shade of dae (post: 1329001) wrote:Bought the tickets this afternoon, and Ich1990 and I are going to the midnight premier. I was kind of put off by the PG rating, but after seeing that trailer, I'm really excited.
goldenspines (post: 1329003) wrote:Put off by the PG rating? Since most of the other HP movies were rated PG-13, I was happy to see the rating drop.
After seeing the trailer many times, I'm very excited for this. I'm not sure when I'll be able to go see it though. ^_^
shade of dae (post: 1329009) wrote:Exactly. The fourth and fifth books were much less intense/violent/dark than the sixth book. The fourth and fifth movies got a PG-13, so the sixth, if it follows the book fairly close, it should get a PG-13 as well. It didn't, so that means they probably cut one of the cooler parts of the book out of the movie.
Couple that with the director's statement (loosely paraphrased) that this sixth movie would be more lighthearted and focus on relationships and, well, I am sure you can understand my uneasiness.
ich1990 (post: 1329082) wrote:One of the slowest movies in the entire series. If you watch the trailer in the OP you will have seen pretty much all of the action in the entire movie. The battle in the final portions of the book is gone, so no epic fight at the end. Outside of the few moments of urgency, the main focus of The Half-Blood Prince is setting up for the next two movies and getting the main characters paired up with their appropriate love interests. The latter is pretty painful to watch (although there are attempts to make it humorous which occasionally succeed [I.E. Hermione's birds]). Personally, I would have liked to have seen less "snogging" and relational troubles and more memories from the pensieve.
Overall it is still way better than the book.
Radical Dreamer (post: 1329085) wrote:Just got back a few minutes ago. Absolutely fantastic movie. XD
[SPOILER]I have to disagree with almost all of this, actually (though yes, Hermione's birds WERE well done XD). I didn't find the movie slow at all--perhaps long, but only because there was so much to tell. It's true that they left out Lupin, Tonks, Ginny, etc. fighting the Death Eaters in the towers, but really, I thought that part of the book made Dumbledore's death a bit anti-climactic, especially for the film's purposes. I think that may be why they added in the scene at the Weasley's, with Bellatrix and Fenrir. Even so, I wasn't disappointed to see less action as long as it was replaced with more character development, which it absolutely was, and I think that's what the movies before this have lacked (sans the first two). Admittedly, I'd have liked to see Marvolo and his family, but in the interest of keeping the movie under four hours long, I'm not disappointed that they dropped it.
The only part I AM slightly disappointed about is how Harry comes to hide the Half-Blood Prince's potion book. I wish there had been a little more conflict with Harry and Snape, Snape using Legillimens, telling Harry to bring him his textbook, and Harry having to run off and find a place to hide it more urgently. But honestly, I think the movie did a fantastic job fitting in everything it could from the book in a reasonable time frame]
ich1990 (post: 1329121) wrote:[spoiler]I admit that virtually all the teen romance portions were also in the book, but those were the portions that made me dislike the book in the first place. People are fighting Voldemort, dying, there are assassination plots, and yet what are the students concerned with? "Snogging".[/SPOILER]
[SPOILER]The reason the movie did this better than the book is because the film got a lot of mileage out of the romance scenes. Like you said, it was helped to contrast with Draco, and helped develop him into an actual character (instead of just 'that bully' who we are supposed to always hate by default). He didn't even have to "snog" anyone to get that character development, that is quality film making right there.[/SPOILER]
[SPOILER]I would actually have to read the sixth book again to decide if it is truly worse than the movie. I read the Harry Potter books years ago and have had too many other good books on my list to go back and reread. The third and sixth books are my favorite, so the sixth one just might be better than the movie, although as far as memory serves I don't think it is.[/SPOILER]
[SPOILER]As a whole, however, I was unpleased with the 5th-7th books. They were way too bloated and focussed on development of side plots at the expense of the main. That is why she had to pack so much in the last book, thereby making last four (five?) horcruxes seem pathetically weak compared to the first few. Also, many important characters died so casually in the last book that I didn't even realize they were dead until my sister pointed them out. I am fine with understating character deaths, but this was done too casually for even my tastes.[/SPOILER]
Radical Dreamer (post: 1329163) wrote:[SPOILER]Yeah, I can understand it getting frustrating if that sort of thing isn't your cup of tea, and it isn't necessarily mine either. However, J.K. Rowling wrote the characters to be believable (not to mention highly relatable) teenagers who not only have to fight the most dangerous dark wizard in history, but also have to deal with hormones and girlfriends and boyfriends and jealousy. It really makes the characters that much more round and realistic than if they were to be stagnantly unaware of the fact that other genders do, indeed, exist at their age. XD[/SPOILER]
RadicalDreamer wrote:[SPOILER]Perhaps it's just a personal rule of mine, but I rarely regard any movie as "better than the book" (exceptions to that rule being The Prestige and maybe a handful of others), especially when it comes to Harry Potter. The Potter books take us so much deeper inside Harry's head than the movies are often able, and given the length of the books, the movies have a reputation of leaving out important side-plots and other characters, not to mention the characters who do turn up often lose some of their development. The lack of Dobby in every film but the second is a prime example of this, not to mention the absence of Ludo Bagman, Winky, Mundungus Fletcher, and most recently, Rufus Scrimgeour.[/spoiler]
RadicalDreamer wrote:[SPOILER]Then again, I prefer stories that have characters I feel like I really know, and J.K. Rowling accomplished that with the Harry Potter series. Also, I didn't find the last 4 horcruxes to be rushed at all--it only made sense that Harry and company gained momentum finding and destroying horcruxes, once they found a means to do it. Rowling's pacing on that facet of the seventh book seemed natural to me.[/SPOILER]
Warrior 4 Jesus (post: 1329281) wrote:I agree that book 5 rambled for 1 third of the book, and even that much of book 6 wasn't vital to the story but I still enjoyed them (book 5 less so). As for book 7 that didn't ramble much at all (maybe for 20 or so pages in the middle) but otherwise there's a huge amount of story and character development in the final book
Warrior 4 Jesus (post: 1329281) wrote:As for book 7 that didn't ramble much at all (maybe for 20 or so pages in the middle) but otherwise there's a huge amount of story and character development in the final book.
Bobtheduck (post: 1329300) wrote:I didn't really see anything wrong with 7.
ich1990 wrote:[spoiler]As far as making them relatable or easy to connect to the masses, then yes, Rowling succeeded with the angsty teen romance, just like "Twilight" is doing now. Teens love their angsty teen romance. I don't. Putting in the romance and high emotions does make them more realistic, but for me, at least, it makes them unlikable. Granted, that probably puts me outside of the target audience for this series, which is why I try to be lenient when it comes to criticizing it.[/SPOILER]
[SPOILER]I don't mind romance, contrary to how it may sound, I just prefer a more honest, less flippant type. Something like Riza and Mustang in FMA. It also bothers me that not a single teen thought responsibly enough about the future to question whether such a pairing was a good idea. The main three have a rather high risk job going after Voldemort (he has been known to torture loved ones to weaken his enemies) plus both Harry and Ron want to be Aurors. Despite this, the thought that they may be setting up a friend to become a widow or worse doesn't even cross their minds. To me it is a much truer statement of friendship and compassion to deny themselves such dangerous relationships, at least until the big bad guy is dead, and to think about someone other than themselves.[/SPOILER]
[spoiler]I like to get to know the characters as well. In fact, I thought I did, then books 5 and 6 came along and they get stuck in grumpiness and puberty. Those characters that I liked so much became shallow, and selfish.[/spoiler]
RadicalDreamer wrote: [SPOILER]Understandable though your opinions on fictional romance may be, you seem to misunderstand the teenage way of thinking. These characters are not responsible adults: they're teenagers who are struggling (just as Malfoy struggles in the movie) to come to terms with living out their teenage years to the fullest while also having to face a challenge far above most people their age. This conflict is far less of a mistake in the writing than it is a deliberate attempt to show the pains of growing up, especially when it's done faster than it should. As far as denying themselves dangerous relationships is concerned, Harry actually does this at the end of book 6 (though it's left out in the movie), so he does take responsibility for that aspect of his life in the end (that may be one of the things you've forgotten in not having read the books for some time XD). Either way, there's definitely far more to the relationships in Harry Potter, at least from a literary perspective, than snogging and jealousy.[/SPOILER]
RadicalDreamer wrote:[SPOILER]In other words, they become flawed. And flawed characters, though they may frustrate the reader, are infinitely more interesting than flat characters who have no depth and simply do everything right all the time (or do everything wrong all the time, a la Draco). I think the way the characters act in the 5th and 6th books are completely natural and ought to be expected. In book 4, Harry undergoes a major trauma in losing a friend to the same villain who killed his parents and is betrayed by someone he thought to be his befriended teacher, not to mention the experience of being knifed open to help bring Voldemort back. In book 5, he's 15, at the top of his hormonal changes, unable to release the stress of what's just happened, living with the people he hates the most, and isolated from everything he holds dear. I ask, what reason does Harry NOT have to act like an emotional wreck? XD "He should be more mature about it," but maturation is a process, and I think it's fascinating that the reader gets to see just how Harry matures over the course of the series, and especially books 5-7. Granted, I may be biased as book 5 was my favorite in the series for all of these reasons, but I think they're legitimate reasons. XD [/SPOILER]
ChristianKitsune (post: 1329378) wrote: I have to know! What was that ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE CUTE THING ON Jinny's shoulder?!!! ... I want one...
Radical Dreamer wrote:[spoiler]However, J.K. Rowling wrote the characters to be believable (not to mention highly relatable) teenagers who not only have to fight the most dangerous dark wizard in history, but also have to deal with hormones and girlfriends and boyfriends and jealousy. It really makes the characters that much more round and realistic than if they were to be stagnantly unaware of the fact that other genders do, indeed, exist at their age. XD[/spoiler]
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