Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince could have been a great movie if I haven’t read the book. I watched it in I-Max and the 3D effects at the start are amazing. I had high hopes for the movie with the Death Eaters wrecking everything in sight. But take away the 3D spectacle, teen romance, and Quidditch action, and you’ll get a story that’s just half of what’s written in the book.
If you’re not familiar with the book then you’ll probably say that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is good except for the ending. Yup, it has everything that compromises a box office hit. It has action, teen heartthrobs, and amazing effects.
But fans of the Harry Potter series are greatly disappointed with the Half-Blood Prince movie. The book tackled Harry’s relation with the Dursleys, Bill and Fleur’s love affair, the house elves, Tonks and Remus, Madame Rosmerta and Dumbledore’s funeral. The movie did show two of Tom Riddle’s memories but that’s not enough. I guess the director thought that Ron and Lavender’s love story is more interesting than finding out why Tom Riddle became Voldemort. Another plot mistake I could think of is the burning of the Burrow.
I was also imagining the battle between the Death Eaters and Dumbledore’s army in Hogwarts but was disappointed when it was not included the movie. After Snape killed Dumbledore, the Death Eaters calmly walked out of Hogwarts with only Harry going after them. Even in real life, that’s illogical.
If I remember correctly, in the book Harry used his Invisibility Cloak to hide when Draco attacked Dumbledore. But the movie showed Harry under the stairs and Snape even saw him there. I could go on and on but the main point here is that the Harry and the Half-Blood Prince movie is loosely based on the book. It lacked various subplots that made the book interesting. The movie and the book might share the same title but that’s the only thing they have in common.
Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon): This is beyond anything I have imagined.
The ending is a cliffhanger for those who haven’t read Deathly Hallows yet. I just hope that the next movie is better than this in terms of being true to the book. But if you get over the missing subplots from the book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is visually entertaining. Potter fans like me should forget about the book and just enjoy the movie for what it is.
