Movie Reviews: "Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince"

[JamesG]

U.K. Reviews: Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
8 July 2009 12:13 PM, PDT

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had its world premiere in London Monday and received its first reviews today (Wednesday).

They are, by and large, approving if not outright raves.

Wendy Ide in the Times gets down to business immediately: "Does the latest Potter have what it takes to be the family film of the summer?" she asks. "Will Harry turn the Transformers into scrap metal and Ice Age into a puddle?" After answering yes to both questions, she observes that the latest film, with its "collective romantic awakening," is likely to be of greater interest to adults than the previous ones.
But younger children, she noted, "squirmed with agonized embarrassment" at some of the romantic scenes at the screening she attended.

Andrew Pulver in the Guardian credits director David Yates with making a "solidly constructed" film that employs "tried and tested cinematic language."

Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman concludes with no particular enthusiasm that the latest Potter sequel "succeeds in being a much more immersive film than normal and comes close to capturing on film some of the texture and richness of Rowling's books."

The London Independent calls on a 15-year-old to write its review, and hers is the most critical of all.
Ella Thorold writes: "The Half-Blood Prince is frightening, funny, romantic and entertaining but as the end credits rolled, I still felt disappointed. I had waited all year to see my second-favorite Potter book brought to life. If I wasn't a die-hard fan, I'm sure I would have loved it. My gripe is that the film was simply too different from the book -- the writers inserted pointless scenes and took out others crucial to the narrative. It just could have been better.”

-IMDB News

[comedyfreak]

I still want to see the movie. I'm not into reading so I shouldn't be disappointed, for those who are maybe when it comes to dvd they will have a director's cut with the deleted scenes.

[JamesG]

Movie Reviews: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
14 July 2009 12:39 PM, PDT

Ordinarily reviews count for little when it comes to movie attendance these days.

However, a laudable review by the official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano may count for a lot, especially in Catholic countries.

The newspaper said today (Tuesday) said that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince illuminated the age-old conflict between good and evil and treated the stirrings of adolescent love with "the correct balance."

That's a more glowing review than many appearing in the mainstream American press.

Typically, U.S. critics note that it helps to have a basic familiarity with the novel on which it is based; indeed, it helps even more to be a rabid fan of the novel. (Critics have made the same observation about all of the other Potter movies, too.)

Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times concludes that he "admired" the movie, adding that "it opens and closes well, and has wondrous art design and cinematography as always, only more so."
However, he writes, some of the scenes "may be especially valued by devoted students of the Potter saga. They may also be the only ones who fully understand them."

Dan Kois in the Washington Post notes that the J.K. Rowling novel offered only one action sequence and focused on romance. "It must have seemed a daunting challenge to adapt for an audience of casual moviegoers who don't know a quaffle from a bezoar."

Kyle Smith in the New York Post admits that in most of the Potter movies, "I dumbldoze through them as the suspicious new teacher shows up, the plot shuts off for several minutes of Quidditch and all problems get solved with the same old hocus-pocus. But HP6 is suspenseful and artfully realized."

Likewise, Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel calls it "a satisfying film, just coherent enough, just engrossing enough to cover for the tedious by-the-book slog of even the best Harry Potter films."

Nancy Churnin advises in the Dallas Morning News: "Be prepared. ... It would behoove viewers to catch up before plunging into a world where everyone speaks fluent Potter-ese, building on long-established relationships. Even the magic, fabulous as it is, is just part of the intricate fabric from which the story is woven."

On the other hand, Michael Sragow writes in the Baltimore Sun that the movie "would be a first-rate fantasy even if the audience weren't invested in the fortunes of boy wizard and 'Chosen One' Harry Potter."

Besides, as Kenneth Turan observes in the Los Angeles Times, the movies are not really produced for the uninitiated. "It's only the phenomenal success of the books that has made [the film series] possible, that has ensured a loyal audience for each film, an audience that has invested so much emotion, not to mention time, in the ongoing Potter saga that skipping an episode is out of the question. That's a kind of brand loyalty that's all but gone out of style."

Spoilers? When it comes to a Potter movie, the critics seem to agree, who cares?

-IMDB News

[JamesG]

Yates Promises Potter Fans They 'Haven't Seen Anything Yet'
15 July 2009 1:01 AM, PDT

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince director David Yates is ecstatic about the rave reviews of the latest wizard installment has garnered - but insists fans haven't "seen anything yet".

The latest part of the hugely successful franchise has become one of the most highly-anticipated movies of 2009, after it was pushed back from its original release date of last November.

And early reviews for the movie suggest the sixth film is the best Potter film so far, with trade magazine Variety predicting the movie will become one of the year's top three earners.

But Brit filmmaker Yates is adamant his next two films, the two-part adaptation of author J.K. Rowling's final book, will really get devotees excited.

He says, "People are being very kind about what they're seeing in Half-Blood Prince and I just think you haven't seen anything yet.

"(Part one) is like a road movie, refugees being chased by all these people who want to kill them. It's quite intense. Then the final film is like this big opera, big epic, it's got more set pieces than any of the others."

And he reveals that the crew has an expert on hand to offer suggestions - J.K. Rowling herself.

He adds, "She's really gracious, she's not territorial. She kind of recognises the challenges of adapting (a book for a film) and she's really sympathetic to that.

"She said now that the shooting part is coming to an end she might just pop in more often, which we would love. She was so busy with all the other books she couldn't (visit much more than once a year)."

-IMDB News

[comedyfreak]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The latest "Harry Potter" movie cast a $104 million spell over worldwide box offices during its first day in theaters, setting a new record for the boy wizard, distributor Warner Bros Pictures said on Thursday.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," the sixth in the film series based on the popular books by J.K. Rowling, grossed $58.18 million in North America and $45.85 million overseas on Wednesday, the Time Warner Inc-owned studio said.

The U.S.-Canadian tally, which includes a record $22.2 million from midnight showings, marks the second-biggest Wednesday opening domestically.

Only last month's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" scored a bigger midweek first-day gross, with $62 million in domestic ticket sales on Wednesday June 24, according to Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com.

The latest "Harry Potter" also ranks as the fourth-highest single-day gross for a film release in North America, behind No. 1 "Dark Knight" ($67.1 million), No. 2 "Transformers: Revenge," and third-place "Spider-Man 3" ($59.8 million).

"Quite simply, we owe this record-breaking opening to the remarkable fans who have stood by us and who stood in line to be among the first to see 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,'" Warner Bros President and Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn said in a statement.

Said Dergarabedian: "This is a tremendous opening. It's in the box office stratosphere."

The previous "Harry Potter" movie, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," also opened on a Wednesday last year with first-day domestic receipts of $44.2 million. That film went on to gross $937 million worldwide.

The first five films in the franchise, one of the most lucrative in Hollywood history, have so far taken in about $4.5 billion collectively at the global box office.