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Rottenwatch: Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince.

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Dresden said:
I loved whoever the fuck it was that played Tom Riddle. Don't know if it's just the lighting, but he just had a sinister-as-fuck atmosphere even when he was young.

The younger one was Ralph Fiennes nephew.

sohois said:
Only the really obvious changes
like the ridiculous burrow attack scene - why was that even there?
bothered me.

Because it's a movie, and as far as movies go, book 6 is the least friendly to movies. Up until the cave, book 6 is all narrative and backstory. Other than the brief Harry/Draco fight, there's no action in the book. They needed something to liven up the middle of the film, and it means seeing more of the Weasley Family (Who've all been very well cast, love the two playing the mom and dad). So no complaints from me.
 
I thought reviewers were exaggerating when y'all mentioned that the sappy romance plot overshadows everything else in the film... then I see Dumbledore inquire and comment on Harry's possible romances in their first two meets. Does he eventually pop the question I'm sure he's dying to ask, "Are you gay, Harry?"

DrForester said:
The younger one was Ralph Fiennes nephew.



Because it's a movie, and as far as movies go, book 6 is the least friendly to movies. Up until the cave, book 6 is all narrative and backstory. Other than the brief Harry/Draco fight, there's no action in the book. They needed something to liven up the middle of the film, and it means seeing more of the Weasley Family (Who've all been very well cast, love the two playing the mom and dad). So no complaints from me.
*sigh* lots of great movies don't have 'action' scenes. I hate this 'summer blockbuster' mentality...
 
Charred Greyface said:
I thought reviewers were exaggerating when y'all mentioned that the sappy romance plot overshadows everything else in the film... then I see Dumbledore inquire and comment on Harry's possible romances in their first two meets. Does he eventually pop the question I'm sure he's dying to ask, "Are you gay, Harry?"

Ironic statement if he asked that, given the previous discussions a few pages over.
 
Dresden said:
I really wish Cuaron had stayed on for all the films after the third. Prisoner of Azkaban will always remain the best of the Harry Potter movies.

But this was decent. Definitely a upgrade over the fourth and the fifth movies, and the last two films looks to be good. Although I wonder if they'll even touch the subject of a gay Dumbledore.

Charred Greyface: This one.
 
Dresden said:
It's been a long time since I saw the third movie, but are you guys thinking of Parvati?
Yeah, now that you mention it, I was thinking of the Patil twins
Medalion said:
Charred Greyface: This one.
I ended up way more interested in Memles' analyses :lol. I haven't watched The Half Blood Prince to the end (I was early for the film I wanted to see so browsed other screenings for a while) but I'll probably disagree with him. It's Alfonso Cuaron and he can't be beat ;p

Yeah, my first comment was in jest I doubt they'll mention that Dumbledore was gay since that fact didn't even merit a footnote in the books. They could hint at it if they show the backstory the Trio discovers but when have the Potter movies ever been garrulous with the lore?
 
Charred Greyface said:
Yeah, now that you mention it, I was thinking of the Patil twins

I ended up way more interested in Memles' analyses :lol. I haven't watched The Half Blood Prince to the end (I was early for the film I wanted to see so browsed other screenings for a while) but I'll probably disagree with him. It's Alfonso Cuaron and he can't be beat ;p

Yeah, my first comment was in jest I doubt they'll mention that Dumbledore was gay since that fact didn't even merit a footnote in the books. They could hint at it if they show the backstory the Trio discovers but when have the Potter movies ever been garrulous with the lore?

It'd definitely be a bit awkward to handle. Imagine someone like Radcliffe going "so Professor Dumbledore buggered Grindelwald in the bum?"
 
So I heard Dumbledorde "accidentally" fell onto the bristleless side of the broom and has been walking around the castle like that all day...
 
Saw this this morning. Um, it was very very good. i'm glad i'm not retarded like some of you and can't enjoy a fairly solid adaption of what imo was the worst book. I even felt really saddened when dumbledore carked it when he did. Be happy to own this on bluray and rewatch it. again and again.
 
Jax said:
Saw this this morning. Um, it was very very good. i'm glad i'm not retarded like some of you and can't enjoy a fairly solid adaption of what imo was the worst book. I even felt really saddened when dumbledore carked it when he did. Be happy to own this on bluray and rewatch it. again and again.

Anyone who disagrees with you is clearly retarded.
 
Sleeper901 said:
I was so disappointed with this film, as i was with OotP...
The book is so satisfying with all the mystery around "the HBP plot"
in the film it just looks like a side quest for harry and his buddies
When Snape reveals the truth at the end... it has simply no impact at all...
I also find that D Radcliffe gets worse with each film...
with his two facial expressions : Dan is happy :o)
Dan is in sad :o(
Dan is in love :o)
Dan sees Dumbledore dying before his eyes whithout trying anything to save him :o(
I also find that all the "emotional" moments were flat and empty...
i mean, Dumbledore's death was so "neutral" (for lack of a better word). All the students where watching him lying on the ground with nothing but empty stares...
I'll pass on all the flirting between harry and Ginny which was simply so badly written...

Radcliffe and Yates have killed this movie licence for me...

That's all folks! :D


gotta say. HBP was the worst book. It was really dull and went nowhere and then SNAPE KILLED DUMBLEDORE. It took me a month to finish the book. I was impressed at how good this movie was. As for the final 2 movies, Best book. Absolutely page turner so here's hoping they don't mess it up.
 
Jax said:
gotta say. HBP was the worst book. It was really dull and went nowhere and then SNAPE KILLED DUMBLEDORE. It took me a month to finish the book. I was impressed at how good this movie was. As for the final 2 movies, Best book. Absolutely page turner so here's hoping they don't mess it up.

i disagree with you.
For me the 7th book was by far the lamest book of the saga with the fan fiction at the end and all the plot holes... but i guess that's off topic...
 
Thought the movie was quite meh. I remember after finishing the 6th book, I was pumped as hell for the upcoming adventures in the 7th, didn't feel this way at all with the movie. Hopefully they do revisit Riddle's memory more in the next one, because the back story behind the Horuxes (or whatever...) was one of the highlights of the book.
 
So I decided to read the 7th book after watching this movie and man, it was REALLY good.

It was tense all the time through, there only seemed to be a couple moments where you didn't think something was going to go horribly wrong... then it ended up going horribly wrong.
 
Igo said:
The girl playing Lavender was hilarious. Wasn't she black in PoA though?

Yes, but the character never spoke and I don't think was ever referred to by name (think the name just comes from script or the casting notes itself). The character also never had ethnicity stated in the books.
 
Oh Harry . . .

LOS ANGELES - An elite squad of guinea pigs has worked its own brand of magic at the box office, taking the No. 1 spot from boy wizard Harry Potter.

The 3-D "G-Force" was the top movie at the box office this weekend, opening with $32.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Walt Disney release from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, with its mixture of live action and computer-generated animation, is a "Mission: Impossible"-style adventure. It features voiceover work from Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Tracy Morgan and Penelope Cruz as resourceful rodents.

Last week's No. 1 film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," came in a close second with an estimated $30 million. That's a whopping 61-percent drop from its huge opening last weekend of $79.5 million.

Knocked out by guinea pigs!
 
Tabris said:
So I decided to read the 7th book after watching this movie and man, it was REALLY good.

It was tense all the time through, there only seemed to be a couple moments where you didn't think something was going to go horribly wrong... then it ended up going horribly wrong.

Yeah me too I loved the book and now I like all that universe and backstory. And I am affraid...:D

Will JK Rowling ever write more books about that universe? I really want to know more but I guess that won't happen.

Now I will read all the books because I think that I am missing a LOT of details that were not carried over from the books to the movies.
 
DirtRiver said:
Yeah me too I loved the book and now I like all that universe and backstory. And I am affraid...:D

Will JK Rowling ever write more books about that universe? I really want to know more but I guess that won't happen.

Now I will read all the books because I think that I am missing a LOT of details that were not carried over from the books to the movies.

She has stated she has plans to write up an "encyclopedia" that will contain many notes and background that could not be fit in easily to the story. She says she has various levels of background for minor characters and just never had a way to fit it in easily. For example, Dean Thomas' father was actually a Wizard, who left his wife (who he never told he was a Wizard) during Voldemort's first reign so he could protect them and was then killed.
 
Oh thank you very much I will definitely read all of it.

Its kinda scary because I had this one guy in my class that really loved Harry Potter, I mean really really loved, and I always thought that it was rubbish.
 
Saw it today and enjoyed it a lot. I haven't seen any movie besides OotP in years, but I think it was the best one yet. It's so much better than the last in every way that I can't believe it was the same director.
 
DrForester said:
Yes, but the character never spoke and I don't think was ever referred to by name (think the name just comes from script or the casting notes itself). The character also never had ethnicity stated in the books.

I bet she was cast as black back then because the surname was "Brown".
 
Going to watch this on Tuesday. How intrusive are all the romantic elements? I'm not sure how I feel about the whole teenage raging hormones things personally. Still expecting to enjoy it but it puts me off a bit.
 
The romantic elements are an important part of the movie, as it would be for any movie involving 15/16 year olds, but it doesn't intrude into the main storyline.
 
Maleficence said:
Going to watch this on Tuesday. How intrusive are all the romantic elements? I'm not sure how I feel about the whole teenage raging hormones things personally. Still expecting to enjoy it but it puts me off a bit.

I get the feeling you may not like this movie then... the romantic comedy bits make for most of the beginning to middle part of the movie... if you can't find humor in those scenes, you are going to be bored out of your mind.
 
Medalion said:
I get the feeling you may not like this movie then... the romantic comedy bits make for most of the beginning to middle part of the movie... if you can't find humor in those scenes, you are going to be bored out of your mind.

If it's comedic, I should be fine :D

My worry was that it would be taking it too seriously, but if the romanticelements are mainly comedic in nature, I should enjoy it just fine. Thanks a lot :D
 
Maleficence said:
If it's comedic, I should be fine :D

My worry was that it would be taking it too seriously, but if the romanticelements are mainly comedic in nature, I should enjoy it just fine. Thanks a lot :D

I had no idea wtf to expect when I went to see this movie... I expected the movie to be very dark and heavy with backstory on Tom Riddle/Voldemort... luckily it wasn't. I think it divided stuff to balance dark and light.
 
DrForester said:
She has stated she has plans to write up an "encyclopedia" that will contain many notes and background that could not be fit in easily to the story. She says she has various levels of background for minor characters and just never had a way to fit it in easily. For example, Dean Thomas' father was actually a Wizard, who left his wife (who he never told he was a Wizard) during Voldemort's first reign so he could protect them and was then killed.
Dean Thomas was actually supposed to play a more active role with the group (like Neville), and in early drafts can be seen involved with crucial scenes, like when they meet Fluffy in the first book.

He was sort of pushed aside as Rowling wanted to give more development to Neville, who she felt was a more interesting character to write about.

Too bad he doesn't end up being the boy who lived at the end of the series.
 
Aaron Strife said:
Too bad he doesn't end up being the boy who lived at the end of the series.

One thing I really liked about the ending is how
Nobody destroys more than 1 horcrux. In the end it wasn't all Harry, and the only one Harry destroyed was way back in book 2
 
Charred Greyface said:
I thought reviewers were exaggerating when y'all mentioned that the sappy romance plot overshadows everything else in the film... then I see Dumbledore inquire and comment on Harry's possible romances in their first two meets. Does he eventually pop the question I'm sure he's dying to ask, "Are you gay, Harry?"


*sigh* lots of great movies don't have 'action' scenes. I hate this 'summer blockbuster' mentality...


Yeah, but movies generally have to have something to hook an audience.

If you don't have a compelling series of characters, or an intriguing plot, or a lingering sense of foreboding/dread/terror/etc., you need action scenes. I'd suggest this new Potter film was largely boring, and devoid of anything that might properly hook an audience.

In other words, it really needed some whiz-bang action.
 
It's partially because of that reason alone that I appreciate the filmmakers of Harry Potter for not turning it into something that it is not. They choose character and storytelling which is what makes the books great. If you don't like the characters or the story, that's fine and all but to get onto it for not having more action is just wrong, because it isn't an action-packed book and they should not have, not by any account added more action under the assumption that people would be bored by it, because the target audience is Harry Potter fans who do love these stories and these characters and don't need more action to make it entertaining. Hell they even added a brief action sequence to help convey how dangerous things have become, and they showed us the Death Eater attack on the city instead of just telling us about it like Rowling did in the book.

Still, I suppose you'll like the next one (two?) more, it's pretty relentless and intense.
 
That'd be my biggest complaint as well.

Very little action.

Why not include more Quidditch if they chopped some more actiony parts? Or make the Death Eaters escape from Hogwarts just as epic and brawley as in the book? Give it more urgency like in the book?



I do understand why the you-know-what was cut. I would have preferred it in though.
 
DrForester said:
One thing I really liked about the ending is how
Nobody destroys more than 1 horcrux. In the end it wasn't all Harry, and the only one Harry destroyed was way back in book 2
That's true. Neville's role was awesome.

"I killed Harry Potter!"
"I killed your snake!"
"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-"
 
brandonh83 said:
Don't worry, Michael Bay and Stephen Sommers are here for you.

Woah woah woah woah woah.

I said I loved the movie. I was just wondering why some of the more tense and actiony parts were cut. Like Quiditch, the original final act, etc etc etc.
 
gdt5016 said:
Woah woah woah woah woah.

I said I loved the movie. I was just wondering why some of the more tense and actiony parts were cut. Like Quiditch, the original finale act, etc etc etc.

Sorry.

Anyway, I thought the Quidditch match was the best one they've shot so far, and the cave sequence was ridiculously well done. And like I said they opted to show the action during the opening instead of telling us about it like Rowling did in the novel.

The reason why the battle at the end was cut has been combed over a thousand times so I won't get into that again. :D
 
I can't believe some people hated HBP as a book, it wasn't action packed but it fleshed out a hell of a lot of details, and was paced really well. Lots of cool stuff happened in 7, but a lot of the
forest section
was hella boring, and you felt kind of silly when finding out that the whole thing was
basically the product of a fairy tale
 
Average movie, kind of what I expected from 6. Only problem I have now is people are saying in this topic Goblet of fire was a good movie. My favorite book, but I rather cut off a finger then watch it again.
 
ATF487 said:
I can't believe some people hated HBP as a book, it wasn't action packed but it fleshed out a hell of a lot of details, and was paced really well. Lots of cool stuff happened in 7, but a lot of the
forest section
was hella boring, and you felt kind of silly when finding out that the whole thing was
basically the product of a fairy tale

The forest stuff was
basically to test Hermione and Ron's loyalty to Harry, it was extremely dark, depressing and hopeless, and full of danger as they could have been discovered at any moment, and it made the happier moments like ten thousand times more rewarding especially when Ron comes back, saves Harry from the water and destroys the Horcrux. It was just really atmospheric and purposefully draining because the characters are going through such a draining time.
That shit is fucking awesome but to each his own I guess. I felt like a dreary piece of shit while reading those portions and it really helped me sort of be there with the characters I guess.

As for the fairy tale thing,
that's what I love about it because it lets readers delve even deeper into wizarding lore, as well as shed light on Harry Potter's ancestry, where some of the series' most fascinating objects like the Invisibility Cloak originated, and so on
. The story of Harry Potter IS a fairy tale, pure fantasy, so I found it to be extremely fitting and classy. The whole fairy tale vibe of the final book set against the backdrop of all the darkness and death made it that more magical for me.
 
So. Harry Potter 6. What is it about? Well, these timid young actors have begun to feel a stirring in their loins. Their loins demand "snogging," something British people have come up with to make kissing sound much more sexually explicit than it actually is. "We snogged violently, insatiable lust consuming us, in the back seat of my brother's el dorado fiat coupe-y." Snogging.

Between the snogging and the snogging-jealousy, our incomparably poor lead actor Daniel Radcliffe lurks about, alternatively using his "I am beholding wondrous CGI magicks" face and his "I am in the presence of foreboding evilness" face.


Figure 1a:
hp1.jpg
Figure 1b:
hp2.jpg


Note the position of Radcliffe's upper lip, the clear indicator to distinguish between wondrous magicks and foreboding evilness.

When not confronting one of the two, Harry stutters through his near-snogging experiences with the extraordinarily homely Ginny character, who has crept up on the Harry Potter audience as suddenly as some surprise snogging. Ginny's homeliness belies a master plan for luring the snogging-lapsed Potter into her domain of snogginess; wearing bathrobes to casual encounters and leaning down beneath him, feeding him cookies, and throwing out knowing looks of snogginglust from across the room. A dangerous one, this Snogginny.

But even with the snogging taking center stage there remains room for real plot development. Harry must travel into the dark cave of snogging horcruxity to force feed his elderly long-bearded wizard mentor a large puddle of murky poison, rendering him into the world's most inedible Foie Gras for the hundreds of hungry Gollums surrounding them.

They make it back home, despite Harry's general incompetence and repertoire of actions consisting of one entire spell (aptly, "stupify") plus the incantation he read once in a book somewhere, only to be held back from charging forward suicidally by Dumbledore's insistent orders. But then he charges forward anyway, after it doesn't actually matter, and gets backhanded by a real wizard, who suggests during the backhandling that Harry should possibly learn some new spells.

Next year, though, the real fireworks begin! The dark lord's master plan of setting fire to storefronts and running away is just the beginning! Stay tuned for Harry Potter searching for the Horcruxes while Hermoine hits him over the head with newspapers and does all the work herself! Sure to be a sensationally snogging success, so much so that the studios see fit to split it into separate sequels!
 
MC Safety said:
Yeah, but movies generally have to have something to hook an audience.

If you don't have a compelling series of characters, or an intriguing plot, or a lingering sense of foreboding/dread/terror/etc., you need action scenes. I'd suggest this new Potter film was largely boring, and devoid of anything that might properly hook an audience.

In other words, it really needed some whiz-bang action.
On please, I'm already to weary from reading Memles's posts to respond properly to this. I hate that every fan of the books who doesn't like the movie is painted as someone who worships JK and doesn't understand film adaptations. Flummery. I don't like the films because they have been adapted to be lowest-common denominator summer blockbusters not because they had to change some stuff for the film medium. As a fan of Let The Right One, I can easily point to a great book adaption and I certainly don't want to see it get the Hollywood treatment. Anyway, I'm done here
 
gdt5016 said:
I find Ginny to be really, really attractive.

But CHRIST Emma Watson was hot in this movie.

Evanna Lynch is superior to Watson, in my opinion. But Watson is hot as well.

Not sure about Ginny. I think she's attractive--cute--appealing--all that stuff. But she isn't beautiful; her appeal mainly stems from the sense that this is a girl you could probably bang at a party.
 
Dresden said:
Evanna Lynch is superior to Watson, in my opinion. But Watson is hot as well.

Not sure about Ginny. I think she's attractive--cute--appealing--all that stuff. But she isn't beautiful; her appeal mainly stems from the sense that this is a girl you could probably bang at a party.
She's also his best friend's little sister. Harry Potter, despite all his heroics and fame, is a bit of a dork.
 
EviLore said:
"snogging," something British people have come up with to make kissing sound much more sexually explicit than it actually is. "We snogged violently, insatiable lust consuming us, in the back seat of my brother's el dorado fiat coupe-y." Snogging.

:lol

On the other hand, I think Ginny's getting kinda cute. But I have a thing for redheads. I actually think they've been ridiculously lucky in terms of the attractiveness (or lack of unattractiveness) of their casting choices from the first movie, including and perhaps especially Ginny as she was so young, as they aged. This could have easily been a Katie Holmes in Dawson's Creek situation where they had to keep commenting on the hotness of the actors and actresses in a vain attempt to convince the audience it was true.

I've been rereading the books and I have to say upon reflection that Ginny/Harry didn't come out of nowhere at all. It's hard to read any scene with Ginny in it from the first two books without it being blatantly obvious she wanted to snog him. The only surprise was Harry being interested back.
 
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