Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
[Warning: this post contains spoilers]
This is a (long-delayed) continuation of my Harry Potter movie series. Yes, somehow I managed to watch the first five and then take a very long break before watching the last three.
If you don't know the stories by now, I question where you've been living for the past couple of decades. But if you don't know, here's what the movie is about:
Death Eaters are wreaking havoc on the muggle and wizarding worlds, while at Hogwarts security has been greatly increased. Snape finally gets the DADA position he's always wanted and Professor Slughorn returns from retirement to teach Potions. Harry finds an old textbook that says it is property of the "Half-Blood Prince" and is full of marginal notes. This book of course turns out to be young Snape's. Suddenly Harry is the best potions student, and becomes part of Slughorn's Slug Club, a small group of his most prized students whom he treats to parties and takes under his wing. Harry eventually learns that the same thing happened with Tom Riddle, and Dumbledore hoped to get Harry into the club so that he could recover a memory of Tom that the headmaster needs in order to figure out how to beat the Dark Lord. It turns out that Tom inqured about horcruxes, and so the headmaster and his young protégé o in search of horcruxes to destroy, slowly chipping away the pieces of Voldemort's soul that are stored in them, weakening him for the final battle.
Harry and his friends also start to notice that Draco is sneaking around and acting suspicious, and they get the feeling that he may be working with the Death Eaters. Katie Bell gets cursed by a necklace and Slughorn is poisoned by wine, and Harry's gang suspects that these were Draco's attempts to do harm to Dumbledore. One night Harry witnesses Draco sneaking into the Astronomy Tower while he is leaving Dumbledore so that he can find Snape. Snape follows the boy up, while Draco's conveniently placed vanishing cabinet allows other Death Eaters to enter the school. Draco has been ordered to kill the headmaster, but he can't bring himself to do it. Keeping his promise to protect Draco, Snape kills Dumbledore.
This movie is darker than most, but the movies are intentionally made to be darker and dimmer towards the end. The unnecessarily dark and dramatic part of this movie is when, at Christmas, the Burrow is attacked and burned by Death Eaters attempting to kidnap Harry. This was never a part of the books, and it seems so out of place to me. The Burrow was always a symbol of comfort, a second home for Harry. To see it burned down is to destroy that one bit of peace that Harry always had. But I understand that the director felt it necessary in order to add some action to the middle point in the movie, and to create the sense of danger that was otherwise missing. He wanted us to feel that Harry was not safe anywhere, but I wish they hadn't done that to the Burrow. I get it, and I agree with the reasons, but the shock of watching the Weasley's - who can't even afford new clothes and school supplies for all of their children - lose their house was too shocking and painful.
This movie has introduces the sadness, darkness, and the depth of Snape's complexity that the final two films have in excess. Seriously, the deaths only get more depressing from here. Sorry.
This is a (long-delayed) continuation of my Harry Potter movie series. Yes, somehow I managed to watch the first five and then take a very long break before watching the last three.
If you don't know the stories by now, I question where you've been living for the past couple of decades. But if you don't know, here's what the movie is about:
Death Eaters are wreaking havoc on the muggle and wizarding worlds, while at Hogwarts security has been greatly increased. Snape finally gets the DADA position he's always wanted and Professor Slughorn returns from retirement to teach Potions. Harry finds an old textbook that says it is property of the "Half-Blood Prince" and is full of marginal notes. This book of course turns out to be young Snape's. Suddenly Harry is the best potions student, and becomes part of Slughorn's Slug Club, a small group of his most prized students whom he treats to parties and takes under his wing. Harry eventually learns that the same thing happened with Tom Riddle, and Dumbledore hoped to get Harry into the club so that he could recover a memory of Tom that the headmaster needs in order to figure out how to beat the Dark Lord. It turns out that Tom inqured about horcruxes, and so the headmaster and his young protégé o in search of horcruxes to destroy, slowly chipping away the pieces of Voldemort's soul that are stored in them, weakening him for the final battle.
Harry and his friends also start to notice that Draco is sneaking around and acting suspicious, and they get the feeling that he may be working with the Death Eaters. Katie Bell gets cursed by a necklace and Slughorn is poisoned by wine, and Harry's gang suspects that these were Draco's attempts to do harm to Dumbledore. One night Harry witnesses Draco sneaking into the Astronomy Tower while he is leaving Dumbledore so that he can find Snape. Snape follows the boy up, while Draco's conveniently placed vanishing cabinet allows other Death Eaters to enter the school. Draco has been ordered to kill the headmaster, but he can't bring himself to do it. Keeping his promise to protect Draco, Snape kills Dumbledore.
This movie is darker than most, but the movies are intentionally made to be darker and dimmer towards the end. The unnecessarily dark and dramatic part of this movie is when, at Christmas, the Burrow is attacked and burned by Death Eaters attempting to kidnap Harry. This was never a part of the books, and it seems so out of place to me. The Burrow was always a symbol of comfort, a second home for Harry. To see it burned down is to destroy that one bit of peace that Harry always had. But I understand that the director felt it necessary in order to add some action to the middle point in the movie, and to create the sense of danger that was otherwise missing. He wanted us to feel that Harry was not safe anywhere, but I wish they hadn't done that to the Burrow. I get it, and I agree with the reasons, but the shock of watching the Weasley's - who can't even afford new clothes and school supplies for all of their children - lose their house was too shocking and painful.
This movie has introduces the sadness, darkness, and the depth of Snape's complexity that the final two films have in excess. Seriously, the deaths only get more depressing from here. Sorry.
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