"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009, PG-13)

The watchword here is “dark.”  The Half-Blood Prince very much wants you to know it’s not messing around (except for the utterly ridiculous teen romance stuff, which is actually mostly amazing) – the situation is dire, the music is ominous, and the lighting is art-school moody.  Overall, it’s a fairly decent film, but even at two-and-a-half hours, it’s seriously hampered by time constraints.

By now, it’s unequivocally known and felt throughout the wizarding world that Voldemort is Back.  He’s gathering his forces, and his Death Eaters are causing enough chaos and turmoil that even the Muggles know something is up.  In preparation for the coming war, Dumbledore starts Harry on a course of private study:  using Dumbledore’s Pensieve, they view memories related to Voldemort in order to better understand him as a man, a wizard, and a monster.  One vital memory is only available to them in a seriously corrupted form, and the only way to acquire the real memory is for Harry to get in the good graces of the coattail-riding Professor Slughorn, who has a habit of “collecting” important young wizards.

I’ll be honest.  In the book, I wasn’t terribly interested in all the Voldemort flashbacks, so from a pure entertainment standpoint, I’ve never minded how many of them are cut from the movie.  From a plot standpoint though, while the omissions don’t seriously affect this movie, they strike a major blow to the last two, because without the information Harry learns from these memories, he has practically no clues to go on for his quest in The Deathly Hallows.  In that sense, it poorly serves the rest of the series.

Cinematically, the romance is kind of problematic as well, but mainly because it’s such a departure from the dourness of the rest of the film.  Still, tonal dissonance aside, this is a film where the comic relief is just that – relief.  Everything is so serious that it’s actually nice to take a break from it once in a while and just see teenagers acting crazy.  Jessie Cave makes a great splash as the lovesick Lavender Brown, and any scene of someone under the influence of a potion is fantastically funny (although the love potion stuff makes you worry about how consent works in the wizarding world.)   However, let it be known that none of the above applies to Harry’s romantic storyline, which I personally find to be dull as dishwater.  Just completely lifeless, and it grinds the film to a halt without fail.

So what works unquestionably?  The cave scene is gripping and intense, the Apparating effect is spot-on, and the astronomy tower scene is perfect (Alan Rickman is magnificent in it.)  It’s also a very strong film for Tom Felton’s Draco; Felton does an excellent job showing the conflict of a boy who’s gotten in over his head.  Additionally, I really love Jim Broadbent as Slughorn.  On the page, the character is silly, kind of embarrassing, and a tiny bit sinister, but Broadbent brings some surprising pathos to the role that really makes me feel for Slughorn.  Lastly, it’s a small thing, but after having a few films with no Quidditch, it’s fun to see the kids, even briefly, out on their brooms.

Warnings

Scary stuff, magical violence, light swearing, drinking, and thematic elements.

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