Half Blood Prince

I’m still not home, which means I’m not writing this post because I was loafing and had thought that expressing my (obnoxious) opinions is a productive way to spend my time. I’m writing because this post is two weeks overdue; I was supposed to have it posted then, but life got in the way. So keep in mind that I’m just kind of rushing out this post by neglecting all the formal stuff, like grammar or compositions, that often comes with good writing. Please bear with me.

So… yeah, I saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince two weeks ago.

When it comes to Harry Potter, I would describe myself as more of a curious observer than a fanboy. I read all the books and would even claim a couple of them (book 3 and 4) as my favorite novels, but I don’t obsess over every detail of the story nor spend my time predicting every possible plot developments before the later books were released, and I didn’t line up on bookstores waiting for their launches either. In short, I’m no Potterhead.

Now why is this important? Because I need you to know where I am coming from seeing this movie. Specifically, that I am not an expert of Potter-verse. When I was reading the books I just kind of soldier on fast, without pausing too much to consider every dialogue or plot at length, and after finishing them I did not ever look back to re-read them. This became a problem to me when I was reading books 6 and 7 since I did not remember most of what happened to their prior books, and that was also what troubled me when I saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It didn’t help that I missed the prior movie; I just didn’t remember much of what had happened then. After watching this movie, I still haven’t remembered anything from the previous part either.

While all that sounds like a bad thing, it isn’t completely, because the movie’s story is more self-contained and insular to the other parts compared to the other Potter movies, so I didn’t really need to watch the earlier movies to understand what went on here.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince sets up for the big finale, right before the final battle with Voldemort (spoiler? No, it’s not. You all know it’s gonna happen). It still follows the typical format of the earlier parts - there’s a mystery for Harry Potter to look into - except that this time the mystery is not artifacts or serial killers, but the means of destroying Voldemort.

That’s only half of the movie, the serious half. The other half is more lighthearted in tone, and it deals with romantic subplots of the main characters. I think both the serious and the lighthearted part of the movie are great, and the acting certainly helped, except for Bonnie Wright’s, who turned Ginny Weasley into the a dutiful wife with zero personality (her character was cheekier in the book). It hurts, however, that each halves of the movie has a jarring disconnect with the other, that they feel like they’re from different movies at times. The characters involved in the super serious scenes are not involved in the lighthearted scenes, and the reverse is true.

So when you see Dumbledore, you should not be laughing because it’s so inappropriate, but when you see Ron Weasley, laugh your hearts out. I guess.

You know what I’ve always wondered? It’s how the evil characters in Harry Potter are not allowed to fall in love. I’m serious about this. People who speak to me personally know that I disliked the very black-and-whiteness of the Harry Potter; I thought that perhaps romantically involving the villains with other characters - villains or heroes regardless - may add more layers to the villains. Where’s Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger flirtations? Or how about a steamy love affair of Voldemort and Bellatrix? Wouldn’t that be fun?