HBP As A Precursor
Jul. 15th, 2009 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
demeter918The midnight premiere was a lot of fun, though I mostly abstained from the activities going around me. (WHEN DID FANS GET THIS YOUNG? I feel old.) There were some interesting costumes; there were two girls dressed in nothing but pillowcases, a guy in Ron's dreadful dress robes from the fifth mobie (a rather brilliant job, actually), and even a gal dressed quite smartly as a firebolt. Alas, I took no photos, but they're in my head!
Speaking of which. The movie? Loved it. However...
When "Half-Blood Prince" came out, I read it, loved it, but the thing that struck me about the book was how mellow it was for the most part. I'm not sure how to describe it. 'Mellow' isn't the perfect word for it, but it's what I think when the books comes to mind. I'm not talking about the Inferi, or Dumbledore's death, or even Snape's 'betrayal'. Those all came at the relative end. For the most part, the book was a walk through a Hogwarts filled with hormones and not-quite-beseiged by terror just yet. And I liked it that way.
But yes. It was a precursor to the seventh book. HBP sets up the seventh book in so many ways and the movie actually recognized that. There were some things they cut out completely (Fleur, Bill come to mind; Remus and Tonks' lack of screentime is another) but in a way, it worked. HBP flowed smooth and it was very focused on its goal.
Knowing that Dumbledore was a goner by the end of the movie made his death no easier to watch. And worse, it actually made me cry to see Snape (Rickman, brilliant!) look at Dumbledore and so very quietly, throw out the Avada Kedavra. The look on Harry's face as it happens and the slow fall of Dumbledore to the tower's ground? It was what it was. I had been worried most about that bit, but the directors and actors satisfied me.
I'm half in love with Hermione - Emma Watson did a more-than-brilliant job. She did intelligence, hurt, charm... I'm not sure how to describe it, but I do think that of the three, she was the best. Oops, I know. I should say Radcliffe is the best, but... yeah. Sorry, Emma Watson. She was also completely awesome in the scene where she can't brew the Living Death Draught and Harry can. Hermione, frazzled? Exceptionally lovely. I'm starting to think I have a bit of a fetish for frazzled!Hermione.
No one can beat Alan Rickman though. Every word seemed to be chosen with care. And... oh, I know I'm only going to be heartbroken in the seventh movie, but I hope he has more than enough screentime and I hope they give him his due. Oh, look. Shoot. The waterworks are coming already!
Now, can't talk about Snape without Malfoy coming in. First. Wow. They gave him character. That was a bit of a shocker. Second, 0_0. WHOA HE IS GAUNT. Third, the scene in the bathroom immediately post-Sectemsempura? Gorgeous in that omg-there's-blood-everywhere. I think they did a good job in showing the spell Harry had thrown and how horrible it was. And they were pretty insistent on showing that Draco, in the end, was just this stupid, scared kid who had no idea what he was really getting into.
One of my favorite scenes was in the Great Hall; Bellatrix is destroying everything and Malfoy's looking around and realizing he can never go back to Hogwarts and I think that shakes him far more than he might have expected. (complete side-note, but Blaise? AWESOME). This knowledge really seems to affect him and I really like that the director chose to highlight it.
I know this is going to sound odd, but from a movie-goer point of view... Lavender Brown was EFFING HILARIOUS. So over-the-top, such comic foil! The deliciously awkward scene in the hospital wing where the four adults are listening in, somewhat uncomfortably, to the hormone shenanigans of their students. XD
(still on this - C'MON. GIMME LUPIN. The scene where he defends Snape made my heart drop a little because in the end, Lupin will never know the truth about Snape's true allegiance because the two die about the same time. I... I kind of want fic where somebody reconciles that because I hate, hate the idea that Snape and Lupin die without ever knowing each other again.)
So in the end - yep. HBP is setting the final stage for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Almost everything we absorbed from this movie will come back to us in the last one and it's killing me that we won't see it until FALL 2010. ARGHARHGHARJKLJELJRKLEDLKFELWF I want to say more, but dude, I'm petered out. I think my lj-blogging days of long, long posts are over. Natch!
But... it's a good thing. Because I don't think my poor little heart could take the trauma that was the seventh book.
I think it's time to read some HP fic again!
Speaking of which. The movie? Loved it. However...
When "Half-Blood Prince" came out, I read it, loved it, but the thing that struck me about the book was how mellow it was for the most part. I'm not sure how to describe it. 'Mellow' isn't the perfect word for it, but it's what I think when the books comes to mind. I'm not talking about the Inferi, or Dumbledore's death, or even Snape's 'betrayal'. Those all came at the relative end. For the most part, the book was a walk through a Hogwarts filled with hormones and not-quite-beseiged by terror just yet. And I liked it that way.
But yes. It was a precursor to the seventh book. HBP sets up the seventh book in so many ways and the movie actually recognized that. There were some things they cut out completely (Fleur, Bill come to mind; Remus and Tonks' lack of screentime is another) but in a way, it worked. HBP flowed smooth and it was very focused on its goal.
Knowing that Dumbledore was a goner by the end of the movie made his death no easier to watch. And worse, it actually made me cry to see Snape (Rickman, brilliant!) look at Dumbledore and so very quietly, throw out the Avada Kedavra. The look on Harry's face as it happens and the slow fall of Dumbledore to the tower's ground? It was what it was. I had been worried most about that bit, but the directors and actors satisfied me.
I'm half in love with Hermione - Emma Watson did a more-than-brilliant job. She did intelligence, hurt, charm... I'm not sure how to describe it, but I do think that of the three, she was the best. Oops, I know. I should say Radcliffe is the best, but... yeah. Sorry, Emma Watson. She was also completely awesome in the scene where she can't brew the Living Death Draught and Harry can. Hermione, frazzled? Exceptionally lovely. I'm starting to think I have a bit of a fetish for frazzled!Hermione.
No one can beat Alan Rickman though. Every word seemed to be chosen with care. And... oh, I know I'm only going to be heartbroken in the seventh movie, but I hope he has more than enough screentime and I hope they give him his due. Oh, look. Shoot. The waterworks are coming already!
Now, can't talk about Snape without Malfoy coming in. First. Wow. They gave him character. That was a bit of a shocker. Second, 0_0. WHOA HE IS GAUNT. Third, the scene in the bathroom immediately post-Sectemsempura? Gorgeous in that omg-there's-blood-everywhere. I think they did a good job in showing the spell Harry had thrown and how horrible it was. And they were pretty insistent on showing that Draco, in the end, was just this stupid, scared kid who had no idea what he was really getting into.
One of my favorite scenes was in the Great Hall; Bellatrix is destroying everything and Malfoy's looking around and realizing he can never go back to Hogwarts and I think that shakes him far more than he might have expected. (complete side-note, but Blaise? AWESOME). This knowledge really seems to affect him and I really like that the director chose to highlight it.
I know this is going to sound odd, but from a movie-goer point of view... Lavender Brown was EFFING HILARIOUS. So over-the-top, such comic foil! The deliciously awkward scene in the hospital wing where the four adults are listening in, somewhat uncomfortably, to the hormone shenanigans of their students. XD
(still on this - C'MON. GIMME LUPIN. The scene where he defends Snape made my heart drop a little because in the end, Lupin will never know the truth about Snape's true allegiance because the two die about the same time. I... I kind of want fic where somebody reconciles that because I hate, hate the idea that Snape and Lupin die without ever knowing each other again.)
So in the end - yep. HBP is setting the final stage for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Almost everything we absorbed from this movie will come back to us in the last one and it's killing me that we won't see it until FALL 2010. ARGHARHGHARJKLJELJRKLEDLKFELWF I want to say more, but dude, I'm petered out. I think my lj-blogging days of long, long posts are over. Natch!
But... it's a good thing. Because I don't think my poor little heart could take the trauma that was the seventh book.
I think it's time to read some HP fic again!
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Date: 2009-07-16 01:30 am (UTC)I do agree that it felt like a definite prelude into the seventh movie. I got this weird feeling at the end of the movie, like the last movie was already done and I just needed to sit for a bit before it would come up on screen. But I suppose the book had a similar tone, like the calm before a storm.
I though both Ron and Hermione were great, but unfortunately, I didn't get a sense of chemistry from Harry and Ginny. =/ I think that, along with the lack of extra confrontation at the end, were my two biggest gripes about the movie.
Oh, but the shot of Snape crouched in the water healing a Septum'd Draco? Morbid and beautiful, that.