WARNING: Spoiler Alert!!!
I’m usually a big proponent of the “books are better than the movies” point of view. In my mind, there are very few movies that have better than their literary counterparts. And when you have a book like Harry Potter, it’s almost impossible to live up to the source material, simply because there’s so much of it.
Obviously, the Half-Blood Prince movie was different from the book. I expected that. And some of the changes didn’t really bother me, even if I did notice them. But other changes did make a difference – in some cases, a big one.
To start, some minor things:
- The romances between Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione are developed differently, but in a way that’s still fun.
- The random attack on the Burrow (added into the movie with J.K. Rowling’s approval) didn’t seem wildly out of place. In fact, it even makes sense – I always did kind of wonder why, in the book, the Death Eaters didn’t try to attack Harry during the few times he was outside of the school.
- Subplots involving Bill/Fleur, Lupin/Tonks and Percy were omitted or greatly reduced. Indeed, Bill and the other Weasley Charlie are left out of the movies all together (except for one brief mention at the beginning of Sorcerer’s Stone).
- It would have been nice to see more of the memories, if only to see Voldy’s crazy family. But those memories also served to explain – and identify – the Horcruxes Harry will have to destroy (i.e., the cup that never makes it into the movie). And speaking of the “H” word, Harry doesn’t put the Ravenclaw diadem on the statue in the Room of Requirement. This will make it mighty tricky to find the crown again when the time comes in Deathly Hallows.
Now, the three deviations that I think make for a weak ending:
First, for a movie called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, there was an incredible lack of attention paid to the Half-Blood Prince (HBP) storyline. The effect of the HBP Potions book and all of the speculating that goes along with it gets cut from the movie. More importantly, it’s a part of the development of the relationship between Harry and Snape, which becomes critically vital to the story in Deathly Hallows (DH). The revelation that Snape was the HBP was a throw-away comment, as if it were added in to make sure the title made sense.
Second, the overall ending itself lacked the battle scene, reportedly taken out so HBP didn’t clash with the epic battle to come in DH. Taking that part out, however, the ending of the movie was very anti-climactic. Without the battle and the aforementioned HBP information, the confrontation between Harry and Snape lacked emotion. The movie made that exchange seem almost boring even. And, critically, movie Harry does not call Snape a coward. Snape’s reaction to that comment reveals a great deal about his purposely ambiguous character, which comes into play in DH.
Third, and in my mind, most importantly, movie Dumbledore doesn’t bind Harry when they return from the cave. He merely tells movie Harry to hide. While I’m (somewhat) willing to believe Harry would give his word and stay hidden, it’s completely out of character for him to not try to fight back. Hiding is not what Harry does. It’s actually an essential part of his character – that he doesn’t hide from fights or back down. He stands up for his friends and for what’s right.
These three major deviations didn’t ruin the movie for me. Overall, I enjoyed it quite a lot, especially considering it was much funnier than I expected. But unlike some of the other Harry Potter movies, this one could not be watched on its own. It’s very much a stepping stone from the previous movie to the final two. In the end, it does go back to the idea that the books are better than the movies.
However, there was one little bit that I did think was brilliant. At the very beginning of the movie, Death Eaters attack a London bridge and visit Diagon Alley. You see a very brief scene of people leading a man out of a shop with his head covered. A quick comment later in the movie explains this, but the significance of it remains downplayed – both in the movie and in the book. But the mere existence of it makes me appreciate just how much detail Rowling put in all of her books.
The moment? Wand maker Ollivander being taken to Voldemort. Those of you in the know will understand the importance of this. It’s the little things that really make the HP books incredibly rich.
[Photo Credit: Providence Public Library]
