CUL: A spell-binding letdown

I like to refer to myself as part of the Harry Potter Generation. I discovered him when I was in 5th grade at 10 years old. He was 11 then as it goes. I finished the 7th book, just a day before my 19th birthday and thus we aged together as best literary and living companions can. So I have lots of very strong feelings about the books, all of which I loved. In retrospect, I think the 4th book is my least favorite because it is largely a side story separate from the greater plot and contains within itself a very large plot hole. The 6th book is my favorite though, the one that I read over and over in the long anticipation for the 7th book, where even during my freshman year of college I would go over random paragraphs for the slightest clue to what we could expect in the last book. I wasn't the coolest freshman.

Well I was very excited to see the 6th Harry Potter movie because of all this. While I generally dislike movie adaptations and hadn't been a big fan of these, the 5th movie had been very enjoyable. The trailer looked terrific so I was excited to see how boy Voldemort, Horcruxes memories, Felix Felicis, sexy Ginny and the Half Blood Prince would appear on the big screen. Like I mentioned before, I won tickets to see an advanced screening of this.

Btw, what have any of you ever won in your lives (not merit prizes but just luck of the draw things)? I feel like this is a cool list to make. Mine are 18 speed Mountain Racing Bike, these 2 tickets, a Hoegaarden Gift pack in Beijing that I never could cash in, and a cake tasting raffle ticket in high school. Post yours.

Oh but without giving away crucial plot details, here are some notes about it that help explain why I HATED the 6th Harry Potter movie:

1. This movie deviates more from the book than any of its predecessors. It seems to be a theme around Hollywood to take a celebrated brand and rebrand it with its own story despite the facts that these brands became celebrated because of their stories in the first place. Angels & Demons or any of the comic book remakes are recent examples, and while they aren't all bad, I fear something like Sherlock Holmes might fall flat. I understand that some parts of a book don't transfer well to film, and that it needs to be shortened a lot and rewriting is ok, but it seems that in this movie the changes they made didn't always make sense. They took out a lot of scenes obvious, that's understandable, but they added some too, and that's not.

2. Ginny Weasley. SO DISAPPOINTING. I think we saw this coming though. When they cast the first Harry Potter movie, Ginny had a minor role. Then the books kept coming out and we learned that Ginny grows into a hottie and then Harry's love interest. Well Ginny wasn't cast for that and I think that Warner Bros would trade in Clint Eastwood for a mulligan on her. Not only is she not hot (and she's not even done up to enhance her appearance), but her character is also not written well. In the book, Ginny is hilarious and fun loving, courageous and talented, as well as burdened by her first year mistakes. We see none of that in the movie. As a result, Harry's romance with her is shockingly unwatchable. There's no chase! The two just eventually agree that they both like each other and get together. How realistic. The picture on the right is the first Google image search of her and that's what I leave you with.

3. The fight scenes. All I'm going to say here is they take out the biggest fight scene and add in a completely random one. I can go on for about an hour about how ridiculous this is but first I am going to spend the night trying to think in the shows of the producers and try to understand this decision.

4. The book of the Half Blood Prince. This is a special book within the book and is really integral to the plot. Its doomed from the start in the movie though as it doesn't even look special but instead is more of a thin, somewhat worn schoolbook. I bet it was actually an old Algebra textbook that they replaced the cover. Anyways its a hard thing to show on the screen and as a result, epic fail.

5. Miscellaenous poorly shot scenes or bad writing, such as an omission of Rufus Scrimgeour. Oh and everytime Albus Dumbledore is on, it's like he's trying to make every single line a classic, a line that would sound great and deep in a trailer. But he's a real person in the book, wise but with a real relationship with Harry.

6. Awkward moments. There are many of them in the movie to the extent that silence is not only golden but a full 75% of the film. Harry is given a ton of just blank staring and few lines and I just don't understand it.

7. Helena Bonham Carter. I actually think she's a good actress and plays her part well, but the problem is that she's a big name - probably the actor or actress of the film most famous for her other works. So I think she insisted on having a larger part but her role is really not that large in this movie. So they rewrote in more scenes for her which is stupid.

8. The animators are obsessed with smoky shadows. If you go in knowing this, I guarantee you'll laugh.

9. The tone. The book is very dark and even depressing. The outer world is getting less stable and people everyday are dying or disappearing. This mood is well established in the book and non-existent in the film except for an opening montage of muggle destruction. Someone unfamiliar with the book may completely miss this but to me it was a very big deal. Also, Harry is pretty moody and guilt-ridden in the book (he had just caused Sirius to die) and anguishing over Ginny...in the film he ranges from unemotional to happy-go-lucky.

That said, here are some things to look forward to:
1. Cormac McLaggen - hilarious.
2. Horace Slughorn - he's redone a fair bit in this movie but it's not all terrible. He's darker and less jovial but well-played.
3. Boy Voldemort - terrific, so creepy.
4. The Cave where they search for the Horcrux - I really liked how they represented this.
5. Fred and George's jokeshop - its great, but this isn't exactly a big part of the movie. As you can see, the pluses in this movie are kinda few and far between.

So I'm honestly struggling to even tell my friends to see it. I mean if you're a fan, don't you kinda have to? But fans are exactly the people who won't like the movie. People who know the plot a bit but don't really remember it would probably be perfect for the movie. During it I tried to make the effort to act as if I hadn't read the book - it would have made the experience better, but it was too hard.