Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
I’m sure everyone has read the reviews of this episode in the Harry Potter franchise. It does indeed mark the transition between the youthful wizards in training whose hijinks marked the movies based on the opening books in the series. Whereas the last couple outings have foreshadowed darker things to come the emphasis here is on the ultimate conflict that has been building since we first met Harry.
The mood is dark and the tonal palette of the movie is extremely dark and dreary. The focus of the movie is Harry and the friends who surround him. His buddy and roommate Ron Weasley has filled out and no longer looks a gangling awkward misfit but at times down-right hunky. Hermione has become a competent young woman. Although we return to Hogwarts little time is spent in the classroom with the exception of potions class with Professor Slughorn where Harry suddenly excels due to his possession of an edited version of the classroom text signed by the ‘Half-Blood Prince’.
As usual we have the impression that too much storyline is being crammed into the space of a two and a half hour-long movie. Despite this disquiet very little seems to happen until the culminating adventure on which Dumbledore leads Harry. The climactic scene in which Snape finally reveals his true colours leaves one oddly disquieted; as if the pieces don’t really fit.
# posted by garthmailman@gmail.com @ 11:08 am 
