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
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