Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince first impressions *SPOILERS*

Ye be warned: Spoilers!


I'd like to preface this by noting that I never expected Half Blood Prince to translate well from book to movie. So they did as well as can be expected I guess. Besides, it was still better than Goblet of Fire and the 1st two movies.

A few extra action scenes that weren't in the book were added, (Death Eaters attack the Muggle World and the destruction of the Burrow) and for the most part I think they were probably necessary. Granted, it's been a while since I read that book but I seem to recall it being largely Dumbledore giving Harry memory tours, backstory on Tom Riddle, and "teen drama" of the romantic kind. Not that I disliked the book (I remember it being one of the better ones), but yeah, once again I think the story is much better told in print than on film.

While I'm on the subject of the new scenes, I actually really liked the attack on the Burrow. It was one of the more intense scenes in the movies and the chase through the wheat field had some great cinematography. Bellatrix's playful, insane brand of evil was perfectly conveyed as she lured Harry away shouting "I killed Sirius Black!," as was Harry's reckless rage. The Weasley's sense of disbelief, and defeat, was felt as they watched their house (one of the more iconic locations in the Harry Potter universe) burn to the ground. It made me look forward to some of the scenes that were coming up at the end of the movie, but unfortunately those subsequent scenes were quite disappointing.

For some reason, the Harry Potter movies don't really do character death scenes all that well. They always seem too...casual? They just don't invoke the level of emotion that a death scene should (but maybe I expect too much, being a fan of Joss Whedon...). In any case, one of the most vivid parts of the book (in my head, when I was reading it) was when Harry chases down Snape after Dumbledore is killed. With the movie I just kind of reacted by thinking "was that really it?!" And I think I remember Faux immolating himself after Dumbledore's death in the book (or am I making that up?), but in the movie he just sort of flies off into the distance.

I surprisingly enjoyed Draco Malfoy's struggle to deal with his mission in the movie. Enjoyed in the sense that I think they did it right. He was shown frequently, and only at the beginning was he his normal braggy, jerk of a self. He came across as visibly tormented, which is good given that he's normally such a vile character who is hard to take seriously. On a related note, the Sectumsempra scene, while not quite how I pictured it in the book, was excellent.

A large part of the movie was devoted to Ron/Hermoine/Lavender drama, and Harry/Ginny drama to a lesser extent. Yay, teen angst (sarcasm). To be fair, it was far less annoying than it was in the book. Less drawn out I guess, and also a little bit of humor to make it bearable.

Why wasn't Katie Bell shown in the Quidditch scenes? Or maybe she was, but it just wasn't noticeable. Still, would it have been that hard for someone to address her at least once given that she was going to play a role in the plot later on? No, instead they decided that the first time you see her is when she's cursed. Whatevs I guess.

I liked the guy they got to play Slughorn, especially since my mental picture of him from reading the books was never too clear.

The Inferi looked like Gollum. Why, exactly? Sure, Gollum's a little creepy looking, but these are supposed to be zombie corpses, any classical zombie portrayal would have been better than looking like Gollum! But then again the movie series has a history of screwing up creepy bad guys (though I won't bash them too much for the Dementors, since the imagination is really the only place that those scary bastards can reach their full potential).

Yeah, ok, so they decided to make Fenrir Greyback a very prominent Death Eater. No mention of the fact that he's a werewolf though. And there was a pretty good opportunity to do so during the destruction of the Burrow scene, especially since Remus was present and the fact that he is a werewolf was mentioned!!!!

I just realized that they didn't show Voldemort at all in that movie (except for in the memory scenes, as young Tom Riddle). Huh.

Luna's great.

I'm getting tired of typing and I don't know what else to talk about, especially since it's been so long since I read the gosh-darn books.