my harry potter and the half blood prince reaction

--- warning spoilers ahead ----

for the first time in all the harry potter movies i've watched, i came out of the theater disappointed. the latest movie failed 60% of my expectations. i wonder what david yates, the director isa thinking while doing this film.

hey, i liked him on the order of phoenix. i can still remember how sirius black did an old school punch to lucius malfoy shouting "get your hands off my godson!". the effects and the fast phase action on book 5 movie were full of coolness. i can't blame the producers why they signed yates for the last three potter movies. but with the suckiness of 6th installment, my my, they prolly made a big mistake.

what i liked

- pacing for the first half of the movie. the story developed quickly on the half blood prince. i smiled while watching the first half, though it didn't follow the book chapter per chapter, it showed almost all the important parts needed for the movie to start the story. namely: assault on ollivanders, destruction of the bridge, harry's visit to slughorn, harry getting the half blood prince's book, etc.

- love triangle between hermione - ron - lavender. This is a classic, rupert grint can act (or maybe that's his normal mode :P). this is probably the main plot of the movie for yates. hermione's jealousy, ron's insensitivity and lavender's obsession kinda reminds us of our first crush/love on our younger years.

- evanna lynch/luna lovegood's screen time. just perfect amount of screen time for luna. her voice is enough to crack up the crowd.

- tom felton/draco malfoy's acting - he did carry himself quite well on the movie. just enough sadness, enough angst and enough ferocity.

- veteran actors’ superb acting:

* jim broadbent/slughorn's acting. give man the needed applause. he's acting is sure flawless. though he doesn't have the walrus moustache as described in the book, he did give justice to rowling's slughorn.

* michael gambon/dumbledore's humor. this is the only time i liked the new dumbledore. he is witty and cracks one liner on this film. and that makes him a really really cool headmaster. this dumbledore really reaches out with the students, especially with the trio.

* h.b.c/bellatrix - ohhh you so love to hate her. too bad she didn't fought like she did on order of the phoenix

* alan rickman/snape - nuff said. he's been stealing the scenes since the sorcerer's stone. he's a gold mine!!

what sucks.

- the cgi. admit it yates. 50% of the budget for the effects of this film has been cut off. the movie looked like a long low budget B movie. the only effect worth watching is the 30 seconds fire magic by dumbledore. the quidditch background sucked, hagrid's towering height is just proper positioning with fellow actors (namely slughorn and potter), the dark mark in clouds?? come on!! and the memory thread from slughorn, it looks like a shiny short thread.

- wizard/witch fighting scenes. what fighting scenes?? nothing.

- burning burrow - the weasleys house got burned!! and yes, everybody forgot they're all freakin magic users. a couple of flicks with their wand the fire are out. tsk tsk tsk. I guess yates is prolly thinking it would be better if harry will experience some of the death eater attacks firsthand. but on the burrow??!! come on!! it's one of the most protected places on the wizarding world. aside from that, the burrow is the place that bill and fleur's wedding will happen on the 7th installment. or yates will remove the wedding??

- harry and ginny's kissing scene. wtf?! harry just hid the book and ginny kissed him?? booo!! here's the book's description about the kiss: "Harry looked around; there was Ginny running toward him; she had a hard, blazing look in her face as she threw her around him. And without thinking, without planning it, without worrying about the fact that fifty people were watching, Harry kissed her." Now tell me, which is wayyy better?

- the chase for snape - what happened here yates? there are no fighting scene here, no wand duels, no blood spluttered, no greyback attacks. just unnecessary explosions and fire works. pfftt!

- supporting characters fail - lack of screen time and character development for neville, weasley twins, luna, ginny, lupin, tonks, greyback, hagrid, wormtail, weasley's parents, crabbe, and goyle. and we failed to see fleur, bill, mundungus, kreacher, and dobby that will all play serious roles for the 7th installment.

- dumbledore's funeral - where the fuck is it?

Over all, i'm disappointed but i'm hoping for a really really good come back for the 7th and 8th installment. i give the movie 2.5 out of 5 stars.