So many people have said that this is the best of the Potter films, fans and actors alike. I disagree whole-heartedly. No it's not because they didn't follow the book word for word. To be honest most of the parts that they did take from the book acurately was fairly well done, such as the romance between Ron and Lavender and Dumbledore's death scene. Now let's start at the begining when i first had problems with the movie. It starts with the front cover of The Daily Prophet showing a picture of Harry and Dumbledore walking out of the Department of Mysteries. That's all fine and good. It reminds those that haven't read the book (or seen the movie since the 2 years it came out) that there was a big battle and Sirius Black died and yatta yatta. Then they show that Ollivander get's taken away by Death Eaters, but to me it was hard to tell that was even Ollivander. You only saw him once in Sorcerer's Stone briefly, and after that he's kind of like dust in the wind. You couldn't even see the shop's name so people that forgot about Ollivander had to wait until Hermione mentioned it a bit later to realize who it was. For those that recall the very first chapter of the book when the ex-Minister of Magic (Fudge) visits the muggle Prime Minister, well that's not in the movie. I thought it was quite important because you meet the new Minister of Magic (Scrimgeour), and i thought it was important to see that the Ministry tries to recruit Harry (i think that's important because it show's Harry's decline, and loyalty to Dumbledore). Now we are getting to Bella (Bellatrix) and Cissy (Narcissa). They did this scene kinda acurately as well, but i thought it would have been good for people that haven't read the books to see how good Snape is at playing both sides. His explainations to Bella's inquiries were very well thought out, and i enjoyed that. Of course they left that out. That scene was probably a grand total of 15 minutes. Cissy sobbing to Snape about Voldemort's plan being too difficult for Draco alone, Bella taunting Snape, and Snape accepting the Unbreakable Vow. Introducing Harry Potter now, since he is the main character and all. He's in a train station. No not at the Dursely's. He's in a cafe/dinner place and a waitress flirts with him (yes he flirts back). What?!?!?!? Let's not forget he's in love with Ginny. Yes Dumbledore does still retrieve him. He apparates in the subway, and they head off. Slughorn's retrieval is up next, if you can call it that. They walk into the house he had momentarily taken over, review the damage, Dumbledore finds him, goes to the bathroom for maybe 3 minutes, Harry looks at Slughorn's pictures briefly (with Slughorn making slight comments), Harry does interject that Hermione is a muggle-born and the brightest witch of their year, then Harry and Dumbledore leave. No there was no convincing. They walk in, Dumbledore uses the bathroom as planned so Harry and Slughorn can chat, they do chat (but not about Dementors or Voldemort), then they leave and Slughorn just decides to come back. Now we're at the burrow. That scene was okay. Quite humorous in fact. Although i did wish to see Bill and Fleur. During their trip to Diagon Alley Hermione notes Ollivander's ownerless shop. One thing i was kind of excited about was you get to see Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. They did have Fred and George pick in Ron (of course) which was a comforting scene. Then the trio follow Draco and his mom to Borgin and Burkes. Yes i said his mom. And no they don't use the invisibility cloak, and no they don't use extendable ears, oh and they can see everything that's going on. They climb on the roof of a nearby shop and decide to take a peek and they see exactly what Draco is looking at (vanishing cabinet). The best part (insert sarcasm) is they see a bunch of Death Eater's walk in too. So they pretty much already know that Draco is planning something. The train scene was dull. They didn't even show the Slug Club's first get together so you don't know why anybody is invited to parties except Harry (kind of obvious). Harry does slip into the Slytherin car, and Draco does see a suitcase move so Harry does get Paralyzed. No Tonks doesn't ifind him though. Luna does. There is no Kretcher in this movie. Oh well. Didn't like him anyways. Harry does have meetings with Dumbledore, but instead of showing him a lot of memories they only have 2 (technically 3 if you count the tampered and fixed Slughorn memories seperately). So when the question of a Horcux comes up Harry doesn't know what the ring Dumbledore has or the locket that they find have to do with Voldemort. Yes they have Quidditch as well. In the book Ron is supposed to be a fairly good Keeper. Nervous yes, but good nonetheless. Not so in the movie. He apparently sucks, and miraculously saves all of his goals. Yes Harry finds the Prince's book, and wins the Felix Felicis potion. Yes he uses it to trick Ron. Yes he uses it to get the memory from Slughorn. Yes Ron and Lavender hook up, but i never imagined Lavender being that obsessive and creepy. I just thought she was a bit more clingy than most girls. Yes Hermione gets jealous. Yes Katie Bell gets cursed in Hogsmede. Yes Ron acidentally eats Harry's love potion filled chocolates from Romilda. Yes Ron soon after gets poisoned. Yes you find out Snape is the Half-Blood Prince. No Harry doesn't obsess over Draco as much as i would have hoped. That's just basic stuff they did. Throughout the movie you see exactly how Draco gets the Death Eaters into Hogwarts as you follow him into the Room of Requirement, and see the match to the Vanishing Cabinet in Borgin and Burkes. There is also an added (and unnecessary) scene at the Burrow during a holiday. Bella and Fenrir come and encircle the house in flames. They also taunt Harry to running out into a field alone. He is later joined by everyone except Ron and Molly. As they all attempt to fight Bella and Fenrir they hear an explosion. They run back to the Burrow to see it in flames. That pissed me off because the Weasleys are people that already have nothing so they took away the one thing they did have. That made me very upset. Harry goes with Dumbledore to the cave as planned and the cave scene is fairly accurate. The biggest problem i have with that is i think the animator's got really lazy and just tried to imprint Gollem into this movie. When the inferi came out of the water they looked a lot like Gollem. They get back to the school. My only problem with the Draco vs Dumbledore confrontation is that Draco (in the movie) cries. I didn't think Draco cried in the book. He seemed desperate, but not pathetic. Harry doesn't get paralyzed in the movie either. He just stands there and watches below. Dumbledore dies of course, and then there is the epic battle scene. Wait. No there isn't. 5 or 6 Death Eater's plus Snape and Draco kill Dumbledore and walk out of Hogwarts without a struggle. Afterwards everyone else wakes up and realizes what happened, and there is a slightly emotional scene afterwards. Then the last scene is Harry telling Hermione and Ron that he might not be going back to school next year. Instead he'll be searching for Horcruxes. Hermione tells Harry he's thick. And Fawkes sang for Dumbledore and flew away. There was no funeral scene for Dumbledore. I'm guessing (and hoping) that it will start off the next film. There was also already a romance between Tonks and Lupin. You could see that when (during the Burrow scene) she called Lupin "sweetie". It's late and i'm tired, but I just wanted to rant about that.
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