Half-Blood Prince: seen and reviewed

I actually remember blogging about how the Harry Potter 6 trailer made me drool with anticipation over the real thing. So after weeks and weeks of postponing the movie date, I finally watched the movie under different circumstances. For one, only 4 of us watched it (I imagined it to be a big group date), and 2, we caught the 5:20 screening so it ended at around 7:30 pm. I applaude Mindpro's baggage counter for fulfilling its purpose, seeing as upon closing early, they gracefully heaped our bags on the floor and scolded us only once FOR DEPOSITING OUR BAGS AT THE BAGGAGE COUNTER. enough about that...

You've probably read countless reviews scrutinizing Prince piece by piece. So, I'm not going to harp about that. Instead, let me just expound on what I like and didn't like.

So I'm going to go all facebook and start of by saying that the movie was extremely tepid. And the critics were right in complaining about how the scene shifting was far from seamless and purposeful. I didn't like how Bonnie Wright played her character of a supposedly spritely Ginny Weasley. Among all the actors, she needed the more motivation seeing as, well, she does get a bigger share in the screen time. Yet she fell short of expectations and simply channeled a flirt waiting for her next meal, albeit very timidly. I did like how Emma Watson's Hermione grew from being perpetually scrunchy-browed, unintentionally angry looking circa movie 3 to a more fluid, at-ease personality. As for Harry Potter, his character managed to make a significant leap from awkward and unmotivated to mature and, oftentimes intentionally cocky. He manages to elvoke more emotion this time, apart from the usual angry and pensive feel he displayed previously. Ron, seeing as he also gets his fair share of lip-locking, couldn't be any goofier. Though his insecurities weren't really highlighted, he did manage to add some color in an otherwise bleak background.

I felt that David Yates was straying away from making the movie feel bookish with good reason. Looking back, movie 5 felt like road-kill. They probably learned from their mistakes and tried to make 6 more succintly streamlined. In terms of execution, I appreciated how the movie didn't make me guffaw at the fact that some scenes were omitted. And somehow, maybe the omissions were needed. The movie was good, in the sense that it managed to keep itself grounded in essentials. Though it suffers because some scenes seemed to last forever, it ,admittedly, redeemed itself with the lovable Helena Bonham-Carter nailing Bellatrix LeStrange. And it doesn't hurt that some additional scenes that were not in the book made it more fun to watch, but the feeling doesn't linger long.

All in all, the movie set the momentum for movie 7. And I'm looking at it this way: at least 'Hallows' doesn't have to meet such high expectations since 'Half-Blood Prince' was, in O.W.L. speak, 'Acceptable'.