mrv3000 | Harry Potter

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Harry Potter

I finally watched the Harry Potter "Half Blood Prince" movie.

Was it just me or did absolutely nothing happen in this movie? And it was long. Why was it so long? It was 2 hours of this:

Followed by 30 minutes of Dumbledore dragging Harry off to find a necklace, and then Snape killing Dumbledore. And even though it was a really long movie, it feels like it didn't answer some basic questions. (No, I've never read any of the books, so maybe that's why I'm missing things. However, a movie has to be able to stand on its own - any movie.)

Snape: I - wait for it - I AM THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE! *DRAMATIC MUSIC*

Me: Okaaaaay. So you wrote your D&D RP name in a text book years ago. I've absolutely no idea why this is apparently important. None. And yet the movie is called this. WHY?
Harry's Friends: You have to get rid of that book OMG!!!

Me: Why would he do that? It's like having to use a cookbook that tells you to make an omelet out of carrots, but someone's helpfully written in the margins "carrots are lame - use eggs. srlsy."
Movie: Harry and Ginny are in love!

Me: Okay, I really really really want to buy into this because a) it has the potential to be cute, and b) I know how the books end and I'm somewhat of a canonwhore. But couldn't they have, I don't know, a normal conversation with each other? Or interact with each other in a non "we must fight/hide a book now!" setting? Something? Just a little scrap might get me there.

The movies have consistently shown me that Harry and Hermione are way better suited for each other than Ginny and Ron. If the books are anything like the movies in this aspect, I can see why there were so many Harry/Hermione shippers. At this point Hermione/Ron makes more sense than Harry/Ginny to me, but still I get the impression that if Hermione and Ron hadn't grown up together and bonded through childhood, they wouldn't be together. I doubt they'd give each other the time of day. Maybe this all went down better in the books, but again, the movies are supposed to stand on their own.

I might have more "wut?" points, but this is all I can remember right now. :D

I like the HP movies - even though I'm not super into it, I think they're really entertaining. But this was the first movie where NOTHING HAPPENED. FOR TWO AND A HALF HOURS. Okay, Dumbledore died, but I stand by my "NOTHING HAPPENED" statement. No adventure. No quest. Lots of talking.

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The movies have consistently shown me that Harry and Hermione are way better suited for each other than Ginny and Ron. If the books are anything like the movies in this aspect, I can see why there were so many Harry/Hermione shippers. At this point Hermione/Ron makes more sense than Harry/Ginny to me, but still I get the impression that if Hermione and Ron hadn't grown up together and bonded through childhood, they wouldn't be together. I doubt they'd give each other the time of day. Maybe this all went down better in the books, but again, the movies are supposed to stand on their own.

It is apparently much worse in the movies, but it's pretty bad in the books too imo. Harry/Ginny are ridiculously awful in the books, but I guess one could say that H/R have some set-up. It's just a set-up based on 11 year old children having a love/hate relationship that suddenly becomes love (without any explanation) when they turn 14 or so. Uhm, yeah. But what do I know? I'm one of those ridiculous Harry/Hermione shippers.

If I'd gotten into it, I probably would have found myself on the Harry/Hermione side of things as well.

It's just a set-up based on 11 year old children having a love/hate relationship that suddenly becomes love (without any explanation) when they turn 14 or so.

*nods* So far it feels more like the crushes you get in high school/junior high rather than True Love.

1. In the book it's much, much more important who Snape is. It's kind of a mystery and a treasure hunt all at once. And then it means something at the end. But since it all got cut in the movie and relied entirely on Alan Rickman's delivery, it seemed VERY STRANGE.

2. The last time there was a book with extra writing in it, it tried to kill all the half-bloods and nearly killed Ginny (which is why she especially was freaked out).

3. The movies have consistently shown me that Harry and Hermione are way better suited for each other than Ginny and Ron.

OOOOOOh, this is one of my pet peeves with the movie! The screenwriter is an admitted, unapologetic Harry/Hermione shipper, and thus futzes with the material to make his point clear. Most of Ron's good moments get cut entirely (or given to Hermione), and Ginny's been a non-starter for most of the series. It frustrates me, because in the books it's very much NOT the case, and I am not sure why the screenwriter thinks he has the right to do this. (Harry/Ginny still isn't great in the books, but it sort of makes sense and I adore them.)

These movies invariably let me down because they don't tell enough of the story. Goblet of Fire, for example, was a massive conspiracy and set up nearly everything that was to come...but in the movie it was about a dance and a sporting event. Prisoner of Azkaban might be one of my least favourite movies of all time because so much got cut (and there were too many fade to blacks). In the case of Half Blood Prince, however, I could fill in enough of the gaps myself, having read the books, and it didn't bother me so much. But every since the Travesty that Was Prince Caspian, I've made it a point to not think about movies too much.

I have trouble with the ship questions, because I called the pairings by the end of book 1. (But I think the Harry/Ginny interaction in the last couple of movies has been weird. Like, in the books, she hasn't mooned the entire series. She goes and has a life. They are far more awkward on film.)

As to the nothing happened, I think they decided to save up everything for the next movie. Or something. For some reason, I usually just enjoy the hell out of the HP movies though, even when nothing happens. (Unless they are super cirtically acclaimed. It is my least favorite so far.) I'm just hyper-uncritical when it comes to these movies.

Also, Snape is such a melodramtic little twit. (Which is somehow different to Harry's drama queen.)

Edited 2009-12-14 15:27 (UTC)

One of the most interesting conversations in the entire relationship mess take place between Harry and Ginny, but it's Ginny telling about a conversation she'd had with Hermione, wherein Hermione had told her she needed to get over Harry, because Harry was never going to notice her, and so she did. I liked it for two reasons: 1) Hermione didn't follow her own advice (well, she tried, but it didn't really work), and 2) It suddenly gives Ginny nearly all of the 'power' in the relationship. So that when Harry comes to her at the end of book six to explain why they have to keep their relationship a secret, Ginny can be all "You're stupid. Try not to get killed and we'll talk, okay?"

I found them to be the teenage version of Josh and Donna, but I might be giving someone too much credit, and I am not even sure who.

I don’t know. I haven’t been paying attention to the Harry Potter movies, and I never really cared about the romantic subplots in the books. The most important relationship in the series, for me, was Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s friendship. I figured Hermione and Ron would end up together because that could happen without changing the Trio, and that’s more or less what happened. But I can’t say I ever shipped them the way I did Doctor/Rose.

(I thought the second most important relationship in the series was Harry’s relationship with Ron’s family, and that Harry would end up with Ginny as a way of showing that he’d become part of that family. And I did ship them, for more or less the same reasons I shipped Doctor/Rose, till Ginny’s character changed dramatically in the fifth book.)

I've also never read the books, and your reactions pretty much mirror mine to this movie, EXACTLY. Sweet zombie Jesus, what a bore!

However, I absolutely adore The Goblet of Fire, and own it, for obvious reasons. :)

RIGHT? I've read all the books, and at the end of the movie...well, I enjoyed it, but why on EARTH was it called the Half-Blood Prince? WHY? They totally dropped the ball on that part of the story.

As to Harry/Ginny, I am slightly fond of the book version in a resigned to canon spirit, but the movie take is...lacking. Even in the books though, I always felt like JKR was shoving Ron and Hermione at each other in a 'look, they're exactly like his parents!' sort of way. Too much perpetual exasperation on Hermione's side for me. And then the movie cut out nearly any good parts Ron had and made it even worse.

Oh, and I agree with

mls03j that Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione were intended to make them all one big happy family at the end. It's just really weird, that both Harry/Hermione and Harry/Luna come off better, especially in the movies, and some in the books too.

Edited 2009-12-14 16:00 (UTC)

See, I re-read HBP before I watched the movie and thought that was why I was so disappointed in the film.

I'm glad to see that you had exactly the same problems with it that I did.

I say this as a big ol' Ron/Hermione shipper, but - Radcakes and Emma Watson have such good chemistry together and she and Rupert just... well... don't.

Have you ever read Cleolinda's Movies in 15 minutes? Her HBP one is particularly good.

I stand by my "NOTHING HAPPENED" statement. No adventure. No quest. Lots of talking.

Wait until the next one. The book was about 800 pages of NOTHING HAPPENING.

I just have to put in: I don't know what any of you people are talking about. HBP is my favorite book and I kinda thought the film rocked.

So...yeah.

lol Harry Potter.

Yeah, I dunno. I shipped Harry/Hermione like a crazy thing because I was convinced that despite whatever feelings Ron had for Hermione, she was in love with Harry. I WAS WRONG. VERY WRONG. HBP threw me for a loop. I especially did not see Harry/Ginny coming.

So... I lost interest and wandered out of fandom, pretty much. Though clearly the movies were done with the sole purpose of TAUNTING ME. *shakes fist*

I'mma go ahead and defend Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione in the books. They're not Great Epic Romances, they're subplots that are primarily dealt with for the sake of humour, and that's one of the things I liked about Harry Potter, romance was never on the forefront, it was more about epic BFF shenangians. I'm... gonna stop. I never got into shipwars while reading Harry Potter, I should probably not start now. I think the issue is that the ships are one of the things whre JKR was very upfront about it all the time, and since in basically every other aspect of the books she keeps throwing in plot twists, I guess people expected it to be more complicated than it was.

Also, H/G in this movie WAS terrible, the books were not so... ....weird. Like.. why did she tie his shoe, what kind of weird foreplay is that, idek.

In the book there' san epic battle at Hogwarts at the end. In the movie they just kind of kill Dumbledore and knock over some plates.

HBP wasn't my very favourite but it was up there. I remember thinking it was really funny.

The book, anyway. The movie was interesting the first time but probably not the second.

Edited 2009-12-14 16:27 (UTC)

Ooh, you pretty much said what I wanted to, so now I don't have to respond with an essay for Michelle! XD

So... DITTO.

HIGH-FIVE.

Yeah, I dunno, I've always felt like the problem ended up being what you read the books for. I'm not really inclined to ship things in the first place, so I didn't really care who ended up with whom, though I suspected H/G and R/Hr for a while. But the people who were really invested in the ships wound up being disappointed that they mostly only got cursory mentions in canon. I was mostly too busy being like OOO WHAT ARE THE OTHER HORCRUXES?!?! to notice.

I sort of liked the movie, in the sense that it was better than the book in its nothing really happening aspect. I think it bothers me less in the movie that the plot kind of stalls in this movie/book, because the book was just...nothing. Admittedly, I read the book exactly once because afterward I was like...wait, sure I was shocked by the ending, but most of it is horribly out of character and what's more, they're OOC while *nothing happens*.

I think the book shenanigans went better in the book but my memory is kind of clouded on the issue.

The ships...oh the ships.
The movies have consistently shown me that Harry and Hermione are way better suited for each other than Ginny and Ron.

The movies have taken that fact, that was clear to me in the books, and amped it up to MORE OBVIOUS. I never really got the canon ships in the books in fact they ticked lots of my ANTI-ship buttons while H/Hr just rolled on being more or less perfect for each other. And then the movies, especially this movie which is supposed to be the turning point in the canon ships, gave the canon ships...nothing.

They really do feel like high school crushes, or people that try to be together because they somewhere along the way decided they should date their significant other but with no basis for a good relationship.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

I was always more interested in the MWPP generation, so my responses to the books were like "OMG SIRIUS AND JAMES WERE JERKS. BEST THING EVER." (Sort of like my response to Crazy!Ten, really.)

Mostly I was in it for the plot, though. So while I thought Ron and Hermione were pretty believable and Harry and Ginny were a bit off, I mostly didn't mind.

My sister was a hilariously crazy Ron/Hermione shipper. To this day, this still brings the lulz, because BOY CAN SHE RANT when we watch the movies.

By the time JKR got to the 6th book, you could see her straining at the seams, slightly. I liked books 1-5 (though I'll admit to not being especially fond of books 2 and 4), but found the 6th book a massive disappointment.

I don't tend to pay much attention to the movies, honestly. The only movie version I was fond of was Prisoner of Azkaban, and that was because Thewlis made such an awesome Lupin. xD *Has a vague crush on Lupin*.

Book 6, though... was truly terrible, and book 7 just bored the crap out of me, and intensely pissed me off at the end where JK pretty much kills off nearly everyone Harry cares about, and then gives us a bad "happy ever after" epilogue that reads like a bad fanfiction. -.-

Oh, the books are so much better than the films. I watch the films just because, well, it's Harry Potter, but I've yet to properly enjoy one. Most of the characters are totally wrong, or one-layered, and relationships aren't built. Particularly the interaction and building friendship between Harry and Dumbledore was really special in the books, and the Harry/Ginny was a lot more believable. I always got the impression that the makers of the films really don't know the books well enough. Major flaw.

I could rant about this for hours, but I won't. XD

I wonder if the seventh (eighth?) film will keep in the bit about Ron and Hermione's daughter being named Rose.

Was nice of her to put that in at the last minute for me. But I suppose I did stop some Fluripdians from eating her computer.

I was always more interested in the MWPP generation, so my responses to the books were like "OMG SIRIUS AND JAMES WERE JERKS. BEST THING EVER." (Sort of like my response to Crazy!Ten, really.)

LIRL THAT WAS EXACTLY ME AS WELL.

Yeah me too. I was not really that bothered by who got it on with whom. I think the only ship that boggled me was Remus/Tonks in HBP and it never made any more sense, ever.

LOL Liz is like that.

I think this post needs more D/R.

Look, wee baby Ten with Rose:

Granted, I haven't watched it since the theater. And I'm a rabid Snape fangirl, so more Snape=good in my opinion.

1. In the book it's much, much more important who Snape is. It's kind of a mystery and a treasure hunt all at once. And then it means something at the end. But since it all got cut in the movie and relied entirely on Alan Rickman's delivery, it seemed VERY STRANGE.

I would have LOVED a mystery and a treasure hunt! As it is, the whole Half Blood Prince thing seemed extremely pointless.

2. The last time there was a book with extra writing in it, it tried to kill all the half-bloods and nearly killed Ginny (which is why she especially was freaked out).

Yeah, I guess that was it. But I got old books with writing in them all the time in school. It just didn't seem that ominous. It was helpful! :D

and I am not sure why the screenwriter thinks he has the right to do this.

Very weird.

These movies invariably let me down because they don't tell enough of the story. Goblet of Fire, for example, was a massive conspiracy and set up nearly everything that was to come...but in the movie it was about a dance and a sporting event. Prisoner of Azkaban might be one of my least favourite movies of all time because so much got cut (and there were too many fade to blacks). In the case of Half Blood Prince, however, I could fill in enough of the gaps myself, having read the books, and it didn't bother me so much. But every since the Travesty that Was Prince Caspian, I've made it a point to not think about movies too much.

Not having read the books, I had the opposite problem. I didn't miss any other plots going on in the books, because there was an entertaining basic plot in the movie. But HBP really didn't have a simple plot (like the search for something, or a tournament), and I couldn't fill in any gaps.

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