Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Review

I have been meaning to voice out my opinion on this matter since the movie released but a lot has happened in between that I never really got the chance. Therefore, I am using this opportunity to briefly leave a comment or two on the subject. After watching the trailer for the first time, I had really high expectations for the movie. I have to admit that as a movie, it is fairly entertaining. However, as a book adaptation, I feel that it let me down even lower than I had anticipated. Being the thickest book out of all the volumes, I understand that in order to adapt it on screen, some slight changes would be made. Nevertheless, the amendment that was made was a bit too much for my liking that I felt like they (being the director, script writer, producer, etc.) have changed the whole perspective of the story.

As a frequent reader and a devoted Potter fan, I have read the book cover to cover and I can vouch for the other readers when they say that the book revealed to us the story of not just any boy, but a hero and the journey he has to endure, who struggles with himself, in finding out more of his past, who he is and who he needs to become in order to triumph against evil. On the other hand, the movie focused more on the romance part and on Harry’s love interest or Ron’s and Hermione’s affection towards each other. Half of the movie tried to prove that Harry Potter is just a normal boy who lives and faces typical teenage problems; whereas everybody who’s watching already knows that he’s not just a normal boy. He is the “Chosen One” who one day will have to face the Dark Lord Voldermort in an epic battle and coming out victoriously.

With this major change of direction in the movie, they also lose the whole emotion that arises upon the death of their beloved Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. The movie did not capture the complicated relationship that both of them shared throughout the book’s journey. I recall when I was reading the book last time, I cried in the end because I could grasp the feeling of sad and despair of having the person that you look up to died in front of your eyes and there is nothing you could do to stop it. Nevertheless, that same feeling did not surface after watching the movie.

A friend of mine said that maybe the reason why I had such high level of expectancy is because I have read all the books and had my own version of how it goes. So, when the movie did not come out as I envisioned, I was thwarted. Well, it is reasonably true, but then again, I never expected that the different focus would make the movie bleak. They didn’t manage to capture the emotions and manner when certain scenes happens like the panic feeling of having death eaters roaming free, or sad and despair of having lost a lot of the people you know and love, or even dedication and determination during the fight at Hogwarts. Frankly speaking, the movie didn’t even touch the essence of the book, which teaches the value of friendship and the power of love and sacrifice.

Implementation of syllabus:

In this post, I am instigating an argument on why the movie Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is not a good movie adaptation. After much deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that the main reason why the movie was a disappointment (at least to me) was because the focus of the movie was altered as compared to the focus of the book.

Along with my conclusion, I also included premises to support my conclusions. To help reinforce my premises, I applied the roles of supporting statements, which are the DSAERA that we were taught in class. For the post above, I have used assumptions, anecdotes and supporting arguments for the three premises that I presented.