Chou_Zu said:

I'm not using spoilers in an official review thread. So don't read on if you havn't seen it yet.









I think David Yates has failed miserably with this film. He completely failed to grasp what was important about HBP and decided instead to spend too much time showing us a crappy teen drama movie. It was an improvement over OotP i'll give it that, and there were lots of moments when I genuinely laughed out loud, but when I think about the book I just see how much wasted potential this movie had.

Only two memory scenes was not enough. Those parts of the book have great importance in working out the Horcruxes, and also to add actual depth to Voldemort's character. It was a hugely missed opportunity to show some actual character development for THE main villain of the series, who for the most part so far has been a background character. Why not have the memory of Voldemort asking for a job and actually utilise Ralph Fiennes who plays the character so amazingly? These scenes are some of the best material in the book. Visiting the Gaunts in the forest, Tom using Hepzibah Smith, Merope falling for Riddle Snr. Sadly Yates wanted "action" and not substance. Here we could've had some amazing horror/thriller story points that actually served a purpose, instead we get a made up scene of the Burrow getting destroyed and Harry and Ginny running into a field with Death Eaters that resulted in absolutely no consequence. That scene wasn't needed and it wasn't action. And what's worse is that they then go and remove the action scenes from the attack on Hogwarts. Where's the logic here? And how was the Burrow destroyed in the first place? Where was the magical protection the Order is setting up for Harry's safety? Oh yeah, there isn't any. The Chosen one is allowed to walk around London on his own at night and get hit on by waitresses Again, cutting out material from the book and making up rubbish in their stead. This isn't how one adapts a book for the movies.

Now the Horcruxes, the pivotal piece of information in this film, are also not explained properly. No connection to the Hogwarts Founders, no thought to what the remaining will be. According to Dumbledore they could be any insignificant item. This stuff gets more laughable as it goes on. Well done for digging yourselves into deeper holes for Deathly Hallows.

The ending to this film also failed terribly. The cave scene was great, I thought they did a good job there. But as soon as they get back to Hogwarts it all goes downhill. We lost the urgencey from them appearing back at the school and seeing the Dark Mark, we lose the amazing line when Dumbledore tells Harry he's not afraid because he's with him. And then the events at the top of the tower get extremly let down. Why does Harry suddenly trust Snape? It makes no sense. Dumbledore's death had absolutely no impact on me because these movies havn't given us enough emotional connection to him. And Harry's relationship to Dumbledore has also never been built up properly, so I really didn't feel why he gave two hoots about DD's death himself. And then when Harry's chasing down Snape, we get the line from him calling Snape a coward, but where was the vehement outburst from Snape? And then we get a Darth Vader delivery of 'I am the Half-Blood Prince', which by this time i'm sure most people had completely forgotten about that particular plotline. I'm sure they only kept in any of the Half-Blood Prince plot because that's the title of the film.

This is more of a rant than a review, but considering this was my favourite book in the series, I was incredibly let down with this movie, yet again. I can see why a lot of people do like it. If I had never read the book i'm sure I would've enjoyed it too. I certainly enjoyed it more than OotP. But knowing all the amazing content they left out in favour of such pish they did include, it all turned out to be a waste of a movie and didn't live up to what it could have been.

I will add Daniel Radcliffe has improved his acting somewhat for this film. He did a brilliant job once he'd drank the Felix Felicis, and I felt the scene when he finally convinces Slughorn to give his true memory was the best scene in the film.

Chou_Zu said:

I'm not using spoilers in an official review thread. So don't read on if you havn't seen it yet.









I think David Yates has failed miserably with this film. He completely failed to grasp what was important about HBP and decided instead to spend too much time showing us a crappy teen drama movie. It was an improvement over OotP i'll give it that, and there were lots of moments when I genuinely laughed out loud, but when I think about the book I just see how much wasted potential this movie had.

Only two memory scenes was not enough. Those parts of the book have great importance in working out the Horcruxes, and also to add actual depth to Voldemort's character. It was a hugely missed opportunity to show some actual character development for THE main villain of the series, who for the most part so far has been a background character. Why not have the memory of Voldemort asking for a job and actually utilise Ralph Fiennes who plays the character so amazingly? These scenes are some of the best material in the book. Visiting the Gaunts in the forest, Tom using Hepzibah Smith, Merope falling for Riddle Snr. Sadly Yates wanted "action" and not substance. Here we could've had some amazing horror/thriller story points that actually served a purpose, instead we get a made up scene of the Burrow getting destroyed and Harry and Ginny running into a field with Death Eaters that resulted in absolutely no consequence. That scene wasn't needed and it wasn't action. And what's worse is that they then go and remove the action scenes from the attack on Hogwarts. Where's the logic here? And how was the Burrow destroyed in the first place? Where was the magical protection the Order is setting up for Harry's safety? Oh yeah, there isn't any. The Chosen one is allowed to walk around London on his own at night and get hit on by waitresses Again, cutting out material from the book and making up rubbish in their stead. This isn't how one adapts a book for the movies.

Now the Horcruxes, the pivotal piece of information in this film, are also not explained properly. No connection to the Hogwarts Founders, no thought to what the remaining will be. According to Dumbledore they could be any insignificant item. This stuff gets more laughable as it goes on. Well done for digging yourselves into deeper holes for Deathly Hallows.

The ending to this film also failed terribly. The cave scene was great, I thought they did a good job there. But as soon as they get back to Hogwarts it all goes downhill. We lost the urgencey from them appearing back at the school and seeing the Dark Mark, we lose the amazing line when Dumbledore tells Harry he's not afraid because he's with him. And then the events at the top of the tower get extremly let down. Why does Harry suddenly trust Snape? It makes no sense. Dumbledore's death had absolutely no impact on me because these movies havn't given us enough emotional connection to him. And Harry's relationship to Dumbledore has also never been built up properly, so I really didn't feel why he gave two hoots about DD's death himself. And then when Harry's chasing down Snape, we get the line from him calling Snape a coward, but where was the vehement outburst from Snape? And then we get a Darth Vader delivery of 'I am the Half-Blood Prince', which by this time i'm sure most people had completely forgotten about that particular plotline. I'm sure they only kept in any of the Half-Blood Prince plot because that's the title of the film.

This is more of a rant than a review, but considering this was my favourite book in the series, I was incredibly let down with this movie, yet again. I can see why a lot of people do like it. If I had never read the book i'm sure I would've enjoyed it too. I certainly enjoyed it more than OotP. But knowing all the amazing content they left out in favour of such pish they did include, it all turned out to be a waste of a movie and didn't live up to what it could have been.

I will add Daniel Radcliffe has improved his acting somewhat for this film. He did a brilliant job once he'd drank the Felix Felicis, and I felt the scene when he finally convinces Slughorn to give his true memory was the best scene in the film.

EmperorVegeta said:



Another thing i didnt like about this movie and ootf was how the wizards apparate. apparition is not flying around in smoke or light, but dissapearing and reapearing like what dumbledore did.

matacron said:

There is a remote possibility that the reason that we only saw two memories in this movie was that more memories will be shown in the two "seventh" films as they try to discern what and where the last horcruxes are.

matacron said:

There is a remote possibility that the reason that we only saw two memories in this movie was that more memories will be shown in the two "seventh" films as they try to discern what and where the last horcruxes are.

I read on here somewhere that John Williams was going to return for the final two films. That's SO awesome. I'm eager to hear another battle song by him to be used in the final showdown at Hogwarts.

Sith Hunter said:

matacron said:

There is a remote possibility that the reason that we only saw two memories in this movie was that more memories will be shown in the two "seventh" films as they try to discern what and where the last horcruxes are.

I read on here somewhere that John Williams was going to return for the final two films. That's SO awesome. I'm eager to hear another battle song by him to be used in the final showdown at Hogwarts.

I was thinking that may be the case as well since a large part of the 7th book has to do with them being on the run and living out in the woods, which is going to probably translate in 10-15 minutes of screen time. I'm not saying that it's the best idea but it is a possibility.

As for a John Williams battle theme.... When Harry steps out to face Voldemort the opening to Duel of the Fates would be perfect lol.