Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is a pretty good adaptation considering that it fails to do the title of the book / film justice. Most of the folks I talked to about the sixth Harry Potter film seemed pretty blase about the viewing experience, but I didn't think it was that bad. Strangely, that's how I felt about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which everybody seems to think is inferior to Prisoner of Azkaban. In order to properly set this review up, let me briefly recap how I relate to the films as adaptations:
My reasons for enjoying Goblet more than Azkaban are simple: if the films are going to continue paring down the books in order to be palatable, it's necessary to know what to drop and what to keep. Prisoner of Azkaban, while looking like a million bucks, is a maddening mishmash of setups without payoffs, some of which totally undermine things the tension in Order of the Phoenix and the Half Blood Prince. We're told a little bit about the Marauder's Map but not enough to actually recognize how the names of its creators map onto the characters introduced in the film, or how they relate to each other, or how Harry could possibly figure any of this out.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, on the other hand, pares down a rather long novel without losing too much, in part because it simply drops the subplots altogether. S.P.E.W. is gone, the Blast Ended Skrewts are gone, most of the tension about Durmstrang's Headmaster is cut away, and Fleur and Viktor are whittled down to tiny parts. Cedric Diggory makes enough of an impression that his death means something, and they kept Moaning Myrtle, which I thought they wouldn't but I'm glad they did.
What works in Goblet that doesn't in Azkaban is that you don't miss the excised material. I didn't think too much about the House Elfs of Hogwarts (although that's going to be a tricky way of navigating film seven) or the fact that only the maze was attacking Harry and Cedric because the film allows you to get wrapped up in the story that is, not that could be. If you aren't reminded of something dropped - which happens constantly in Azkaban - then the film as is can do its job separately of the reading experience.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince gets that about half right, and I'm inclined to place it on the "better" side. Allow me to explain.
It's been a while since I read Half Blood Prince, but it seems to me that there are three critical story arcs that need to happen for the film to work:
1. Harry and Dumbledore following Tom Riddle's memory and discovering Horcruxes.
2. Clearly developing the tension between Draco Malfoy, Snape, and Dumbledore with Harry in the background.
3. Giving significance to the Half Blood Prince so that the last moment between Harry and Snape means something in the film.
The romantic subplots in the film are not unexpected, and even if they don't do much other than clearly set up the epilogue to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it does provide a break from the bleak atmosphere of Half Blood Prince. Initially I'd heard that the sixth film was sillier than the others, but I found the tone to be even darker than Order of the Phoenix. The sense of impending doom is apparent from the moment Dumbledore appears at the beginning.
The film largely succeeds in the first two sections, even if it drops many of the flashbacks about Tom Riddle's quest to become immortal. They do manage to set up the R.A.B. storyline early in the film, which was nice. I can't remember if Slughorn mentioned Rigellus Black in the beginning of the book, but adding it to the film was a nice touch.
On the second count, I feel that David Yates and Steve Kloves really succeed. Draco Malfoy was never much more than a sneering brat in the other films, a dispensable bully for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to one-up, but in Half Blood Prince, you finally see a human being beneath the caricature. Snape hovers in the margins of this storyline, but the film does just enough to make it clear that a) Severus has no choice but to follow his Unbreakable Vow, and b) that Harry could easily be misreading a broader plan on Dumbledore's part.
Where the movie stumbles is the third component. The Half Blood Prince storyline disappears for chunks of the film, and the significance of figuring out who that is gets buried in a more important scene, and then dropped altogether. The book disappears and is also pushed aside for Harry and Ginny's first kiss, which has the effect of making the audience lose sight of its role in the story at the end. That's a shame, because I genuinely didn't know how Yates would handle the "Sectumsempra" scene in a PG13 film, but he did and the end result was just as disturbing as in the book.
I can understand, to some degree, why Kloves chose not to explain that Snape is the Half Blood Prince because his mother's name is Eileen Prince, if only because you then have to explain the family history, but just having Snape knock Harry over and say "How dare you use one of my spells on me. Yes Harry, I'm the Half Blood Prince.", and then walk away is anticlimactic. It doesn't help that Alan Rickman is playing Snape at this point in anticipation of the last film, so the indignation and rage he directs at Harry in the book is totally muted by his (SPOILER) guilt for killing Dumbledore. Rather than giving Harry a real reason to misjudge him in their final moments, the scene falls flat. If the title of your film is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, it is imperative that some justice be done to its significance.
Nevertheless, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is an enjoyable film, adaptation aside. The Felix Felicitous scene plays in a way I'd never considered it in reading, and Daniel Radcliffe is quite funny during two otherwise depressing occurences (Aragog's death and Slughorn's subsequent confession). I'm resigned to the fact that Fenrir Greyback is less important for having dropped Bill Weasley and Fleur's relationship, but he and Bellatrix LeStrange (Helena Bonhman Carter) nevertheless have a wonderfully tense scene outside of the Weasley home. Tom Riddle was quite good - I understand that the actor who plays him as a child is Ralph Fiennes nephew, so there's a family resemblance, and they move his shift from child to early adult in a clever and believable way.
Emma Watson and Rupert Grint get better with every film, and Bonnie Wright finally has something to do with Ginny Weasley, which is nice. Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) remains a highlight in her second Potter film. It's fun watching the other students grow up, and I'm glad they've retained the same actors, even if Neville has been reduced to a "second thought" character. As I said before, Tom Felton really walks away with the movie, finally having something to work with as Draco Malfoy.
The adults are likewise great, and Maggie Smith finally gets a few moments to register for the first time since Chamber of Secrets. Cameos from David Thewlis, Timothy Spall, Natalia Tena and Warwick Davis were nice. Jim Broadbent was an excellent Horace Slughorn, although the dominance of Potions scenes over Defense Against the Dark Arts (which we never see one of - odd considering how important it should be in setting up Snape's departure) is a bit unfair.
Special kudos go to Michael Gambon. Half Blood Prince is ultimately the film in which Dumbledore is asked to do the most in the storyline, and Gambon hits all of the right notes. I may have missed this in the last film, but it appears that in the wake of J.K. Rowling's announcement that Dumbledore was gay that Gambon has included small indications early in the film. It may simply be that I'm only noticing it because we're all aware of this now, but eccentricities like a fascination in knitting magazines or the strange look Harry gives Dumbledore when he says "take my arm" stood out in a way they might not have previously. Curious.
David Yates does an admirable job in directing the film, and many of the set pieces look great. The camerawork in and around Hogwarts resembles Cuaron's Azkaban, particularly in transitional shots, but that's not really a bad thing to be using. Nevertheless, I give Yates all the credit for giving atmosphere to the bathroom fight, the cave sequence, the Weasley attack, and especially the flashbacks and scenes of Malfoy in the room of requirement. Despite the muted effect story-wise, the final image of Harry and Snape cast against the silhouette of Hogwarts was effective as well.
So overall, I guess I'm going to buck the trend again and say I enjoyed Half Blood Prince. It doesn't always do what it ought to do, but more of the film works than doesn't, and the table is set for parts one and two of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
No comments:
Post a Comment