything because she has such a loose grip on her surroundings, bless her) is under the impression that Snape isn't really a bad guy, and she's never read the books.
And not voice over per se, but there's dialogue that doesn't belong to a specific character that opens plenty of avenues of thought for the reader. You dont have that in movies. The only dialogue is what people speak.. and yu couldn't exactly have Dumbledor crying "i petrified Harry so he couldn't try to save meeeeeee........." as he fell over the side.
It was clearly the simplest (although not best) way of producing an easily understandable scenario. plus, it opened up a new scene for Snape (under the stairs) that gave half a hint of his intentions. He could have petrified Harry himself and left him for the Dark Lord under the stairs but didn't, which gives a little bit of insight into his intentions. Even my mum (who is my reference for everything because she has such a loose grip on her surroundings, bless her) is under the impression that Snape isn't really a bad guy, and she's never read the books.