Harry Potter and the Abrupt Scene Transitions

Seeing as our plans to take in the latest cultural curios on offer at Civ were scuttled due to unforeseen Ginger-related complications(we had to babysit her; she was moping around a bit in a post-tetnus shot stupor, and me'n'mom felt it was best that someone keep an eye on her), myself, M, Tim, and latterly Anna set off for an evening with KoolHarry and the gang. Apparently M has had Potter on the brain for a few days, so hopefully this'll lay those urges to rest.

The movie, taken as a whole, was good; I can't remember much about the last one, but I get the feeling this one was better. Book six is a bit less imposing in size than Pheonix, which probably smoothed the passage from book to film. As ever, several storylines and characters were laid to rest on the cutting room floor, but the result is a tight(in the good sense, like 'that band is tight') abridging of HBP that's internally consistent, unlike, say, Prisoner of Azkaban, which as I recall(feel to correct me) fumbled the time travel a little bit. Since they shut out alot of side plots completely, nothing is really left hanging at the end; I think the film's portrayal of Lupin/Tonks illustrates my point here nicely. There's no tension in their relationship when it makes a quick appearance mid-story, so there's no need to have their awkward reconciling at the end.

Much of the comedy was anchored around teenage romance(though Harry's felix trip was pretty funny as well*) and I thought it worked well; the Potter-fanatics teenage girl gallery that took up much of the theatre's rear seating felt it worked even better, judging by their reaction to scooby gang's artless flirtations(between themselves and others) and the ensuing fueds.

As ever, the acting was excellent; Harry, Ron and Hermione put on a good show and the elder cast members put on a great one. Slughorn was a bit thinner than I'd pictured him, and possessed less...gravitas than his counterpart in the novel, but the actor's facial expressions more than made up for any quibbles.

My main complaints, though one is a bit more tounge in cheeck than the other, concern the titular scene transations and the addition of some needless scenes. On the first count, this movie did alot better than Pheonix, which didn't so much lurch as lunge through it's story at breakneck speed. I never had a hard time following HBP's progression, but some scenes seemed truncated and served as poor jumping off points for the scenes that followed. A zoom in on the 'Half Blood Prince's' signature also zoomed through several months and straight into winter. I guess I'm used to watching TV shows with alot more main characters; the story progression tends to be a bit more of a lateral cross-section of a day/week/month rather than a linear jog when you have so many things going on at once in different places.

And on the second count, there was a completly pointless battle scene at the Weasley's; it served no purpose but to burn down the Weasley's house and showcase some decent horror/thriller cinemtography in the Weasley's fields. I liked the camera work and all, but it was an unwelcome substitute for other potential scenes from the actual source materal. On the other hand, the scene that replaced Dumbledore's funeral was actually quite nice; there was also alot of original dialouge that worked well in the general framework adapted from Rowling.

So overall, an evening well spent. ^_^ Chime in with your own thoughts/reviews, please.

*"Harrrrrryyy!" "Siiiiiiiiiiiir?" xD