Book to Movie Group Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

WARNING: May contain spoilers in the reviews

Jenn's Review: I re-read the whole series everytime one of the movies comes out and this is the first Harry Potter movie in a long while that I haven't walked out of the theatre grumbling. Did I miss Kreacher jumping up and down screaming "won't, won't won't"? Sure, but I never thought it would make the cut.

They streamlined the Ginny & Harry relationship in order to keep the details of Ron & Hermione's relationship which is good, because if they hadn't, Ron and Hermione would barely have been involved at all. I would have liked to have seen more of Harry & Ginny together for purely selfish reasons, but I think they padded it enough to make it work.

The other lesson's with Dumbledore regarding Tom Riddle and the horcruxes would have been interesting... but those are details they can get around that in the next two films.

Yes, I would have liked the final battle scene but I knew as soon as Harry drank the entire Felix Felicitus in order to retrieve Slughorn's memory that it had been cut. Perhaps having that time to adjust to it made it easier to accept. They've pretty much cut the eldest of the Weasley boys from all the previous movies, so it wasn't too much of a surprise that there wasn't a Fenrir/Bill encounter... and the rest of that battle would have been really complicated so, with the inserted battle at the The Burrow, it wasn't necessary.

Actually, I didn't cry over Dumbledore's death as much as I thought I would. Then I remembered it's Hagrid' reaction, the discussion in the hospital ward, the phoenix song, and the subsequent funeral that make me cry the most in the book. I really think the funeral scene would have been nice; it would have given a nice sense of closure.

This book was all about growing up and young love and I think they handled that beautifully. So for me, more Ginny and a funeral would have made it perfect. On the whole, though, I'm happier with this as an interpretation than I have been since the Chris Columbus films.

Jenn's Final Take: 4/5

Julie's Review: I don't re-read books before the movie comes out because I know inevitably I'll be disappointed. The book is always better than the movie, no matter what. It's obviously been a couple years since I've read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but I did remember most of the story and the essence of it. I thought they did a great job of showing the changes that are going on between the kids (aka growing up, puberty, girls/boys, first kisses) and the wizarding world. Of course there are plot points missing, they left out a lot of the plot on the Half-Blood Prince but how do you put that in a movie and make it exciting? If you hadn't read the books the reveal of Snape being the Half-Blood Prince would have been huge and I thought it was handled well. I'm with Jenn in thinking that I would have liked more Dumbledore and Harry conversations about the Horcruxes which are so key in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I knew that Dumbledore's death was coming but I still cried. Dumbledore was Harry's mentor, father figure and friend and he will be missed by Hogwarts, the wizarding world but most of all Harry who will now need to find his way on his own. I think it was a decent movie but not the best (IMHO that is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). It's a strong segway into the final movies.

Julie's Final Take: 3.75/5

Lisa's Review:
I normally re-read before the movies, however due to lack of time in my schedule I didn't this time and I'm very glad I didn't. I've been aware for ages that the movies will never be able to capture the rich details that J.K. Rowling included in each novel. I had accepted that and have been pleased with the adaptations thus far. Up until now that is. Before I nitpick, I will say that this was a good movie and it holds up to scrutiny well but that's if and only if it wasn't an adaptation.

Besides the blossom of young love, this book was all about two things for me. The reveal of the Half-Blood Prince and Voldermort's story. I'm not quite sure how they could have done the
Half-Blood Prince story well and besides the fact that the name is included in title, this could have easily been left out. To the non-reader, it was confusing and the idea that the HBP could have been Voldermort was never well-developed, thus the Snape reveal just fell flat.

Speaking of Voldermort, the shallow part of me is very disappointed that Ralph Fiennes never appeared on screen. I mean JKR did say that Tom Riddle was handsome and Ralph Fiennes...well it doesn't need to be said. However, the lack of Ralph Fiennes (yes, I love saying his name) also meant that the horcrux story was completely half-assed. I suppose the two memories that we saw were the most relevant to this story, but I think more time should have been spent to explain exactly what horcruxes were, how they were made etc., because they figure so greatly into Deathly Hallows and the conclusion of the series. Frankly that novel is so chock full of stuff going on, that this needed explanation now and not later.

I had major issues with the fact that Harry just stood there while Dumbledore was attacked. Totally out of character for him. He really needed to be stunned, seriously. Finally, I was not affected as deeply by Dumbledore's death and I agree with Jenn, that it would have been nice to have the funeral. There are other little things, like how will Harry know that there's a horcrux in the Room of Requirement, when he didn't have to get past it when he hid the HBP's textbook? I mean he needed to kiss Ginny at some point, but I can just see how annoyed I'll be when they just figure it out while hanging out in the jungle. *sigh* Not. Happy. At. All.

Lisa's Final Take: 2.5/5

Note: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movies are to be released as follow:
Part I: November 19, 2010
Part II: June 15, 2011

as of 7/21/09 per Imdb.com

Movie News: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

This really shouldn't come as a surprise for us fans of Harry Potter, but the newest movie in the series has blown away all records for a single day opening. According to MSN.com, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince took in a whopping $58.4M domestically!!

Here is the link to the full article.

Any guesses for it's first weekend total take? Mine is $175M.

The Half Blood Prince

The official WB website is up with the longest trailer I've seen yet! It's awesome.


Check it out here: http://www.harrypotter.com/

I am so excited!!!

Time for me to re-read, anyone want to join me?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Alert

With a heavy heart I am sad to report that it was announced yesterday that, contrary to all previous press releases, the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie will not be arriving in theatres until July 17th, 2009. Yes, we will all have to wait until next summer. Warner Brothers really doesn't give a concrete reason, but the supposition in this EW article that 'the frog' doesn't need the revenue this year (due to the success of The Dark Knight), but would rather have it figure into next years profits, seems the most logical. (I do however totally disagree with their statement that "the Potter movies have all been quite strong ever since Chris Columbus stopped directing them". I quite prefer the Chris Columbus films...)

Well, I guess my re-reading isn't such a big deal now... I'll just be doing it again next summer. As always, be sure and tell us what you think....

Coming Soon: The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Well, it's been quite the week for Harry Potter news!

Just yesterday, I alerted my friends to the existence finally of the new Harry Potter movie trailer and today Jenn saw it fit to return the favor by letting us know that this book is available for pre-order!

Say what now?!? Not too long ago scores of fans thought that they'd have to suffice with only the reviews Amazon put out late last year and now we can preorder not only a standard edition, but also a collectors edition, with all proceeds going to charity. Nicely done!

So, if you didn't know, now you do... get your orders in now, because you know hotcakes won't have anything on this book, what I suspect will be the last of any and all Potter reading material.

Me - I've already ordered both!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Alert

Wow! I'm so excited! Lisa found this but I'm posting it for her. The trailer for the Half-Blood Prince is finally here:

Movie Trailer

You can also find some nice stills at the above link too... such as Harry and Professor Slugworth (right). (And is that an allusion to the Quidditch team in those pictures?!? Hooray!)

But now the agonizing question: To re-read or NOT to re-read? I usually re-read the series prior to watching the movie. I promised myself I wouldn't do it this time; that I'll enjoy it more if I'm not counting the things omitted. But I couldn't help it. ABC Family was airing the movies a month ago and it got me all hyped up for another reading. So now I'm up to Prisoner of Azkaban and I'm trying to drag my feet (because I should be reading and writing reviews for our site) and because I promised myself I wouldn't re-read the book prior to the movie. So now I'm in a quandary. What to do? Which do you do? Advice please.

114 Days until the movie's out... *squee*

Breaking Movie News: Deathly Hallows = Two Films

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be broken into two films (Story Here).

The international money machine that is the Harry Potter industry aside, I'm not sure how I feel about that... on one hand, it certainly has enough detail in it to be two movies, but I think Goblet of Fire did as well... and they've cut out so much detail out of the previous movies, how will they put it in now? I mean, they might actually have to go back and add some of the details that were skipped over in the other movies for everything to make sense.

Then there's the other small matter of where do you break it in half?

What do you think?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: UK vs US Edition

I started reading both versions of these books about seven years ago - just after I started reading the series. A friend of mine was going on and on about how much he preferred the British editions as they were closer to what JK Rowling actually wrote (not overly edited and Americanized) – not to mention the difference in artwork.

I thought it prudent to investigate for myself... and found that there is a world of difference between the Sorcerer's Stone and the Philosopher's Stone. Rowling herself was greatly displeased with the American publication as she found it to be overly translated from English (or as my mum would call it "The Queen's English") into "American." There are several times where this is understandable (for example, the difference between a jumper being a sweater in English and a dress in American) but I would have to agree with JKR that the first novel was overly edited (mum to mommy, for example), something which she made sure did not occur again in the novels that followed it.

The differences between the books from here on out are slight, with a few notable exceptions. JKR pointed one out herself in an interview a few years back about Goblet of Fire where the order of appearance for Harry's mother and father (during Priori Incantatem) get switched backwards in the first UK edition as an editor questioned JKR and thinking she was wrong, JKR changed it around.

Also, notably missing from the UK edition is part of Dumbledore's final conversation with Draco in Half Blood Prince. The text in red was omitted from the UK publications:

"He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice."

"He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right side Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Nobody would be surprised that you had died in your attempt to kill me -- forgive me, but Lord Voldemort probably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and killed your mother -- it is what they would do themselves, after all. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban...When the time comes we can protect him too. Come over to the right side, Draco...you are not a killer..." Malfoy stared at Dumbledore. ~(HBP US Edition pg 591/UK Edition pg 552)

This text also does not appear in later paperback versions of the American editions either, so apparently it was a textual cut that didn't make the first US version.

As for the Deathly Hallows, from what I have observed, the differences are minimal. There are the typical variations in spelling and the substitution of a word here or there. Otherwise, it falls in among the rest of the series.

So yes, I own both versions of the Harry Potter series. Do I have a preference? Reading book one, yes, I prefer the British edition... after that, it depends on whether I'm reading/re-reading at home or carrying it around with me... the UK versions are a little more compact, but I do so love the Mary GranPré illustrations... so it's a toss up.