Thursday, July 30, 2009

Belated Thoughts on HP6

I think it’s about time for a new post. I am very happy to have my compy back and in working condition, because I have my Live Writer back! It’s a little tool for Windows for writing blogs, and it rocks. Especially for making blog posts with pictures, which is a pain to do in the Blogger post editor.

Anyways. I’ve had notes for a Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince post stored in my phone for 2 weeks but haven’t had the will to write them up. I do now though! It was a little rough trying to read what the notes where…I typed them up during the movie without looking…so for your enjoyment, I’ll include what I wrote in my phone as the section header.

I’m not going to write up a whole review—it’s a little late for that. But I do want to talk about little things that occurred to me or little things I liked while watching that I want to discuss with you guys!

1. Wand Makes Abduction

I think this is “wand maker abduction”, ha. I didn’t notice this until the second time I saw the movie. In the opening sequence, Death Eaters are shown terrorizing London and generally wreaking havoc. A shot is shown where the Death Eaters blow out the windows of a shop and pull out someone with their head covered.

 sipaphotostwo449988-usa-film-harry1

Upon closer inspection, this is Diagon Alley (evidenced by Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes in the background), and that is most definitely Ollivander and his shop.

ollivandersclick to make a little bigger

I missed this the first time around, focusing on the effects and just trying to take everything in.  I think it’s awesome that they put this in—in the books, you’re not really sure at this point what happened to Ollivander, but here they’re foreshadowing the disappearance of the famed wand maker, who will prove important in the final movies.

2. Draco’s Mom

Narcissa Malfoy makes her first appearance in this movie, and I think they made a pretty good choice in the actress who plays her. I was more impressed with how they made her look.

narciss I’m very intrigued with her hair choice. At first glance it seems blonde, but you can see the top is brown (and I think some in the back, can’t remember). This would make sense, since her sister is Bellatrix Lestrange, a brunette.  I thought this was a smart choice; in the book, she’s described as having blonde hair, which is entirely different than anyone else on the Black side of the family.  This way, with brown and blonde hair, she is associated with Bellatrix and the Black family, but also with her husband and son, the Malfoys.

bellanarcismalfoys

3. Speaking of the Malfoys…

How hot is Tom Felton??

4. Bull Hands on Deck

Three broomsticks AKA “All Hands on Deck,” a line Slughorn says to Hermione in the Three Broomsticks (I think…again, I saw the movie 2 weeks ago, I forget some of the details). I wrote this down because
a) Was Hermione drunk in this scene and after??
b) I think saying “All hands on deck” after someone spills a drink is funny. Better than “party foul.” Me thinks I’ll use it in London.

5. NevilleFaL massa knave

I’m glad I at least got “Neville” because I have no idea what the rest of that was supposed to be. Neville made the list because I think this was by far one of the funniest things about any HP movie so far:

Genius. Whoever made Neville a waiter is genius.

6. Um…Hi, Cormac…

Hi. You’re cute.

7. Evil Leaves Traces

There’s a point in the movie when Dumbledore and Harry are discussing Horcruxes, and when describing them, Dumbledore explains to Harry “Evil leaves traces.” 

In the books, JK definitely likes to leave clues here and there that when you go back and read it, you just think “Geez, it was here all along!” Seems like they’re doing it in the movies too. For example:
a) Dumbledore makes this remark while talking about horcruxes.
b) Harry Potter has a trace of Voldemort on him in the form of his scar.
c) Maybe, just maybe, there’s a connection between the horcruxes and Harry!?
Maybe it was an obvious point that they stuck that little bit in there; I just thought it was a good choice, especially for those who have never read the books, or at least haven’t read the 7th book yet (who are you, and why not?!?!).

8. My Quick Review

I loved Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. It is one of my favorite books in the series, just because it really gets the ball rolling on ending the series, and I think the movie captured the intensity and plot developments perfectly.  Before the movie came out you heard how the movie had more comedy than the others, and I was a bit wary about this; however I think it was great. The humor wasn’t stupid or silly, it was actually funny, and it was a great balance to the seriousness in the rest of the movie. The effects were awesome, and the actors really stepped up their game.  Most definitely my favorite HP movie so far, and I absolutely can’t wait for the next one.

For the comments: What did you think? Did you notice anything interesting in HBP? What was your favorite part?

1 comment:

GardenofEdee said...

Um, I like the notes from your phone. lol
1. I noticed Ollivander the first time. I really liked that.
2. I think they could have picked a better actress for Narcissa. She is suppose to be beautiful and really really gorgeous. I didn't get that. I also hated the hair choice. I think they just really wanted her to be in the films because she was originally suppose to be Bellatrix but was preggers so couldn't.
3. Tom is MINE. lol
4. Slughorn did say All Hands on Deck when he spilled his drink on Hermione. Also, I think Hermione was slightly drunk. She was pounding back the Butterbeer (lol) because she was nervous in front of Ron or something...
5. Neville failed to make the Slug Club which is why he is a waiter at the party instead.
6. I <3 Cormac aka Freddie =)
7. I thought the evil leaves traces was about how he can find the horcruxes (I believe that is what they were talking about/what Harry asked). In the book Dumbledore can see the traces of Voldemort's magic which is how he breaks into the cave to get the locket and how he finds the ring hidden at the Gaunt's.
8. I loved HBP. Favorite movie by far. For more thoughts read my blog post. lol
http://gardenofedee.blogspot.com/2009/07/harry-potter-and-half-blood-prince.html#comments