The Shattered Sky

Prepare for a bit of a read.

I’ve been to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince twice now on the big screen, and I’m considering a third viewing. There are so many things one could criticize about the film. After all, it is a two and a half hour film adapted from a novel and as such will never be able to fit everything in. People will never agree on what was included, what was cut, what was emphasized and what was downplayed. I am therefore not going to beat down the film on those points.

Harry and Dumbledore

I must say point blank that I was let down by the fifth film in the series, the Order of the Phoenix. This surprised me because while it was not my favorite of the books – the Prisoner of Azkaban earns that place – I felt that Phoenix was the most movie friendly of the lot. Despite its length, I could see it playing out on the screen as I read the book but was left with a flat-feeling shell of a film. Imagine therefore my irritation upon learning that David Yates was going to return to direct the Half-Blood Prince. Prince was my personal disappointment of the Potter books and I wanted a director like Azkaban’s Alfonso Cuaron or Goblet of Fire’s Mike Newell to breathe some magic into the film! Even the trailer did not sell me, because while it did generate excitement within me, so did the trailer for Phoenix.

Boy, was I surprised when I sat down to view Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the big screen. I must warn you that from here on in, there are spoilers. Now let me say that there are two things that seriously irked me about the book.

Firstly, there is the entire chapter where Snape makes the Unbreakable Vow to protect Draco Malfoy and if needed carry out Draco’s mission (more on that later). With all due respect to Jo Rowling, who I credit as the gifted author of  one of my favorite stories of all time, that chapter could have been written better by a twelve year old. The second thing that irks me is the Harry/Ginny relationship. I found Ginny to be very poorly developed in the novels and the relationship while vaguely hinted at beforehand appears to happen out of absolutely nowhere. I remember turning the page, reading Harry’s and Ginny’s first kiss, and wondering where in the heck that came out from. Harry’s ridiculous closeness to best pal Hermione Granger makes it even more difficult from a reader’s perspective to believe that Harry’s great intended is this character we barely know and barely relate to.

Unbreakable Vow

I would say I digress, but I digressed because I wanted to emphasize the fact that the film adaptation of the Half-Blood Prince is much more successful in those areas. The Unbreakable Vow scene leaves you the viewer on the very edge of your seat. The scene depicts Narcissa, the shaken mother of Draco and wife of imprisoned Death Eater Lucius Malfoy accompanying her sister, Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange to meet Professor Snape in a house. Narcissa is seeking out Snape to protect Draco, who Lord Voldemort has tasked with a mission. Bellatrix is dubius, given that Snape’s allegiance is in question. Is he Voldemort’s man, or Dumbledore’s? Bellatrix then makes Snape take the Unbreakable Vow: A magical vow that if broken results in the death of the bearer. Snape must protect Draco, and if Draco fails, carry out the mission for him.

That scene not only rivets the viewer but illustrates the tasteful execution of the film’s special effects as magical threads weave around Snape’s and Narcissa’s clasped arms and then leave a faint raised mark on the skin of each. The effects are eye catching, yes, but well placed. While you do see some special effects before this scene, namely the Death Eaters collapsing London’s Millennium Bridge into the River Thames, this is the first time the viewer gets to see the more subtle effects in action.

The Half-Blood Prince also marks the second installment of the films that does not feature the Dursley residence at Privet Drive. We instead meet Harry at a small muggle cafe reading the Daily Prophet. Dumbledore quickly arrives to whisk Harry away, meet Professor Horace Slughorn, and deposit him at The Burrow; home of his best friend Ronald Weasley. This is where we see Harry and Ginny’s relationship developing. As Harry walks up to the house, he spots Ginny sitting at a window. When he arrives, he is greeted with an embrace from her, much as he gets from Hermione, Ron, and Molly Weasley – Ron and Ginny’s mother. This is in stark contrast to when we first met Ginny, the little girl infatuated with the famous boy who lived.

Harry and Ginny

This trend of development continues through the story and David Yates (and of course, screenwriter Steve Kloves and producer David Heyman) tastefully script little things like Ginny helping Harry get the Quidditch team to listen to him, get a book from him nobody else could and offer him some food that just round out the whole plotline. We also get to see Harry witness Ron hating Ginny’s then-boyfriend just on the basis that he’s her big brother.

We also get to see Lavender’s sicking relationship with Ron (aka. Won-Won) and Hermione’s resulting jealousy, setting up their relationship to come in the final installment. The whole story is rife with hormones, but then again that’s also how the book was written. It does however make for a lot of comedy in an otherwise very dark film. A lot of laughter can be had from Hermione beating up Ron for stuffing his face while Harry was missing, or from Harry’s “desert” scene at Slughorn’s dinner gathering, or Hermione’s backfired attempt to make Ron jealous that led to Harry’s “dragon balls” line. You’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen it.

There is of course more comedy, such as Harry high off Felix Felicis potion, or Slughorn ainviting Harry and Hermione to his gathering of best students and then simply telling Ron that it was good to see him! All that said, this is, truly a very dark film. The romance and the comedy serves to offset some of the more serious issues going on. You see, the wizarding world is at war. In one instance, the trio run into Katie Bell, being flung about in the air like a rag doll by a curse. The scene looks like one straight out of a horror flick.

Katie Bell cursed

The film gets even darker. Throughout the film, Harry aces Potions all because of a book he found with notes written all over it by someone known only as the Half-Blood Prince. One of the spells is Sectumsempra, which physically lacerates one’s opponent. There is a scene where Harry uses it on Draco, and frankly speaking almost kills Draco if not for Snape. The volume of blood spilling out of Draco’s unconscious body is something I did not expect to see in a Potter film.

In fact, the entire Draco plotline is so well executed that it leaves one genuinely feeling sorry for the kid. Draco Malfoy was always a bully, but now he has been inducted into the Death Eaters and must carry out a grim mission. Throughout the story we see Draco go from arrogant, to dubious, to scared and downright traumatized.

Draco Malfoy

We must not forget the memories we are privy to. Through a series of memories we learn of how young Tom Riddle who would grow up to be Lord Voldemort came to be a Hogwarts student, and how he learned to split his soul, allowing him to survive the destruction of his body. The part of young Tom Riddle is played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin. I was impressed by how well that boy pulled off the part of a malevolent child. In fact, all of the actors and actresses did a fantastic job. I think those who felt the child actors (mind you, they’re not children anymore!) had subpar performances in the last films will be pleasantly surprised. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Bonnie Wright…their acting has truly improved by leaps and bounds.

Young Tom Riddle

At the culmination of the entire story of course Harry and Dumbledore must go off alone to find a Horcrux. I cannot impart to you just how powerful it was to have Dumbledore being forced to drink a pain-inducing potion by Harry. Neither can I impart just how utterly creepy the Inferi were. They were not zombie-like; they were something else entirely. Water logged living corpses is the best I can think of.

By now the whole world knows that Dumbledore met his end in the Half-Blood Prince. That was in fact Draco’s mission: To kill Dumbledore. I cannot soon forget Dumbledore making Draco doubt every fiber of his being, and finally cryptically asking Snape “please” to do the deed instead. A scene that will move even the most hard backed of viewers is that of Harry crying over Dumbledore’s body with all the teary-eyed teachers and students around them with wands lit and held high in a vigil.

Wand Vigil

The ending has Harry vowing to  leave Hogwarts to complete Dumbledore’s mission: to find the remaining Horcruxes. It includes Hermione telling him that he can’t do it alone. This scene sets up the final installment, which is to be released in two parts next year and the year after.

All in all, the movie was amazing and while the Half-Blood Prince remains my least favorite of the books, it has taken its place as my favorite of the films. There are things I disagreed with: It was a little overdone on the romance, Dumbledore’s funeral was not included and small tidbits from the book that would make the final installment more powerful were not present such as featuring Dobby and Kreacher, and Harry actually dating Ginny then breaking up with her. Still, these do not detract from the film being extraordinarily well done. The biggest flaw of the entire thing is that the characters personalities do not flow smoothly from the last installment, but alas that was the way Rowling wrote the book.

David Yates is also directing both parts of the Harry Potter finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.