Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Mushy gloomy teenage drama.

★★★

Of all the Harry Potter films, this is the one is my least favorite. Ever since I first saw The Half-Blood Prince, it has always been my least favorite.

The reason why it's my least favorite is because of how poorly this film adapts the book.

When fans talk about their favorite Harry Potter movie, many would say that the Goblet of Fire is their least favorite, or the Chamber of Secrets (which I don't get at all), or even the Half-Blood Prince, which is what I would like to address.

The Half-Blood Prince movie is my least favorite Harry Potter film, which I cannot say about the book, as it's my second favorite. I remember being very disappointed when I first watched it. I found it boring, yeah, boring. This is something I'm reluctant to admit, as I truly love this series of films and books.

So, why do I consider this to be the weakest one?

Well, there are many different reasons why I didn’t enjoy this film as much as the others. The biggest reason was the way the crew approached it. The film is more like a silly teenage romantic comedy, with raging hormones everywhere, which wasn’t a huge factor in the book. The book mainly focuses on three different aspects:

1. Severus Snape, after whom the book/film is named. 2. Draco Malfoy, who is assigned the task of killing Albus Dumbledore by Voldemort after failing to bring the prophecy to him and being sent to Azkaban, putting Draco at a very low point. 3. Harry and Dumbledore, with Dumbledore giving Harry private lessons to prepare him for his fight with Voldemort, showing him memories that explain Voldemort’s past and origins, and introducing the concept of Horcruxes, which explain why Voldemort was able to return after being defeated by baby Harry.

These three aspects are the main plot points of the book. Other events include happenings in the Wizarding war and even the Muggle world, such as Fudge explaining things to the Muggle Prime Minister, Ollivander going missing, Hannah Abbott's mother being killed, Igor Karkaroff being found dead with the Dark Mark over him, etc.

Unfortunately, the filmmakers decided to shift away from those plot points and instead focus on comedy, making it more of a romantic comedy. Originally, this wasn’t how the movie was scripted. Apparently, the original script included all of Dumbledore's memories about Voldemort as outlined in the source novel, but the director insisted on trimming them down, wanting to showcase Voldemort's rise without delving too much into his past as Riddle.

Out of the seven memories, we only received two. The first shows Dumbledore meeting Tom Riddle, and the second depicts Riddle asking Slughorn about Horcruxes. To give the filmmakers credit, they were really good, except for this line: “I can make bad things happen to people who are mean to me.” This implies that Tom was bullied. However, in the book, it was “I can make bad things happen to people who are ‘annoy’ to me.” (I don’t think J.K. Rowling wanted us to sympathize with Tom Riddle.)

Other than that, the rest of the film focuses on the relationship aspect and comedy. David Yates explained that he really liked some of the stuff he was doing in Order of the Phoenix, but there weren’t many laughs in it. The problem is, David Yates isn’t good with comedy, as most of the comedy here is just awful, with a few exceptions. Fred and George are exceptions (no questions there).

I honestly feel like Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuarón, and Mike Newell had better comedy in their films because they know how to blend comedy with all the darker elements, and they’re experienced with comedy. The same cannot be said about David Yates, though, as he is better known for directing more serious films, which is a huge problem regarding the comedy.

Yates and the crew also decided to add a bunch of pointless scenes that meant nothing to the plot. Other than the relationship aspects, I would like to address sort of the elephant in the room: the attack on the Burrow scene. For those who haven’t read the book, this wasn’t in the book; it was just added filler. If Harry Potter was only a film series, without any books, this scene could mean something, as this is the first time Harry sees Bellatrix since the battle in the Department of Mysteries when she killed Sirius Black, and it’s also the first time Remus Lupin sees Greyback, the werewolf who made him the man he is today. And not to mention the Death Eaters burning down the Burrow, the Weasleys’ home. This could have an effect, since this is the Weasleys’ home. But if we look at the next movie, it looks like nothing happened because of how this scene has no bearing on the plot whatsoever.

But I digress. I know I may sound like a "Negative Nancy" by expressing how much I dislike this film, but it does have some redeeming qualities. The scenes adapted from the book were well done, except for the ending; there was no Battle of the Astronomy Tower, and there was no funeral for Dumbledore. I remember saying to myself, “Alright, this is when Dumbledore’s funeral happens.” When the credits rolled, I felt like an idiot for saying that.

Furthermore, I also liked some of the acting in this film. Though the main cast weren’t at their strongest points in this film, the supporting cast was pretty good. Alan Rickman especially steals the show for me here. Any scene with him was just a blast to watch, seeing that man bring the character to life (rest his soul).

Hell, I even liked some of the new cast here. I really liked Jim Broadbent; he was perfectly cast as Slughorn, just like how I envisioned him in the novel. Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Frank Dillane were also pretty good as Tom Riddle in this film, but I will always prefer Christian Coulson as Tom Riddle, who actually originally showed interest in returning as Voldemort, but unfortunately, David Yates thought he was too old (which makes no sense to me, but whatever).

Overall, I don’t hate this film, but it is my least favorite in the series, due to the reasons I listed earlier.