It’s easy to knock a series of big budget films targeting children as its main audience; and it’s even easier to knock the mass popularity of JK Rowling’s wizards-at-private-school mythology. There’s a whole raft of reasons why Harry Potter is a phenomenon of the book and film world. Arriving in the middle of summer blockbuster season is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth instalment of the gigantic cash cow.
With New Line Cinema and Chris Weitz ruining Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, Harry Potter still has no competition in the children’s fantasy-drama genre. Many have tried and all have failed. The character is a pop culture icon with no peers.
It was a smart move by the producer David Heyman to stop hiring different directors for each film and get somebody to see the series to the finishing line. Step forward, David Yates whose The Order of the Phoenix ventured into more adult, well, teenage territory.
That the director of television dramas such as Sex Traffic and State of Play is responsible for what will have been four episodes in the epic adventure (The Deathly Hallows is being split into two parts) is a remarkable achievement/gamble for someone untested in big budget filmmaking. And let’s face it, it doesn’t get any bigger a gig than making Harry Potter films. Yates is a success because he’s brought a greater sense of drama and subtly that was much needed.
Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince picks up a few weeks after the events of The Order of the Phoenix. Harry and his classmates return for another year at Hogwarts suffering love trials as much as blood trials. It gives ample screen time to following the affairs of the heart and the longings of Harry, Hermione and Ron.
After some initial and salient plot points are taken care of, the first half of the film plays like a light-hearted teen comedy. And funny it is too. The cast all excel in their roles, as frustrations and ill-timing thwart their chances of love. It could have been titled Harry Potter and The Raging Teenage Hormones.
Yates has finally managed what the other directors failed to do (to various degrees): and that is for the young cast to start acting and not simply deliver their lines. Part of it comes down to the fact the cast were very young and with a great weight thrust upon them when it all began. Some are simply better than others. Yates is coaxing nuanced performances from his teenage cast. For the past couple of films at least, the trio in particular, seem very comfortable with the emotional demands of their characters and the films.
Daniel Radcliffe is beginning to shine as an actor, one scene early on recalling his naughty, impish turn in Ricky Gervais’ sitcom Extras. Another comic strength is the addition of Jim Broadbent as Professor Slughorn – responsible for a good majority of the laughs. The downside to it all is there’s a lot happening plot-wise, and lack of heart-quickening, thrill ride set-pieces. It does, however, deliver on drama and revelations.
With much to cram into two and a half hours, it seems all over the place at times. Characters pop up and disappear: David Thewlis’ Professor Lupin; Robbie Coltrane’s giant groundskeeper Haggrid and Helena Bonham-Carter’s evil and electrifying Bellatrix Lastrange are reduced to cameos. Even Ralph Fiennes appears as Voldemort in a solitary blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flash.
As with all penultimate chapters, the focus is on bridging narrative strands that will come together for the finale. Steve Kloves had the unenviable task of writing a screenplay that needs to set up events for The Deathly Hallows alongside character development; a variety of subplots; flashbacks exploring Voldemort’s childhood and the pivotal mystery of the Half-Blood Prince. It’s a film with a lot on its plate.
The film delivers on special effects, stunning at times, and the cinematography by Bruno Delbonnel is dripping in moody, gothic atmosphere.
The denouement ensures too the boy wizard’s darkest hour has arrived: the maelstrom that is Voldemort is raging to such an extent its looking a little grim for Harry and his friends. The film finishes with a brilliant sense of foreboding and challenge.
David Yates’ direction has given the series a new sense of purpose. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince begins full of humour and spark and gets progressively darker and sinister. School’s out for Harry Potter, but it’s not over quite yet.
9 Comments
It’s amazing how all of the reviews I’ve read thus far skip over the most important aspect of this film, namely, the major death at the end. Does it work? Does it carry the dramatic weight it needs to?
I was disappointed in the handling of the death of Sirius in the last film – it just sorta happened, without any real weight given to it. I’m hoping this death is handled in better fashion.
I totally agree with Ray. I just watched the Order of the Phoenix again last night and every time I do sit down with it I feel like I must have imagined the lack of occassion given to Sirius’ death and will it to be done with more effect. I have a feeling the death will be dealt with in a similar manner, with the really emotive impetus being put upon the funeral scene that follows it.
The most emotional death scene in the film series has to be Cedric’s death in goblet of fire.. but then again it was the scene after he dies, not the actual death.
I think the films really highlight the weaknesses in JK Rowling’s writing. As to whether there’s sufficient dramatic weight to death scenes, I suppose it’s a mix of individual emotional involvement with the characters and mythology and film direction.
It is dramatic…but it’s no Aslan-dying in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
I too hope the death is handled differently in this movie, than in Order of the Phoenix with Sirius. His death was soo anticlimactic. The book had a great way of describing how Sirius is thrown into the void, into blackness, and this greatly conveyed Harry’s sudden panic and confusion when he sees his godfather killed. I DID like how Harry’s reaction was used in Order of the Phoenix, but Sirius’ physical death was so lame in the movie.
Hope Dumbledore’s is truly tragic! that is weird though, how nobody has been mentioning it, not even a little!!? I hope the’yre not avoiding it incase its unsatisfying…
@nedd: They’re avoiding Dumbledore’s death to avoid spoilers for fans of the movies who have not read the books. There’s a production-wide agreement (written into the contracts) that the matter will not be discussed by cast and crew until the film’s release. I actually liked the way Sirius’s death was handled (physically); death is rarely dramatic until one projects emotion into it, and the subtle, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it transition felt… real, I guess. (Check out the plays “Wit” and “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” for interesting discussions of death in art)
@Martyn: The films really have very little to do with Jo Rowling’s writing; they condense what wind up being 24+ hour audiobooks to 2.5 hours, meaning they have very little to do, even, with Rowling’s STORYTELLING (since many plot elements have to be dropped/altered). I’m not necessarily defending Rowling’s prose (not here anyway), but it’s unfair to both Rowling and the cast/crew/production teams of the films to use either as a basis for judging the other.
As for the drama of Aslan dying… well, it’s harder to get more dramatic than the death of Christ in a majority-Christian nation. I personally find it thematically weak and meaningless for an immortal being to feign death (in both the King James Bible and the Narnia series; Aslan=Christ=God=Unkillable, at least in the standard Christian construction of reality, and if you can’t die, then ‘dying’ holds no meaning whatsoever), but I guess both views are colored by cultural perspective.
The movies are good. I hear the books are good too.
I agree with John – I like the way Rowling and the films thus far have dealt with death of characters – little foreshadowing, lack of pyrotechnics. The actual death isn’t the dramatic point, and that ties in with her thematic wranglings on the subject too: That it’s not something to be afraid of, and there are worse things than it. The storytelling is quite respectful in that sense – leaving the emotional choice up to the reader/viewer.
(SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
The way Dumbledore and Sirius’s death is handled feels very real to me.
Both of their deaths remind me of the way Billy (DiCaprio) was murdered in THE DEPARTED. There’s no last words. There’s no goodbyes.
Thats what makes all three of their deaths so socking and controversial.
It’s because we feel cheated. As in life. When people are taken
from us, either by murder, illness, or suicide, there’s no cinematic drama, only sadness. It’s harsh but it’s honest.