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Where to begin?

First, this post contains spoilers of both the book and movie, so this is your warning.

Second, I didn’t jump on the Harry Potter bandwagon til just recently. I whisked flew the 7-part series this past December/January. I had meant to write up my feelings on the series, but never got around to it, because, well… it would’ve taken forever.

At over 4,000 pages, reading the series is no small endeavor, and once you have finished, you can’t help but feel like you’ve just been on an incredible journey. I have only felt such an incredible sense of varying, strong emotions after finishing a very few number of books… such emotions as accomplishment, sadness (of coming to the end of the journey), pure bewilderment and elation (“I can’t believe how amazing that was…”): Harry Potter belongs on my short list of this type of book.

And within the series, one can rank the books in order of enjoyment. My favorite book in the series? Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

At the beginning of the story, Dumbledore tells Harry they are going to have private lessons throughout the year in order to better prepare Harry for his destiny — to defeat Voldemort. The instruction taught during these lessons is primarily about Voldemort’s upbringing and past. Thus, at least in my mind, the two main purposes of the sixth book are to 1) develop Voldemort’s character and 2) develop the relationship between Harry and Professor Dumbledore. Both of these are done through the lessons.

Along the way, other events occur: for example, the romance between Harry’s best friends Ron and Hermione begins to flourish; also, Harry and Ron’s sister Ginny also start to hit it off. However, this is mostly an appendage to the story. The romances are similar to the game of quidditch, which shows up in almost every book, and helps move the story along, but is certainly not the focus of the books. The movie would have you believe otherwise.

In the process of developing the romances, the movie makers brush off the aforementioned two main purposes of the story. As a result, in the last half hour when Harry and Dumbledore travel to the cave, it really doesn’t even make sense: a surprised Dumbledore admits he had no idea Voldemort had created horcruxes to immortalize himself, and moments later, they’re whisked away to a cave where Dumbledore believes a horcrux is hidden. This makes a lot more sense in the book, as Dumbledore knew about the horcruxes, he just didn’t know how many there were until Harry retrieved Slughorn’s memory.

Within the cave, either the acting or the directing of Dumbledore was terrible. He didn’t convey any real suffering. The one time he screams “Kill me!” at Harry, he sounds like an angry maniac, not like a man in the throes of abjection. And in the next minute, he’s conjuring huge fireballs. This is probably the coolest part of the movie, and it only lasts for about three seconds.

Since relationship-building between Harry and Dumbledore is virtually non-existent during the movie, when Dumbledore is killed in the next scene, I didn’t even care. It was almost as bad as when Cedric was killed in the fourth movie. “Who cares? He wasn’t even that important of a character.” (this next sentence was added hours after I originally posted this blog; thanks to Ashley for the reminder…) After the movie, Ashley remarked that she felt sadder when Hermione was crying over Ron than she did when Dumbledore died, and I completely agree.

The movie ends with Harry, Ron, and Hermione hanging out in the tower where Dumbledore was murdered, discussing how they must go out and search for the horcruxes. Ashley noted that the ending was very similar to the ending of The Fellowship of the Rings, with Frodo and Sam committing to one another to finish the mission they are destined to complete. But whereas FOTR made you feel emotions of friendship, loyalty, and hope, Half-Blood Prince made you feel… nothing.

Actually, if I felt anything, it was irritation: irritation that the movie was so lacking in epicness. Despite having so much epic potential (arguably the most in the series, since Dumbledore is killed with no explanation), it had none.

In addition to my main complaints, a few others include:

- The scene where the Burrow (the Weasleys’ home) is destroyed was completely pointless and a waste of time. Its absence could’ve allowed for more ending awesomeness or more development of Voldemort or Harry/Dumbledore.

- The lack of mystery. Throughout the book, another theme/conflict is that Harry is suspicious of Draco, and spends a lot of his free time trying to figure out what Draco is up to. None of this kind of suspenseful mystery is present in the movie; not with Draco, nor with any of the other mysteries in the movie. “Who is the Half-Blood Prince? Oh, I don’t really care, since obviously the main plot of this movie is the romances among the teenagers.”

In conclusion, I have a very strange feeling of ambivalence for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I sit there and watch it and I generally enjoy it… but then I leave feeling like I missed out. I think what it really comes down to is that it’s a decent/good movie, but it’s not a great movie, even though it totally had the potential to be.