382 of 476 people found the following review helpful:
So sad, so... very... sad.
First. please let me say that I adore (nay, worship) the Harry Potter stories. So, being a gen-you-wine "Potter-Head" I was first in line to see Half-Blood Prince.
It was an interesting movie. Nice special effects.
Disjointed enough however that one MUST have seen all the previous movies and/or read the books to follow the plot.
Since I had to look elsewhere for DVD details (to decide whether to buy the 2-disc or one-disc film), I thought I'd post here:
1-Disc Wide screen and Full Screen DVD
*Includes both a wide screen and full screen version of the film.
*No special features
*RRP $28.98
2-Disc Digital Copy Special Edition DVD
*Widescreen version only
*Additional scenes (6:31)
*Close-Up with the Cast and Crew of Harry Potter special. Matthew Lewis ("Neville Longbottom") and Alfred Enoch ("Dean Thomas") lead us on an entertaining look at the cast of Harry Potter as they explore their interests away from acting and spend a day on set with the production team (28:30)
*J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life: A fascinating and intimate look into the life of J.K. Rowling over the last year of writing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." (49:32)
*One Minute Drills: The cast has 60 seconds to describe their character's personality, history, relationships and other traits before time runs out (6:43)
*What's On Your Mind: Hosted by Tom Felton, the cast is put on the spot when asked a series of rapid-fire questions on their likes and dislikes. (6:41)
*Universal's "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" Sneak Peek: Get an "inside look" at the amazing world of magic and excitement being created at Universal Orlando® Resort in Florida (11:38)
*Digital Copy of the theatrical film (2nd disc)
*RRP $34.99
I can't believe the negative reviews. I read the book and thought the filmmakers did a fantastic job with it. Anyone who wants a film to be an exact replica of any book should do themselves a favor and just read the book again. Am looking forward to enjoying it again (and again) on DVD.
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First. please let me say that I adore (nay, worship) the Harry Potter stories. So, being a gen-you-wine "Potter-Head" I was first in line to see Half-Blood Prince.
It was an interesting movie. Nice special effects.
Disjointed enough however that one MUST have seen all the previous movies and/or read the books to follow the plot.
...Most importantly, it bears little resemblance to the Harry Potter books!!!
Really. I can forgive replacing the actions of one character with another character, to save time, I can even forgive eliminating whole chapters for the sake of brevity, but to change scenes, edit whole parts, and invent whole chapters???
Beware, below, there be SPOILERS! Don't read if you haven't watched!
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Some examples of lost scenes:
-Dumbledore confronting the Dursley's? Gone.
-The invention of a fight at the burrow, including the destruction of the whole house? Really? Where's Bill & Fleur going to get married next movie? (Oh that's right, in the movies, they AREN'T! Heck, they aren't even in -this- movie!)
-The "Meeting of the Ministers" scene? Gone. Heck there's absolutely NO sign of Scrimgeour -anywhere- in the whole movie!
-Tonks rescuing Harry from the train? Nope, now it's Luna, looking for Wrackspurts, and removing Harry's invisibility cloak with her wand. (As A Deathly Hallow, it should be immune to summoning and/or levitation charms.)
-The slow build up leading to the Quiddich victory kiss? Gone. Now just a "close your eyes" peck in the Room of Requirement, and this was done horribly!!
-The two months of Harry & Ginny dating? Gone.
-Harry breaking up with Ginny to protect her? Gone!
-Harry's ownership of Grimmauld Place and Kreacher? (Key for the next movie) Gone.
-The Gaunt house flash-backs? Both gone. And with them any mention of Merope, Voldemort's mother. Gone too the mention of her locket by Caractacus Burke.
-The memories of Hokey the house elf, and of Dumbledore's job interview with Voldemort? (Key for the next movie) Gone. In fact, all references to the valuable heirlooms such as Hufflepuff's cup are gone.
-Crabb & Goyle polyjuiceing into girls to stand watch? (would have been funny, but...) Gone.
-Snapes "Defense Against the Dark Arts" lessons? Gone.
-Apparition lessons and test? Gone.
-Hermione & Ron's Prefect status? (Well, since it wasn't mentioned LAST film, why mention it now?)
-Harry's appointment as Quiddich captain? (Not mentioned, only implied during the tryouts)
-Mundungus stealing Sirius' property? (KEY for the next movie) Gone.
-Snap's betrayal of Trelawney's prophecy to Voldemort? (HUGE!) Gone!!!
-Harry petrified by Dumbledoor to protect him? GONE!
-The Hogwarts battle between Death Eaters and Order members? (and Bill's disfigurement?) GONE!!
-Dumbledore's funeral? GONE!!!!
...oh sure, we'll probably get to see a few of the minor bits I've mentioned in the "deleted scenes" portion of the "Deluxe" version of the DVD, but for this screen version, We get such useless add-on scenes as:
-All the trees around the burrow (HP 2/the flying car shot) have been cut down and replaced by a marsh?
-Harry wandering the underground, and chatting up a waitress??
-The aforementioned Burrow fight and subsequent burning??
Not to mention, Harry NOT petrified, but willingly hiding and watching Dumbledore's assassination? (Does anyone besides me see how that fundamentally would change Harry's view of himself?) Yeash!
And WHAT the heck was up with Jessie Cave/Lavender Brown? Worst acting since Brother Sun/Sister Moon! They tested 7000 girls, and they picked a 2nd rate ham? In fact, they tested using the hospital scene, which was single-handedly the worst scene she did in the film!
Ok, ok, on the positive side, the Quidditch tryouts and match were well done, and Dumbledore and Harry's apparition is depicted quite well.
All in all, I am happy they are making Harry Potter movies, but they are -nothing- compared to the books, and THIS one should be prefaced with "Loosely based on the novel by J. K. Rowling"!!
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This is not a review of the movie, but rather of the poor job Warner Home Video has done with the Blu-ray video transfer. There are horizontal bands visible in various scenes throughout the movie. They are not constantly visible, but appear primarily in scenes where there are large areas of darkness - though of course that means they are visible in quite a few scenes of this very dark movie.
The bands are not being produced by my player - I can see them on all three of my Blu-ray players, including my PS3 and two computers with Blu-ray drives. The bands are part of the image and are visible when the movie is freeze-framed.
I recommend that those considering a purchase refrain from buying this disc until and unless a replacement is offered by Warner Home Video.
I own over 200 Blu-ray discs, and this is the first time I have seen this issue on any transfer. It is obvious to me that this disc was mastered incorrectly.
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This is my second favorite of the Harry Potter books, but my absolute least favorite of the movies, by far.
Acting was stilted. Too many story changes. No "magic" at all felt during the movie. I know it should be dark because of the story line, but the director and whoever wrote the screenplay totally ruined it for me.
At the end of the book, when Severus yells at Harry... "don't call me coward!" That is a climactic moment and it was completely left out of the movie!
The whole backstory of Voldemorts mother and childhood are left out.
If it was too much movie for one book, then pick up the pace. It totally dragged. I will not watch it again.
If this same director is doing the next two movies, I won't bother seeing them. I would give the movie ZERO stars if I could.
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The audio on the Blu-Ray set was perhaps the worst I have hardly heard. I should clarify, background and special effects audio was clear as far as I could tell but nearly all the voice audio was unbelievably bad - garbled in many places, muffled in others, too low to hear in other spots - I believe that less than half the voice audio could be understood - incredible, must not have had any test audiences.
AND the movie was so disjointed, and lack of intelligible audio so disturbing that finally the only thing left was to sit back and enjoy the video special effects (exception: try to take a close look at the mid-ground items in the storage room scenes ).
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I'll leave it to others to discuss the sorry translation from novel to film. My WARNING is about the horrendous quality of the video. I saw the original in a theater, and this Blu-ray version is a sad mess of a transfer. Dark (yes, I know the movie is "dark"), soft, erratic quality. Most scenes dim and muddy with the rare, occasional cut to something bright and contrasty. I even attempted to adjust the viewing quality twice during playback and nothing made it better. This appears to be simply a bad job of mastering or duplication and this disc should be recalled without hesitation. I've haven't seen video quality this poor since the early days of VHS.
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I bought this for my daughters for Christmas. They are dyed in the wool Harry Potter fans. My older daughter has read the books twice and the younger one finished the last one last May. That being said I will review their reaction to both the movie and the product, since Amazon insists on combining the actual movie content and multiple product format reviews.
BD Live - Blu-ray disc review: I have read the negative product reviews for this disc complaining about the verticle lines running across the screen. We didn't observe any of this in the copy we received. After reading about the problem I went back and played it again to see if I missed something. Our copy is crisp and clear, everything you would expect from Blu-ray. I noted that the originator of one of these negative reviews provided a subsequent comment that Warner Brothers promptly replaced her disc with a good one, so this must have been a batch problem. We were just lucky I guess. I pre-ordered this disc back in early November at a great price of $15.99. It arrived in plenty of time before Chrismas. Well worth the money.
Movie Review: I enjoyed the movie, having never read the books. I thought it was one of the better movies of the series. My daughters also enjoyed it, however they were dissapointed and downright irate at several points when the movie took off on tangents; like substituting the wrong character for certain scenes, leaving out whole sections, and adding entirely new scenes that were not in the book at all. I can sympathize with their frustration. I have never understood why screen writers feel the need to create completely new content scenes for movie adaptations while dropping valid scenes.
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It is difficult for me to give less than 5-stars for what I believe is a 6 out of 5 stars book. HBP, in my humble opinion, is one of the greatest of the Rowling series, as it gives a specific insight into the workings of the Dark Lord, and everything in Harry's life starts to make sense. I agree with previous reviewers that this is the darkest book yet, and I think that's one of the drawcards to reading this book. Dumbledore is Harry's protector, mentor, and in the end, the greatest sorcerer of all time; on the other hand, Snape's character is further developed and we are now finally forced to make the decision: is he, or isn't he??
-Good Things-
1) Jim Broadbent is an excellent selection for Slughorn, and his character is as jovial and unique as out of Rowling's novel.
2) I also believe this is the best performance by Michael Gambon as Dumbledore - he appeared too neurotic in the previous films, as Dumbledore is never supposed to be overly-nervous, as he always has an idea of what's going on. The scene in the cave is straight from the book, and we see Dumbledore exactly as Rowling had intended: a vulnerable person, just like everyone else. Plus, the setting was fantastic and very suspenseful.
3) Ron vs. Hermoine! Very enjoyable scenes between these two characters, adding extra humour to a very dark film.
4) Draco Malfoy's character is more prominent in this film, and viewers enjoy seeing a side of the younger Malfoy that perhaps is hinted in the previous films/books - overconfident on the outside, but different on the inside. This scene also shows a side of Harry's character that will further show in the final film.
-Bad Things-
1) For goodness sakes, WHY do they see it as their prerogative to change CRUCIAL sections of the book?? And then add other useless junk?? The waitress - completely unnecessary scene, as we get many glimpses of Harry's developing maturity in other scenes. It made no sense to add it. The fire at the Burrow - this is just plain ridiculous. The Burrow is the place of Harry's salvation, where the Order meet on countless occasions, etc. etc. I don't understand why they chose to burn the place up - where do they propose Ron's family live for the Dealthly Hallows dialogue??!
2) One thing I am really disappointed was removed from the films was the story of Neville's parents. They were NOT killed by Bellatrix Lestrange (as the previous film hinted) - and there was a key scene in this film that gives the background to Neville's determination to prove himself in the final book. Mr. Weasley's attack was removed completely. Moreover, there was what would have been a very funny revival of a glimpse of Lockhart connected with these events - I for one like these references back to earlier books, and am not happy with this exclusion.
3) They also seem to have removed the older Weasley boys from the movies, and this is not acceptible, as Bill, Fleur, and Charley play a key role in battle against the Dark Lord, and Bill's attack by the warewolf gives further credit to their parts to play. The upcoming wedding also sets the scene for the Deathly Hallows and I am sadly thinking perhaps this will be completely removed from the next film.
4) The pensieve scenes, including very interesting flashbacks, were also omitted. They were what makes the Dark Lord's story make sense, and the key flaw in his character. I think more time should have been invested into this story of Tom Riddle, rather than scenes that were not even in the book, and were silly to add.
5) Also, one word: SNAPE! WHY do they cut his role??! Alan Rickman is fantastic, and enjoyable to watch as Snape. They should retain his role, and stop putting his scenes on the cutting room floor.
So, why 4 stars?? Well, it is overall a good enough film, and it is enjoyable to watch. I am nit-picky as someone who has read the books several times, and has really enjoyed the intrigute story behind Harry Potter and Tom Riddle, so perhaps get a bit over-excited about scenes that are not specifically important. It is still a great film to watch, and it will certainly be interesting to see if they retain all the key parts of the final novel - since they're filming the final book in two films, let's hope they're doing this in order to keep all the important content and not simply for revenue raising.
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Half Blood Prince was one of my favorite books in the series so I was looking forward to finally watching the film which I just did. Sadly, even the 3 cups of coffee I had today could barely keep me awake for this dreadful, dull and horribly depicted film. How it is possible that a franchise with as much going for it as Harry Potter could allow this to happen?
My own two cents:
1. There was way too much time spent on and with Horace Slugworth. He had no fire and to watch all his onscreen time was an exercise in patience.
2. One of my favorite story lines in the book was Tom Riddle's family. They were so well written and interesting, they could have taken 15 minutes of time from Sluggy and that unfunny running gag of Ron's stalking admirer and invested us in getting to know Tom's people.
3. I understand the books/films get darker as they progress. I get this however one of the things I have always loved was the whimsical and magical objects and beings such as Nearly Headless Nick, Moaning Myrtle, moving staircases, howlers and talking paintings. It's like this was no longer Hogwarts, a school of wizardry but a broken down castle with no element of anything magical.
4. There are always going to be people who complain about what the film didn't cover and what was in the film but not the book but if you're going to tamper with a book such as HP, MAKE IT INTERESTING.
Let's do this one over. Can we please? I'd rather sit through a half hour with Dolores Umbridge, incessently meowing cats while she sips tea from her dainty teacup as her magic pen writes (painfully) on my hand one thousand time, "I must not write unkind reviews" (true as they may be).
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One quick thing I love about it, the cover...I saw the DVD from the right side and I see Malfoy and Snape. Odd I thought, but cool. So I picked it up and from the left side, it looks like Harry and Dumbledore. I know it's trivial but its the little things I try to smile about.
If you've read the book you probably spent a good majority of the movie going "where did that scene go?" and yes there is a lot missing. The Half-Blood prince was simply too dense of a book to fit into a 2 hour movie. A lot of the book is building up to what happens and unfolds in the final book, I would have rather seen this film in two parts then leave out scenes (or add scenes like they did). I think for this movie to be fully enjoyed and understood, you would definitely need to read the book.
Spoilers Ahead (actually if you read the book these aren't spoilers, just things you might have noticed are missing): These are just some of the more important scenes that are left out: The final Hogwarts battle, Dumbledore's funeral, Sirius' property being stolen, Harry and Ginny's relationship and its ending, where are the older Weasley boys?. There are other parts that are gone, other reviewers have already touched on them.
I did give this movie four stars because I feel it did deserve it. One star because its a Harry Potter film, I enjoy the series. Another star for the chemistry between everyone. It was great, especially now since they are coming of age, hormones are running wild and love is blossoming, its a normal part of growing up. It also provided a great balance to the darkness that overtook the movie. Another star for the emotional conflict of Malfoy, it was excellent. He was able to get more screen time and we see his internal battle. And the last star for, the acting. I think everyone did a great job portraying the emotion or lack there of in the film. Except the ending, I felt more emotional reading the book than what came across on the screen. After a slight let down of this movie, now the wait begins for Nov 2010 for part 1 of the Deathly Hallows (or maybe not since it's the same director).
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