Saturday, July 18, 2009

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (A Review)


WARNING:
The following statements contain spoilers.
Read at your own risk.


If I haven't heard Elise and her friend talking about the movie, I wouldn't have known that the 6th movie of J.K. Rowling's fantasy franchise is already out in theaters nationwide (Okay, so I've read blogs about it but I didn't really check out the date. Haha!)

Unlike "Transformers" though, Hester Renel and I did not watch the movie on its' first day. As I've said, I wasn't aware of it's premiere date. And even if I knew, I wouldn't have gone to the theaters anyway. I was too engrossed with cells, tissues, genetics (dork!) Hahaha!

So today, July 18, 2009, we went to SM Cebu to watch "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." (Ayala Cinema is just too small for me. It gets worse when the place starts to get crammed with people, usually high-school kids whom I fondly call, "chups." But that's seriously off the topic, and so I'll stop. Haha.)
"What do you think of the movie?", you may ask.

1. The first scene was terrible! The characters were talking in thick, heavy British accent. Someone, please turn on the subtitle.

2. However, as the the movie progressed, it was as if they all realized to not eat their words and increase the volume of their voice. Thank you very much.

3. The one who portrayed Luna Lovegood is good. She's the Luna that I imagined years ago. (She's the girl with the curly blonde hair who found the unconscious Harry in the train.)

4. Lavender and Won-Won's lovestory is hilarious.

5. The visual effects are amazing. The black smoke, the wand fight scenes, the running sequence in the field, the dead people, and the memories of Tom Riddle are just a few of its' stunning cinematography.

6. I think there's too much dialogue and less of the fight scenes.

7. I cried when Dumbledore died while reading the book, but not in this movie. I usually cry very easily (I am emo! Hahaha!) There is something lacking in that scene. I just don't know what.

8. Don't bring your kids, your young cousins, your nephews and nieces to the movie house. It will bore them to death. As what I've said, too much dialogue.

9. Superb acting, though. Rupert Grint, "Ron Weasley," is amazing. He is a funny guy. You should see his face when he ate a bunch of stuff with love potion.

10. IF I haven't read the book, I would be confused. Why, oh why, would Dumbledore die with such a "simple" spell? (FYI: Avada Kedavra is the killing curse. The young Harry survived that spell years ago. Only a competent wizard could perform such a curse. There is no counter-curse or cure for it. Yeah, Dumbledore's dead.)
   
Here are some things to watch out for:

1. In quite a few shots during the film it is much too obvious that there are no lenses in Harry's glasses, whereas in previous and following shots the glasses have the lenses.

2. Two new scenes were added that do not appear in the book: The collapsing Millenium bridge and the Death Eater attack at the Burrow.

3. When Harry is petrified in the train, he's invisible under his cloak. But when Luna releases him, he gets up and there is no sign of the cloak.

More goofy stuff can be found here.
Okay, enough of the rants.

The Photobooth

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post-script

It's the first time that I ever got to ride on a taxi with a receipt.
I am amazed.