Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself



The last one before the big finale. This one is a bit of a linking film, nothing much interesting happens but it sets up the finale. I don't know why it's so damn long.

The main conflict of this film is not from the plot, it arises from the need to add bad romantic comedy styled teen love and yet make it darker, a contradictory notion if ever I heard one. The film jumps from dark evil to bubbly teen antics at the drop of a hat. It wasn't so offensive when I last saw it in theatres but now I find it really grating. I think I'm noticing the music more and I really don't like it. None of the comedic music works at all.

I think they took the notion of making the films darker a little too literally. I seriously can't stand the grading of this film. I've never been so offended or outraged by a colour palette before. Why does every scene need to be sooooo dark? Even the comedic ones. Why does the whole film need a slight black vignette around the edges? Why does every shot need to look like it was shot through gauze. Some serious glow filters on this one. I don't like it. No sir.

The best scene is probably in the cave at the end. Some creepy dudes swimming down there. But they really bungled the ending after that. The big death at the end kind of falls flat (no pun intended), it just never resonated emotionally for me like I hoped it would. And then to have Snape blurt out the reason for the title of this film at the end just reminds you that you never cared about any of that plot anyway and neither, it appears, did the filmmakers. It's a minor subplot at best.

Like the book, I find this one to be a bit all over the place. It's still probably easier to take than the banalities of the first two and does have some great bits sprinkled throughout but for me it's just something that you have to get through as a set up for the good stuff.