I saw the new Harry Potter yesterday, the sixth in the series. Long story short, I liked it very much. Not quite as much as the third movie, but enough to blow away #5 for second place. The film was much darker than the previous ones, just as the book was darker than the others, but it certainly worked, and made sense. Sirius Black, Harry’s only decent family, was killed at the end of the fifth book/movie, and the Death Eaters are on the rise as Voldemort gains more and more power, so it is only fitting that the movie be as dark as it is. Caution: Spoilers follow.
The movie did a very good job of compressing the sizable book into 2.5 hours. My main complaint about the fourth movie is that it seemed to flash by, never really managing to stay in one place for more than a thirty seconds. The fifth movie was much better with pacing, amazingly fitting the largest book in the seven-part series into a decent-length movie. Now, the sixth movie accomplishes the same feat as the fifth (even if there is less to cram in, there is still a lot of action for a 2.5 hour movie). Admittedly, there were a few places where it felt a teensy bit jumpy (mainly the skipping from Hagrid’s hut to the pensieve shot, and other Dumbledore meetings), and a couple of areas that I would have liked to see much more of (a longer Felix Felicis scene and more from the Half-Blood Prince’s potions book), but the movie overall was very well-paced, I thought.
I loved the special effects in the film, particularly the new pensieve. Memories now appear as black, cloudy swirls on a misty blue background, similar to the appearance of the liquid memories swirling in the bowl. It has a much more magical air to it than the pensieve of previous movies. The movie is full of these black swirly cloud effects, as the Death Eaters also appear as trails of black smoke when they are flying. This addition is a great touch, in my opinion, because it gives the dark lord’s servants a much more powerful, mysterious air than before. The actors portraying the Death Eaters did an extremely good job, particularly the one portraying Fenrir Greyback. The unbreakable vow scene, on a related note, was superb. I never quite understood this scene in the book, but in film it was crystal-clear.
My one major complaint about the movie was that they changed the ending. In the book, as soon as Harry and Dumbledore return from their journey to get the horcrux, the death-eaters are at the school, and Dumbledore paralyzes Harry under the invisiblity cloak, forcing Harry to watch while Snape murders the headmaster. In the movie, Dumbledore simply instructs Harry to hide below, where he actually encounters Snape before the deed is done. This may not seem like that big of a change, but it means that Harry did nothing to stop Snape from killing Dumbledore, even though he easily could. In the book, Harry had very little grounds for blaming himself for Dumbledore’s death, but I feel that in the next movies (and yes, there are two movies left – The Deathly Hallows is being split in half, to draw it out a bit longer), the fact that Harry could have done something to save his beloved headmaster is going to make him even more angsty than he already is. This is disappointing, as the angst-ridden teenagers in the books and movies are the worst part of Harry Potter.
I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince very much, and I think that anybody who enjoyed the sixth book will not be disappointed by this movie.
Why do I still think the third movie is the best? That’s simple – I’m a sucker for time travel.