So if you haven’t gone to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yet, please do NOT read this post. If you haven’t read the book yet, do NOT read this post….SPOILERS GALORE AHEAD!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!
Big Girl and I went to see the movie last Thursday night. Was it as epic and fantastic as I had anticipated based on the trailers??? Absolutely!!!!!
Until the end that is, where it fell flat as a left-over pancake. To say I felt cheated and deflated leaving the theatre is an understatement, and it took me a couple of days to sort it all out enough to feel capable of writing a fair review. I even began to doubt my memory, wondering if I had made up JK Rowling’s ending…surely the director would never veer so far from the book at such a critical and climactic moment? Surely Rowling herself wouldn’t have allowed the director to flatten the climax? It must be me….Maybe I imagined the epic battle between the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix inside the walls of Hogwarts? Maybe I made up the sick stomach I had when I knew that evil had breached the walls of the castle? Perhaps the palpable fear within it’s walls was a figment of my overdeveloped sense of fantasy? Maybe Harry DID just stand and watch as Dumbledore was Avada Kadavra’d off the planet? I must have misread the part where Dumbledore rendered Harry incapable of interfering knowing it would lead to his demise….and what about Bill Weasley? Wasn’t he there and attacked by that horrible werewolf guy?? Hmmm…maybe not…..
But no, it wasn’t me. The very anticlimactic scene in the movie left out all the important elements that Rowling included in the book, boiling the ending down to the simple and unbelievably easy act of killing Dumbledore, most absurdly, as Harry stood by and watched from a short distance. Apparently, the director felt that piece of the ending was the only part worth telling…but he was so wrong. In my opinion, the director missed a potentially career-altering opportunity to make a great movie into a brilliant masterpiece.
Now that I have that off my chest, and backing up to the first two hours or so of the movie, it was brilliant! The special effects were overwhelmingly dazzling! I found my jaw dropping more than once…beautiful, believable, and flawless, the special effects drew me into the world of magic and gave me goosebumps. The cinematography was stunning as well….the best since Harry Potter 3 which was a visual feast. Beautiful camera angles, and a gorgeous, yet darker set all helped draw us into the story.
The character focused storytelling was also fantastic. (Which made the ending even more shocking to me….why why why spend all that time on the rich character development, only to drop the ball at the end??? Grrr!) The young Tom Riddle (at both ages) was hauntingly creepy. Both actors were intensely sinister….I wouldn’t have guessed they could have found the right mix of cunning, charm, and downright creepiness in a child actor, and they found it twice. Standing ovation for both young men. And I also give props to Draco…..I wasn’t sure that I would be capable of feeling the proper mix of horror and empathy that was conveyed in the book, but Tom Felton did a magnificent job with his character.
All in all, it was a wonderful film, and even though I felt cheated by the ending, I will watch it again…this time better prepared to handle my disappointment. I am more anxious to go back and re-read the entire series though. I want Rowling’s version in my mind, not David Yates’.
A Half Hour a Day 
Having been quite a while since I read book 6, I watched that movie questioning my memory as well! You are so right about the ending. I had forgotten many of the important elements that you mentioned in this post, but as I read this post I was going, “yeah!” “yeah!” My whole family was wondering if we forgot something when the Burrows was set on fire in the movie. None of us remember that happening in the book. Did it?
No…the Burrow burning was added. In fact Zan is the one who reminded me that they had Bill and Fleur’s wedding there later…which is what reminded me in turn about Bill’s disfiguration by Greyback. Important stuff as we head into Book 7 in my opinion. Grrr.
We finally saw it over the weekend. I loved it, the whole thing seemed more like what I had imagined while reading the book, until, the end. I sat there feeling rushed, confused and disappointed. I know it is hard to condense such a book into a movie, and you always lose something, but Dumbledore “petrifying” Harry would not have taken more than 15 seconds! Oh well, the books are the books, and the movies are the movies. Big Brother, who has seen all the movies before reading the books, says he loves the books more.
I REALLY felt that THAT was one of the most important aspects of the entire thing! The fact that Dumbledore made it IMPOSSIBLE for Harry to interfere is what gives you the clue that there was more to this story than meets the eye. Dumbledore KNEW this was his fate, and also knew that Harry being Harry, he wouldn’t be able to stand by and let it happen, even though it HAD to be. The movie made Harry look confused and weak. In the book he was confused, yes, but never weak. Grrrr…I’m getting all worked up again! lol And I’ll tell you…I would have GLADLY sat through another 15-20 minutes if it meant a worthy ending. I’m sure many others feel the same. Grrr.