GUESS WHO WENT AND SAW HALF-BLOOD PRINCE LAST NIGHT

THAT'S RIGHT I DID


I went up to a midnight showing (actually just after midnight) with ghettopeach, gaelic_bohemian and corrielle! Chatted about various movies, sketched, played Pokemons and accidentally took someone else's coffee. D: But then we got to the movie, and got decent seats, too!

One of the previews was for New Moon. I was all ARRRGH TWILIGHT (worse 'cause half the theater was going YAY), but then the trailer basically went like this:
Bella: Lalalala I'm living with my vampire boyfriend!
Edward: OH NO YOU ALMOST DIED I CANNOT DEAL I AM LEAVING FOREVER
Edward: *leaves forever*
Bella: Boo hoo
Vampire: I'm gonna eetchoo now!
Jacob: WEREWOLVES, FUKYEAH
...If just that and nothing else was the whole movie? I could totally get behind that.

But as for Harry Potter itself, man this was such a good movie! Definitely one of the best they've done. There's a few scenes from the book that I wish they'd kept in the movie: in particular the House of Gaunt, as I both think that memory is fascinating, and that it's really helpful understanding the kind of environment that Tom Riddle was exposed to as a kid. More of the fight scene in Hogwarts (like with Fenrir attacking Bill) would've been nice as well. But overall, I think they did a really good job of picking out what needed to be in the movie most while still sticking to the original source.

What I really loved was how many laughs they managed to keep in the movie, all without completely overdoing it. There was a lot of tension throughout the whole movie, and some really terrifying scenes (the Burrow burning down, the inferni coming out of the lake), so they were really smart to temper it with good doses of humor to relieve that tension. A lot of it was mostly relationship-based humor, but it makes sense they'd try to include all that to set up some really important plot stuff in the seventh movie (Ron destroying the locket, anyone?)

All of the actors really did a great job with this movie. You can totally see how they've matured both in their acting and in themselves over the course of this crazy franchise; they've all really grown from being chubby child actors to real actors with potential to do things even beyond HP. Everyone's performance was completely convincing. :D

Funny enough, what actually drew my attention was the cinematography and staging. This is probably because I've been training my brain to look for that sort of "good shot layout" a lot lately, but I just remember there being so many instances where I went "Wow, that is a GREAT shot!" just in terms of lighting and camera and framing of the actors. I also found it interesting how much the film looked desaturated, almost to the point of film noir in some places, without coming across either as overly gothic or too "edgy." I hate how pervasive "edgy" is in everything, but I didn't get that feel here...it still all seemed true to the HP universe, it's just that the universe has matured and grown a little darker along with Harry himself.

I LOVED how creepy the lake scene was. I know a few people screamed at the point where the inferni first popped out of the water. And while the Dumbledore death scene was extremely sad and heavy (almost no dialogue!) for some reason it never quite measured up to Cedric's death scene for me. Maybe just because Dumbledore's was played out much longer, with time to process it, while Cedric's did that terrible deal of plopping Harry and Cedric's body right into the middle of a celebration. Still! It was really good!

So YES, GO SEE THIS MOVIE. Expertly made and an awesome representation of the book itself, so I would happily go see it again! :D


Drawing: Lunargyros

Writing: More tags