Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Movie

...turned out to be a TOTAL disaster. I went to the movies with my mom to catch the 11.45 a.m movie and regretted it. Please. To all ardent fans of the books, brace yourselves for a total nightmare. And this is obviously going to be a post full of spoilers so kindly do not read if you despise spoilers.




You have been warned.



Still want to read on? Please, by all means, be my guest.




START OF SPOILER-FILLED RANT.

Honestly. Barely ONE second into the movie and it has already deviated from the books. Now, if you've read the books, you'll realise that the first chapter consists of a meeting between two ministers - the Minister of Magic and the Prime Minister of the muggle world. Sadly, the movie didn't have that scene at all. In fact, we were not even introduced to Rufus Scrimgeour, the new Minister of Magic. Yes, Fudge was sacked in case you didn't know. We were instead treated to the scene where Harry was sitting in a muggle cafe reading 'The Daily Prophet' while a muggle girl starts chatting up to him. The he sees Dumbledore across the subway. Now, as you readers should know, Dumbledore went to Privet Drive where Harry was staying with the Dursleys to escort Harry to the Burrow. But noooo, the producers decided that the discussion of Sirius' will was too trifle. (Alright, alright, I admit. Compared to the rest of the story it IS pretty trifle but STILL! D:)

Anyway I shall skip over most of the main movie, or I'll take forever to upload this post. I shall just state the differences and my dissatisfaction with the main plot.

To be frank, I was rather looking forward to the scene in Madam Malkin's where Draco and the threesome were engaged in an argument. That scene was also not included. Alright, I thought to myself. Fair enough, seeing as how it wasn't really significant with the main story, (I can't believe I just typed that sentence out!) but when the threesome tailed Draco to Borgins and Burkes, Draco was ALONE, not with his mother. He tried so hard to shake free of her so that he could attend to his business ALONE. And we were not shown what he intended to purchase or repair in the book, but we were immediately notified that he was interested in the vanishing cabinet. That is probably one of the biggest deviations from the original storyline.

Yet another disappointment was the exclusion of the House of Gaunt. As you readers should know, this was one of the main plots of the whole story. For those who rely solely on the movie, I shall shed some light on this intriguing, yet sadly left out, chapter. This chapter focused on the memory of Bob Ogden who worked in the Ministry of Magic. He paid a visit to the House of Gaunt because Morfin Gaunt was believed to have attacked a muggle. Upon reaching, he was shocked to be held at knife and wand point by Morfin, and spoken to in Parseltongue. Morfin's father then appeared and conversed to Ogden in English. The two Gaunts showed signs of deepest loathing towards muggles and had some sort of violent streak in them. The father was an extremely proud character and relishes the fact that the Gaunts are the direct descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Merope, Morfin's sister, however, was assumed to be a squib as she couldn't perform decent magic, and was mistreated by both her father and brother. She was also infatuated with a handsome muggle, which drove her father really mad. It is later revealed that Merope is the Dark Lord's mother, and the handsome muggle, his father. The Dark Lord was named Tom, after his father, Marvolo after his grandfather, and his surname, Riddle. So there you have it. Who says this isn't an important plot?

The movie included a scene which was not found in the book, however. It was Christmas, and everyone were having fun in The Burrow (home of the Weasleys) when Death Eaters decided to appear and lure Harry out and set fire to The Burrow. Frankly, I don't see the point of this scene at all. They could've done away with these 5 minutes and put on the House of Gaunt instead! Honestly! *starts firing up again*

And I saw a scene that was TOTALLY wrong. So wrong, I don't even know how such a mistake could've occured. Alright, perhaps it's just me, perhaps it's because of the fact that I'm a highly meticulous person who pays attention to the tiniest details towards things that I like (I doubt anyone even noticed this error), but really, I never thought that a day would come where Slytherins and Gryffindors were on talking terms, let alone joke around with each other, sharing food. It was a scene in the Great Hall where Harry was chatting with Hermione (at least, I think it was Hermione, can't really recall) during breakfast. Those two students were in the background, and I suppose they forgot what house robes they were wearing, but they were chatting with each other cosily. I didn't know whether to laugh at the mere thought of a Slytherin and a Gryffindor being friendly with each other, or bury my head in my hands in shame and disappointment.

Right. Those were the main things that I just had to get out of my system. Of course, there were tons of things I'd like to rant and critic about, but I'm seriously getting rather tired (as I'm sure you are as well). I'll just type down an extra few deviations in brief. Here goes :

#1 : Felix Felicis, the luck potion, is supposed to be molten gold in colour, not clear/transparent. That's supposed to be veritaserum, the truth potion.

#2 : Harry and Ron did NOT fight for their copies of Advanced Potion Making, it was Professor Slughorn who assigned the books to them. Though I must say, it added some sort of comic relief to the movie so I wouldn't bear too much of a grudge on this one.

#3 : Speaking of Professor Slughorn, he is supposed to have a huge belly and an enormous walrus-like mustache.

#4 : Ron and Hermione squabbled A LOT. This was portrayed rather pathetically in the movie, sad to say, although Emma Watson and Rupert Grint did great jobs acting out their parts.

#5 : Tonks was supposed to be miserable looking, and was supposed to be the one who found Harry in the train compartment after Draco immobilized him and covered him with the Invisibility Cloak, not Luna.

#6 : WHERE THE HELL DID FLEUR AND BILL DISAPPEAR TO, EH?!

And on that scandalized note, I end this terribly long rant. Blimey, I haven't even rated the movie! Okay, here goes. To be fair, it IS a rather interesting watch, what with loads of Draco screen-time young Tom Riddle cool graphics and some comical moments, so if you're aboard the Harry Potter fandom train just based on the movies, I reckon you won't be sorely disappointed. I'd even go so far as to say it rates about an 8/10 BASED ON THE MOVIE ALONE. However, as we should all be clear by now, I am an obsessed devotee to the books, and so I'd have to say, it rates only a 2.5/10 (and that's just for Draco Malfoy and young Tom Riddle).

So there you have it. Thank you for bearing with me for so long and taking the time to read through this whole thing.