Archive: Arts & Entertainment

It's hard to make a movie from a well-loved book, because the fans impossibly want it all.  In the case of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince that would mean 704 pages worth of J. K. Rowling's story in 153 minutes.  And while Steve Kloves' script manages to stuff the salient points into Director David Yates' lavish production, fitting them in strips each to the bone.  While the points are made, they are not made sense of.  For example, when the Half blood Prince's identity is revealed, it is one of the more interesting points in the book.  In the movie it is dealt with in one line.  If I hadn't read the book I might not have believed it.

That's how it goes with all the serious themes in Half Blood Prince, filmed through an ominous gray filter.  What the movie does take a lot of time with is hormones.  Teenaged hormones, and here the film shines with the fickle, hormonal connections in conflict with long-lasting true love.  Will Ron get over the entirely hormonal affections of Lavender Brown to explore a deeper love with Hermione Granger, and will Ginny Weasley dump the shallow Dean Thomas to find her match in Harry?

The now grown-up child actors do seem to get better in every installment of the Harry Potter saga, and this film sprinkles the beginnings of adulthood in to an entirely believable recipe that makes up teens of a certain age -- a volatile mix of hormones, adult and child.  And the controversial end of this story with the death of a beloved character almost works in a scene that falls somewhat short of its 'Et tu, Brutae?' model.

Still, this film follows in the traditions of its predecessors.  It is beautiful to look at with absolutely lavish, top notch art direction, lighting and costumes, and completely believable CGI special effects.  Put that together with a deeply rich musical score and the familiar, likable characters played by the familiar, likable actors, and there is no doubt that this film is worth seeing.

The word is that Warner brothers is now filming the final book, 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' as two films.  Way to milk the series for a few extra dollars, or is it a way to spread 759 pages through five hours of movie?  If the latter it could be the best Potter yet.