It actually sounds quite good. I'm somehow disbelieving about Bonnie Wright though.

http://www.mugglenet.com/movies/movie6/ejsreview.shtml

 

Well this review colors it very nicely.

However, I have to wonder about that old bit of logic: 'you put trash in, you get trash out.'

Not to rehash all the criticisms of the book but I am still skeptical something based on that could turn out well.

On the other hand, this is 'Hollywood' maybe they really can color the turnip and sell it as a golden apple.

Sounds like we are going to be made to feel for Narcissa and Draco...oh yay.

Glad to hear there won't be too much 'snogging.'

and yes, quidditch, I do want to see that.

Edit: Thanks for posting, Taure.

 

Written by a fan-girl. It didn't surprise me when I saw the link to mugglenet at the end. A review with no substance period. Sounds just like they have read that a screening took place and had a stab at making a fake review it's that bad. You could do it with confirmed rumors of scenes being included easily enough. Movie will fail as much as the book.

 

You know its a fan girl when they start going on about Rickman's Hair being much nicer.

 

Like all the other films, I will give it one chance; if it turns out to be a complete bag of wank then I won't watch it again, Simple.

I never listen to reviews good or bad because they don't speak for my own experience, most reviews/critiques are biased one way or the other.

 

The book reads like a film script, or rather it feels like it was written for the screen, so I would expect it to be good

 

I'm disappointed that there will be no Gaunt scene, I personally feel that it would have been a brilliant scene to include and would have added alot to the dark feeling of the movie. Insane people stabbing snakes to their door... How is that not awesome?

 

All I really have to say is that after the Order of the Phoenix movie, I don't think HBP will have to be very good to be much, much better.

 

Well, I think it speaks to the judgement of the reviewer that she actually thought the Order of the Pheonix movie was decent.

Also, why did the directors decide to start cleaving closely to the plot of the books with HBP?

 

Proabably because they realized the movies were going to suck even more and thought that at least they'd be able to blame the bad storyline of the books rather than the fact that they failed at casting and directing.

 

Eh, no offense meant, but I think I'll wait for the official DLP review before I decide whether I'm going to see it or not.

The review sounds alright, but that doesn't mean a whole lot, considering where it originated.

 

Here are some reviews from AICN:

So there was a Chicago test screening of HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE on Saturday!! Wanna hear about it? UPDATED!!
Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here. I knew most of last week that there was going to be a test screening of HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE this past Saturday, and I fought with myself about whether I should try to get in. For whatever reason, they test every HARRY POTTER film months in advance in Chicago; I've been to two of them in the past. And since this sixth film's release date has been pushed to July 2009, this is technically the earliest they've ever test screened an HP films.

In the end, I knew that if I'd been spotted by the wrong people trying to get in, the consequences would have far outweighed the reward. I also knew an army of folks that were going and who were likely to send in reviews; I wasn't wrong about that. Here's the first from a frequent attenedee of many of the screenings I do in the Windy City. He calls himself Jimbo Wage, and he has faithfully submitted a Spoiler-ific review. You've been warned. The main problem I've heard about is pacing, but this was a test screening, so presumably pacing issues will be largely worked out come July of next year. Here's Jimbo Wage...





Hi. I saw Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince this past Saturday in Chicago. It was presented on the flyers as a mystery screening, and right before it started, a man with a microphone said we were the first people to see it. Maybe 75% of the special effects were complete. Also, some pieces of music from Batman Begins were on the soundtrack, indicating the score had yet to be totally completed. The runtime of this version was about 145 minutes.

I read the books once, maybe twice for a couple of them, but I’m definitely not what I’d call a fanatic. I’ve seen the movies, but started to lose interest in them after the fourth, which I felt they could have done a much better job with. I read Half-Blood Prince about three years ago and don’t remember all of the details, so please bear with me.

And there are spoilers, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The film opens with an assault on a bridge in London by Death Eaters. The fly around it in corkscrew-like formations, causing the bridge to collapse into the water below. They make their way into Diagon Alley, put a bag over some guy’s head, and take him away. It was a pretty spectacular opening, and I understand after talking to a couple of people that the filmmakers decided to show some of the Death Eaters’ assaults on muggles instead of having two guys in a room talking about it as it was portrayed in the book, but in regards to the rest of the film, I couldn’t understand really why it was there. Whoever gets kidnapped doesn’t reappear for the rest of the movie, and the money spent on that opening sequence (which isn’t in the book) could have been diverted to something that happens later on, the absence of which should leave fans of the book disappointed. (The person getting kidnapped might be Ollivander, and the person getting bagged might have been a stand-in for him – all of the effects weren’t finished. Why they would do that digitally, though, makes no sense to me.)

We’re introduced to Horace Slughorn, who is played by Jim Broadbent. When I first heard he wouldn’t be fat and he wouldn’t have a mustache, I was irritated, but Broadbent’s character is easily the most enjoyable in the film. There’s two scenes where he’s drunk that are great. He takes over as the Potions teacher, and Harry finds a book that once belonged to the Half-Blood Prince. In one scene, Harry follows the book’s modified potion-making instructions and gets proper results as the rest of his classmates fail around him. This leads me to another problem I had with the film – the mystery as to who the Half-Blood Prince is takes a backseat to all the dating stuff. Some of it’s pleasant and funny, but it should have been background comic relief to help balance the drama in the forefront. There’s a part where Harry fights Malfoy in a bathroom and he uses some violent spell, causing Malfoy’s chest to bleed, but the fact that Harry got the spell from the potions book was lost on me. I might have missed something, but regardless, whatever scene or line of dialogue was supposed to emphasize that fact definitely needs more attention. Also, there’s a scene during Christmas that wasn’t in the book where some Death Eaters attack the Weasley household, drawing first Harry and Ginny into a field of wheat (or something), then Lupin and someone else, I forget who. The scene feels totally unnecessary –tacked on to give the audience a jolt of action at around the halfway point of the film.

I had the most problems with the film’s final third. Harry and Dumbledore’s trip to the caves seemed to come out of nowhere, as did Dumbledore’s declaration that he had to drink the water from the podium in which the locket they were after was held. I don’t remember if that’s how it happened in the book, but I remember arriving at that location & conclusion in a way that at least felt more natural.

After that, they make their way to the tower and instead of using a charm to immobilize Harry and cover him with the invisibility cloak like in the book, Dumbledore just sends Harry away, and Harry goes downstairs, stops & watches the following scene through cracks in the floor above him. Malfoy tries to kill Dumbledore but realizes he can’t. Snape arrives on the floor below & signals Harry to be quiet, which he uncharacteristically does. Snape then goes upstairs & sends Dumbledore to his death. The modifications made to this scene from book to film are terrible, and they partially blow what may be the biggest surprise of the entire franchise.

Afterwards, there is no enormous battle. The Death Eaters stroll out silently. I remember the fight in the book being fantastic, and I personally would rather have had a short scene in the beginning with two guys talking about the horrible things the Death Eaters are doing than eliminate the battle at the end. Harry runs after them and confronts Snape, who quietly tells him he’s the Half-Blood Prince. Again, due to lack of attention paid to this plotline, I didn’t really care. In the book, he screams his response. The book has Snape screaming and the film has him using his indoor voice. What a disappointment.

And as if this weren’t enough, there is no funeral for Dumbledore. It’s been cut.

They have almost a year before this film is released, so there’s plenty of time for editing, which is good news because this cut was quite underwhelming. A woman in our post-screening discussion of about 20-25 people said she usually cries at movies, but didn’t react at all when Dumbledore died. Hopefully, the filmmakers will ease up on the relationship stuff and emphasize more of the potions book/Half-Blood Prince plot. I’d like to think they’d shoot that missing end battle and also shoot the funeral, but I doubt the studio would be willing to spend any more money, especially because of how elaborate the battle was in the book.

Jimbo Wage




Hey, Capone again. Here are a few words from an unhappy customer from the same screening. And he has even more spoilers than the last guy.



Hello. I saw an incredibly early test screening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Saturday in Chicago. It was an event shrouded in secrecy, the audience only being told what film they had come to see seconds before the lights went down, and I was honestly excited. Like, five-year old boy excited.

My disappointment with what followed is endless.

Warning: this review contains many, many spoilers.

First, let's go with what was good if for no other reason than it will take less time. The opening, far different from the novel, was very strong. We see a bridge destroyed by Death Eaters, Diagon Alley blown to bits, Harry and Dumbledore mourning before an onslaught of Magical Press, and Snape making a very ominous, very Unbreakable Vow. I got a real sense of urgency, of darkly engrossing things to come. And they did. Just not in the sense that I had expected.

There was also the inspiring performance by Jim Broadbent as Prof. Horace Slughorn. Easily the most enjoyable character in the film, I found myself lolling away the scenes he was absent from anticipating the next one he was in. In fact, there was a lot of good humor, not only from Broadbent. There is a lot of teen drama in this film, most notably a love triangle between Harry, Ginnie Weasley, and Dean Thomas. A love potion gone awry adds a bit of welcomed lightness for Ron Weasley (who finally gets a crack at Quidditch, one of many points of anticipation hacked out of the last film).

And, well, that's about it.

The problem with all of this romance is All of This Romance. It dominates the movie, drawing our focus away not only from major plot points – which fall disastrously through the cracks – but also deters the mood, which, in a (nearly) penultimate film, should be at the forefront.

The title of this film is Harry Potter and the HALF-BLOOD PRINCE but the title character gets next to no screen time and even less explanation, save for a few asides that, if you haven't read the book, may as well have been cut. Better to call the movie Harry Potter and the Hormones from Hedes and save us our disillusionment.

Most of my issues with this film deal with deletions and alterations from the book, which would be okay if they were for the betterment of the movie-going experience, except that they're not. Gone are notable characters such as Rufus Schrimgouer, Fleur Delacour, and Bill and Charlie Weasley. Series regulars such as Maggie Smith and Robbie Coltrane are reduced two line cameos.

For a book based on Harry and Dumbledore's quest to find out more about Voldemort, and how to stop him, via his memories, all but three memories have been cut from the film. Why is it that the filmmakers decided it was more important to focus on teen-age love rather than what are inarguably critical plot points? It is aneurysm inducing logic that will surely leave me dead in my bathtub.

And the ending. Good God, the ending. Not only is the fight between the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix completely removed, but so is Dumbledore's funeral. The last third of this movie is so incredibly mishandled that Dumbledore's death feels more like an unfortunate accident than genuine tragedy. No one in the film seems even remotely upset that he's gone and the Death Eaters who murdered him, including would-be-good-guy Severus Snape (Alan Rickman, the title-character in cameo form), walk out of Hogwarts unmolested.

Anyone who has read the book (an incredible sum of folk who Warner Bros. seem to have forgotten are the target audience – either that or they have some personal vendetta against them) will be severely, SEVERELY disappointed with this film. Let's just hope that in the ten intervening months between now and the film's release, Warner's will take the time and the money to fix this incredible mess.

Sadly, I'm not holding my breath.

Michael Bravo




-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com

 

It sounds to me like all the criticisms of the film are merely criticisms of the book. From the above reviews it looks like the film is going to portray the book pretty accurately, excepting the two new scenes.

Which I'm pretty pleased about, really. I've been wanting the films to stick closer to the books ever since they started drifting away at PoA.

To all those saying "Lol, the review is from Mugglenet, can't be trusted", I honestly don't know what you're talking about. The review that I posted is pretty much a description of what is included in the film and what isn't - there's not much in there that needs trust to accept.

 

I suppose it's a fair point that the excessive focus on teen romance to the expense of all other plot points is, most unfortunately, a fairly accurate portrayal of the book. In addition the new opening scene sounds like it might be an improvement over the books; showing a Death Eater attack should be a lot more interesting than having two people talk about it.

However, from the other reviews it sounds like the end of the film was a total disaster, especially if they change it to Harry hiding like a coward rather than charging after Dumbledore's killers in vengeance-seeking mode. I'm also a bit worried by reviews saying important plot points and characters were cut while new scenes like Harry and Ginny fighting off a Death Eater attack on the Burrow were added. The solution to making a good HBP movie was not to have there be less plot and more Harry/Ginny.

 

Okay. Because I am the most anal member of this forum, I just went and deleted all sentences from the review that are opinion to see how much of the review is description and how much biased judgement.

1454 out of 2354 words of the review are pure description with no opinion added. That's 62% of the review.

So saying that the entire review is biased and unreliable just because it comes from Mugglenet is not really true.

 

They seem to be keeping up with the fairly recent trend of butchering climaxes. The DoM sequence should have been mysterious, action packed and heart-wrenching. The Possession should have been at least remotely horrifying. What they seem to have done with the best part of HBP certainly doesn't sound promising.

My enthusiasm for the last two movies pretty much died when the decided to cut DH in half. Reading those spoilers certainly didn't manage to rekindle it.

 

60/40 isn't exactly a good ratio, though. I didn't go to the theaters to watch OotP, and it's looking like this one won't be worth the trip either. If they cut Dumbledore's death to Harry hiding beneath the floor, and then not going mad with rage, I probably will refuse to even see the seventh, not that the book was good enough to read more than once.

 

Brilliant move by David Yates. Spend a bunch of money on the beginning, which really doesn't do much except for raise the Muggles' stake in the Wizarding War, and bleed the budget dry, leaving for a finale where Snape seems to kill Dumbledore in a random fashion, and then having the DE's just waltz out of Hogwarts without meeting any resistance. What a fucking hack.

Once the end scene in OotP, which I had been anticipating for years, turned out to be one the biggest let-downs in adaptation history, I was unable to keep making excuses for this franchise anymore. Five movies, and only the third one was re-watchable. Completely pathetic. Fuck these movies, I'm never paying to watch another one.