Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Leaving the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I was livid in what they had done to the story. They pealed away the best parts (IMNHO) of the book that of Tom Riddle and the how and the why he became Voldemort. They also took out the fireworks, the battle at Hogwarts. What was left was a 2.5 hour prequel to the final book and to the two final movies. It just didn’t have to be that way.
This adaptation loses the context to what is going on in the wizarding world. The stakes were raised since the last movie as the resurrection of Voldemort meant increasing conflict with the muggle world, but except, for the opening, you don’t get the tension between our muggle and the wizarding world. It is glossed over and meant to have been extrapolated by those that have read the books. The danger to our world is part of the reason that Harry and his allies must defeat Voldemort. The bad want to inflict harm on us muggles. The good wants to live in harmony. The high stakes are not laid out in the movie.
For me, the high stakes are what was central to the books. Not only is it about Harry Potter, but it is about the wizarding world co-existing in our universe. It is about Hermione and Ron, Harry’s pals who end up falling for each other. It’s about the Weasleys and Ginny. It’s about the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore’s Army, and augurs. It’s about the long line of Hogwart’s head masters. It’s about Tom Riddle and Voldemort, and Snape and the Deatheaters. It’s more than just Harry Potter.
But the movies don’t give us that. For me, the books progressed from being about Harry to being about his world. He wasn’t always the most interesting character. It was the others around him that made him interesting, and his nemesis, Tom Riddle was the most interesting of all. The story expanded around Harry in the books, but the story seems to coalesce around him in the movies. Just as the story gets interesting, the movie jettisons those elements that make it more interesting in order to tell Harry’s tale. It’s like a meal without salt: there’s something off about the taste.
When I got home, I had to read the last chapters of the HBP to remind me of how good the book was. I got the battle at Hogwarts details wrong. Yet, I decided to put the book on my night stand, to read it again and to remember that a story about Harry Potter is more than just about him but of his world.
3 of 5 stars.
