Aunque todavía nos queda bastante para ver las nuevas aventuras de Harry Potter en la gran pantalla, con este poster promocional que han lanzado de la séptima película nos dan los argumentos necesarios para seguir ansiando que llegue ya el día escogido.

Con tres simples frases nos resumen lo que podría contemplar como el argumento principal de la película “One way, one fate, one hero” (Un camino, un destino, un héroe). Y es que los que hayáis leído los libros sabéis por dónde van los derroteros, pero quedaros sobre todo con “UN HEROE”… ¿qué sucederá al final?

Avisar a todos que el último libro de la saga llamado “Harry Potter y las Reliquias de la Muerte” finalmente se ha dividido en lo que serán dos adaptaciones al cine. Se ha hecho de esta manera para evitar la eliminación de aspectos importantes de la trama por lo que tendremos “Harry Potter y las Reliquias de la Muerte, Parte I” para el día 19 de noviembre de 2010 y “Harry Potter y las Reliquias de la Muerte, Parte II” para el 15 de julio de 2011. Algo que aunque suena a seguir estirando el tirón que tiene Harry Potter en el cine, viene muy bien ya que del último libro no pueden saltarse nada de importancia, ya que podrían cargarse el final.

Como sinopsis general (spoilers) a Harry se le impone la tarea de encontrar y destruir todos los horrocruxes para acabar con Lord Voldemort. Emprenderá un viaje, junto con Ron y Hermione, por toda Inglaterra para hallar los objetos que contienen fragmentos del alma del Señor Tenebroso. Pero las cosas se empezaran a complicar ya que cada minuto que pasa éste se hace más y más poderoso.

El argumento se ve emocionante pero solo espero que no hagan tan malos resúmenes como en las dos últimas películas donde la trama principal quedo a un lado por los “amoríos” de los jóvenes protagonistas. ¿Quién tiene ganas de verla? Yo sí.

Scott MacKay, of RI’s local NPR station, WRNI, has opened his mouth, and a great truth has come out:

There probably isn’t another major institution in this state whose all-male, unmarried hierarchy has as little understanding of the actual day-to-day lives of women as the Catholic Church.

MacKay wrote this with respect to the verbal fisticuffs between Rep Patrick Kennedy and Lord Voldemort Bishop Thomas Tobin. Kennedy and Tobin locked proverbial horns over universal and health care – Kennedy being pro-women and their right to safe surgical procedures; to which, Tobin said:

“Kennedy continues to be a disappointment to the Catholic Church and to the citizens of Rhode Island.”

Ask around, Tommy. You’re the disappointment.

I was surfing around wordpress and searched ‘harry potter vs. twilight’, I got about a dozen posts and tired of hearing people, including myself, blabbering about who’s better.

So, to make it easier for all of us, why not just vote about through review and see who’s best!

Characters: [based on their role or personality in the books]
1. Harry James Potter vs. Edward Anthony Masen Cullen

2. Ginevra Molly “Ginny” Weasley vs. Isabella “Bella” Marie Swan

3. Ronald Billus “Ron” Weasley vs. Jacob Black

4. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore vs. Carlisle Cullen

5. Minerva McGonagall vs. Esme Anne Platt Evenson Cullen

6. Hermione Granger vs. Mary Alice Brandon Cullen

7. Pansy Parkinson vs. Rosalie Lilian Hale

8. Cedric Diggory vs. Mike Newton

9. Neville Longbottom vs. Eric Yorkie

10. Lord Voldemort vs. Aro Volturi

11. Lucius Malfoy vs. Caius Volturi

12. Severus Snape vs. Marcus Volturi

13. The Next HP Generation [James Sirius, Albus Severus, Rose, Hugo, Scorpius, Ted Remus, etc.] vs. Renesmee “Nessie” Carlie Cullen

14. The Blacks vs. The Cullens

15. Death Eaters vs. The Volturi

16. Dumbledore’s Army vs. The La Push Pack

Locations:
1. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry vs. Forks High School

2. Malfoy Manor vs. Cullens Residence

Covers:
Harry Potter Series

Twilight Saga

Authors:
J. K. Rowling vs. Stephenie Meyer

Vote through review!

Carry my soul into the night
May the stars light my way
I glory in the sight
As darkness takes the day

Sing a song, a song of life
Lived without regret
Tell the ones, the ones I loved
I never will forget
Never will forget

Election 2010, Health Care Reform and Karl Rove.

2010 Election

Are they all connected some how? Yes… Did you ever know Karl Rove not to be thinking of the next election? He plans ahead. Democrats could learn more about that.

Too bad Karl’s mind appears mostly to be on one  track. It’s the ends…the ends…the ends. The means, well, it seems Karl may care little about the moral consequences of that part. He’s so Machiavellian. I guess he’s proud of that and the Science of Dirty Tricks. Unfortunately, everyone loses in the end when it’s only about dirty tricks and getting elected at all costs.

My husband told me he’s tired of hearing about Karl Rove. Today he said I should refer to Rove as, “the one who shall not be mentioned–at least for 24 hours.” I’m not sure I can do it. You see, I think elections and Karl Rove are so interconnected that it is like velcro–very sticky.

Who is Being Obstructionist Now?  Are the Republicans going to just oppose everything that President Obama proposes because they are focused on 2010 and nothing else? Is that what you want from elected officials? Whatever happened to making this a better country for all people?

Fight back with positive action. Your action. Call your Congressmen and tell them you want meaningful health care reform. Stop the negative tactics perpetrated by Fox News. They want to divide this country and confuse people. Be aware of underhanded Dirty Tricks and educate your friends about them. Most of all, get involved. Remember, you can make a positive difference.

Karl hints about how he learned so much from his days in College Republicans.

I first learned about Rove and the now infamous Ozarks election where he eventually became chairman of the College Republicans from The New Yorker article  The Controller by Nicholas Lemann published May 12, 2003. In that article Rove kept changing the rules of the College Republicans election so he could win. Did “the one who shall not be mentioned” make a habit of changing the rules of elections throughout his career without informing the other side?

Even Karl refers to himself as “You-Know-Who” according to a recent article by Scott Horton in Harper’s Magazine.

Rove calls himself “Grendel,” “Moby Dick,” and “Lord Voldemort.” from “Karl Rove’s Convenient Memory Lapses,” by Scott Horton (Harper’s Magazine)

Here’s a flashback into how Karl began his political career changing the rules of elections by his little ol’ self in 1973 when he ran for chairman of the College Republicans:

The national convention was in June, in the mountain resort of Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. All through the late spring, Edgeworth and Dolan were hearing stories about the Rove forces staging credentials challenges at state and regional conventions, using some technical pretext. Shortly after the Midwest regional convention, for example, according to Edgeworth, the Rove forces, in order to justify the unseating of the Edgeworth delegates on procedural grounds, produced a version of the Midwestern College Republicans’ constitution which differed significantly from the constitution that the Edgeworth forces were using. The net result of all the challenges was that a number of states sent two competing delegates to Lake of the Ozarks, one pledged to Edgeworth, the other to Rove, each claiming to be legitimate. Then the meeting of the credentials committee, before the convention itself, turned into a donnybrook…

…During the summer of 1973, while Bush’s staff was conducting an inquiry into the Lake of the Ozarks affair, Terry Dolan, promoting the Edgeworth cause, leaked to the Washington Post a tape recording in which Rove and another College Republican are heard recounting at a training weekend some amusing stories about minor campaign espionage they had engaged in during various campaigns. The Post published a story about the tape under the headline “GOP PROBES OFFICIAL AS TEACHER OF TRICKS.”

…As if all this weren’t enough, people in politics love to speculate that Rove is up to much more than is apparent. In the same way that prophetic fundamentalists are always on the lookout for emblazonings of the number 666, the Mark of the Beast, in Washington everybody is highly attuned to the possibility that most of what goes on bears the Mark of Karl Rove. There are many cases where Rove is suspected of having engineered a brutal bit of political business without leaving any fingerprints, in the manner of the Lake of the Ozarks affair.

from “The Controller,” by Nicholas Lemann, May 2003, The New Yorker.

The Health Care Reform Factor in 2010

OK.  This is the chance for all Americans to finally have an effective, fair health care policy that provides quality health care at reasonable cost. What would the best Health Care Reform act include:

• Elimination of the pre-existing condition screen used now by insurance companies to throw people off of their health care plans
• Closing the donut hole of the prescription drug plans for seniors
• Expand Medicare to focus on things that help people prevent illness and catch problems early by including regular annual exams
• Provide a public option to compete effectively in the market place with current insurance companies in order to bring down costs overall

In order to achieve an effective Health Care Reform Act, President Obama needs to bring his message directly to the American people in a fireside chat similar to the fireside radio chats started by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. President Obama  should clearly explain the type of program he thinks would be best for all Americans through a TV chat and simultaneous internet broadcast.

President John F. Kennedy delivered a televised speech from Madison Square Garden in 1962 about the need for Health Care Reform in America. President Kennedy said that night why he was in New York City to give a major speech on the health care crisis in America and the important need to pass a Health Care Program in the United States:

“What we are now talking about doing, most of the countries of Europe did years ago!”

“The British did it 30 years ago and we are behind every country pretty nearly in Europe in this matter of medical care for our citizens.”

“The business of government is the business of the people and the people are right here.”

President John F. Kennedy Delivers Live Speech at Madison Square Garden in 1962 about Why Americans Should Support Health Care Reform Part 1

President John F. Kennedy Delivers Live Speech at Madison Square Garden in 1962 about Why Americans Should Support Health Care Reform Part 2

Karl Rove is worried.  He knows that if President Obama passes an effective Health Care Reform Act, Americans will be happy. That’s why an article in the Weekly Standard claims that Rove’s approach might be to:

“Scare the hell out of the Amerian people and run against the health care reform in 2010 and 2012.”

Rove is partly for Health Care Reform on the issues Republicans already agree on because their focus groups told them they would lose elections in 2010 if they weren’t for these things – like eliminating the pre-existing condition screen used by insurance companies to throw people off of their health care plans. However, the spin doctors on Fox and Rush Limbaugh are confusing our poor seniors scaring them into thinking the socialists will be taking over America if other changes are made.

When President Theodore Roosevelt passed Social Security in 1935 as part of the New Deal, some naysayers thought the sky was falling. Medicare was passed in 1965 under President Lyndon Johnson. Yet, we see misinformed seniors yelling at Town Hall Meetings, “Stay out of my Medicare.  I don’t want the government messing with my medicare!”  These poor people do not realize that Medicare is every bit a government program, and it allows seniors to have their own choice of doctors!

President John F. Kennedy gave a Special Message to Congress on National Health Needs on February 27, 1962.  In his concluding remarks he said:

Good health is a prerequisite to the enjoyment of “pursuit of happiness.” Whenever the miracles of modern medicine are beyond the reach of any group of Americans, for whatever reason–economic, geographic, occupational or other–we must find a way to meet their needs and fulfill their hopes. For one true measure of a nation is its success in fulfilling the promise of a better life for each of its members. Let this be the measure of our nation.

It’s time to stop the Dirty Tricks and provide truthful information to seniors and others about the benefits of Health Care Reform.

HEALTH CARE REFORM SONGS TO SING ALONG WITH

Healthcare Reform Song

Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wrigth) y Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), en una escena del filme

Las relaciones entre la novela y el cine datan de los inicios del séptimo arte; tempranamente el relato escrito se adaptó a la narración cinematográfica. Las primeras novelas que se adaptaron lo fueron en fechas muy tempranas como 1902, camino que continúa hasta el día del hoy.

“Harry Potter” pertenece a lo que se entiende como “Literatura juvenil”, tipo de escritura que se define por su público meta, por su producción seriada y que se inscriben en el género de aventuras y tienen como estilo narrativo el misterio. En tal sentido, sus referencias más cercanas son “Sandokán, el aventurero”, “Sherlock Holmes”, “Las crónicas de Narnia” y “El señor de los anillos”, llevadas también a las salas de cine.

Pero las novelas en que el cine aprendiz de brujo enfrenta a los poderes de la magia negra han sido las de mayor éxito en ventas, tanto en papel como en celuloide, todo fenómeno de la industria productora de contenido multimedia.

La heptalogía

“Harry Potter” conforma una heptalogía, son siete novelas, de las cuales seis se adaptaron al cine. Presenta un universo paralelo posible, que coexiste con el mundo “real”. Si bien es cierto que las novelas están concebidas como historias autónomas, tienen también una evolución general, la cual coincide con el desarrollo físico de los personajes: los que ayer eran niños, hoy son adolescentes. El argumento que mueve todo el andamiaje narrativo de la serie en la potencialidad que tiene Harry de destruir a Lord Voldemort, mago pasado a las fuerzas del mal y asesino de sus padres, que busca el modo de destruir tal amenaza.

Las pócimas del príncipe

Gracias a la lectura de un manual avanzado de pócimas y brebajes, propiedad de un antiguo estudiante, Harry se convierte en un alumno estrella de un nuevo profesor del Colegio Hogwarts de Magia y Hechicería, pieza clave para conocer el pasado de Lord Voldemort.

En las anteriores películas el tema principal fueron las batallas de Harry contra sus antagonistas, sin embargo, en esta película en particular, tal argumento compite con un sub trama, el surgimiento del amor romántico entre el grupo de aspirantes a brujos y brujas. Si bien la historia contiene un nuevo ataque de Voldemort a Albus Dumbledore, mentor de Harry, el espectador se entretiene más con los ya conocidos duelos de varita mágica. Esto deja al filme con su eje narrativo principal casi en un segundo plano y se tiene la sensación de ver una historia puente, a ser terminada en la posterior y final entrega.

El detective Harry

En los anteriores relatos, Harry era casi una víctima de la s circunstancias y de las tramas de sus oponentes, esta vez el guión lo convierte en detective. Desde el primer momento espía a Draco Malfoy, su rival en los estudios de magia, y sufre las consecuencias de ello.

Ahora trabaja para su maestro y sus tareas van desde conocer los recuerdos de sus oponentes hasta el espionaje. Esto marca un cambio importante en la imagen del héroe, ya no es el niño cuya inocencia y talento vencían los hechizos; la adolescencia le trae nuevos conocimientos, una enamorada e ingratos momentos. El joven Daniel Radcliffe consigue una de sus mejores actuaciones de la seria con su personaje, se le ve evidentemente más maduro y decidido a demostrar su talento interpretativo con mayores matices.

Pocas novedades

Fuera de los cambios hormonales en los personajes, poco de nuevo que trae este capítulo. Algunos efectos especiales interesantes, pero nada que se aleje de lo ya visto. La extención del relato además conspira en contra del resultado narrativo final, son demasiadas las vueltas que dan los personajes para que avance la historia.

El crecimiento del protagonista y sus amistades en este filme deja bastantes nudos a desatar en la próxima película, la cual sin duda contará con el mismo éxito de público. Recomendable para los incondicionales de J.K. Rowling y sus seguidores, que prefieren ver la película a leer la novela.

• FICHA TÉCNICA:

TOP 10

1 White Witch (The Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis – 1950)

2 Captain Hook (Peter Pan – JM Barrie – 1904)

3 The Grand High Witch (The Witches – Roald Dahl – 1983)

4 Wicked Stepmother (Snow White – Brothers Grimm – 1810)

5 Cruella De Vil (The Hundred and One Dalmatians – Dodie Smith – 1956)

6 Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter serisi – JK Rowling – 1997)

7 The Child Catcher (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Ian Fleming – 1968 yılındaki filminden alınmamış. Orjinal kitabından.)

8 Miss Trunchbull (Matilda – Roald Dahl – 1988)

9 The Wolf (Red Riding Hood – Brothers Grimm – 1810)

10 Long John Silver (Treasure Island – Robert Louis Stevenson – 1883)

I realized I could write during an English class I took my first semester of college. A published author and UNC Creative Writing Professor, Marianne Gingher, spoke to our class about her experiences as an author. She wrote a book of short stories that, surprisingly, was hilarious.

When my professor originally assigned it, I didn’t even bother picking up the book; it looked stupid. However, after her visit to our class, I wandered back to my dorm room and decided to give Adventures in Pen Land a shot after all.

During her visit, she stressed that something remarkable doesn’t need to happen to someone in order for him or her to have adequate writing material floating around in his or her seemingly unexciting life. However, as I began to try and think about what I could scrape out of my own experiences, I eventually became aware of the fact that, despite Gingher’s claims, my life really was too boring to write about. Want to hear about my day? I woke up, walked to class, facebook-ed for an hour, walked to my second class, looked up random things on Wikipedia for another hour, walked to lunch, ate a painfully boring sandwich, walked to my room and fell asleep. When I woke up I went to dinner (sandwich #2, wahoo) and then went over to my friend’s room to watch “The Office.” After that we got on an empty bus and rode to a fraternity party consisting of eight people. Yes, eight. After a few hours, I took the bus back to my dorm, went to bed, and awaited this cycle of unyielding excitement to continue yet again. I’m honestly surprised a famous filmmaker hasn’t snatched up the rights to my life story and started work on Hollywood’s next big blockbuster. I mean, I did ride the bus twice the other day. I can’t imagine anything more exciting.

But then I remembered how skeptical I always am when books or movies are ‘based’ on a true story. After years of watching movie makers obliterate the plots of countless books (most recently My Sister’s Keeper and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), I realized that the true stories some movies are based on are probably equally as defaced during the filmmaking process. I resolved that I would use my own experiences as the ‘true story’ I would blight, ruin, and build upon to create something actually worth reading.

Here is an example using my previously vapid morning:

The alarm sang to the tune of “Here Come the Sun” by the Beatles for about ten minutes before I distinguished it as an alarm buzzing and not music coming from the clouds as I dreamed of battling Lord Voldemort. I grudgingly left Hogwarts and flung my hand on top of the annoying clock. I hate waking up. Every single day is a new struggle; I feel like nothing in the awaiting day could possibly be worth the pain of crawling from beneath my covers and out of my bed. After a very serious but routine internal argument with myself, I unenthusiastically crawled to the shower. After blasting myself with a random mix of hot and cold water in an attempt to awaken my lifeless body, I began my trek to class. I can’t convey how annoying I find the length of my walk to class. The fact that I have to leave my dorm to walk to class at the exact same time I used to have to leave my house during high school to drive to class annoys the shit out of me.

More of my newly renovated life to come later.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince released some days ago. What else could be a better idea to celebrate this with an article. As each series went on by Harry, the boy working as servant for his uncle and aunt in sweaty clothes grew up to be a mature and great wizard of all times apart from becoming one of the greatest characters evolved in the entire history.

1

“To the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more“.

2

It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

3

“Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory”.

4

Humans have a knack for choosing precisely the things that are worst for them.

5

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

6

I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules,” said Dumbledore. Ron opened his mouth in horror. “Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words?”

7

Harry, I owe you an explanation,” said Dumbledore. “An explanation of an old man’s mistakes. For I see now that what I have done, and not done, with regard to you, bears all the hallmarks of the failings of age. Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young…and I seem to have forgotten lately.”

8

You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.

9

It is important to fight, and fight again, and keeps fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated.

10

It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.

Harry Potter and the seven series have simply brought about great changes within me as you making life better and easier to live with great qualities and milestones to be achieved. Strive hard to get those on your life to have the happiest moments in your life!

I met Voldemort. He was no longer the Lord every wizard feared the most. Harry had taken care of that. And that is why he fled England and came to India. More specifically, to my town in Andhra, and has learnt our local language, Telugu. I don’t know what he is doing for a living though.

However, when I met him and talked to him, he was still the arrogant lad, remembering his yester years. That ticked me off and I caught his finger and bent it. He, at first, did not wince in pain. He kept talking coolly of how he was far better than the rest of the wizards and I had to remind him that Dumbledore and Harry must have made him aware, at least by now, that they knew things that he, even as Lord Voldemort did not know! And now with his more diminished form, he should not go around making tall claims. By now I had been bending his finger for quite some time and I continued to do so for few more seconds and left him.

I took few steps but couldn’t help wonder what happened to him and when I returned, there he was, crying in pain. That was the moment when I feared he was going to hurt me back. But then he did not and continued to cry. And that was the moment I realized he was broken.

I said to him, “See bro, you were great! You were really good, but you did not care for others! You thought you did not need anyone. You killed people left, right and center to get the things you wanted done-”

“They did not need me!” he interjected.

“Yes, because they were people who feared you, and loathed you and your wrath. And more than love, they were afraid what you would do to them if they did not follow your orders! It was not love and so they did not need you! Show them care and you will wonder how many of us will follow you! You can be good! Be good, and we will be your disciples!”

- x – x – x – x -

Now that I think of it, thank goodness he didn’t have his wand with him, apart from the fact that he was not on his home ground, and wasn’t even the shadow of what he once was. Else I wouldn’t have lasted a few seconds!

This, of course, by now you must have realized, was my dream.

Mmm… lo que uno encuentra cuando no tiene nada que hacer es a veces muy divertido y puede llegar a hacerte pasar un buen rato. Y como a veces las risas son lo que más falta en el mundo, decidí postear este sencillo, ingenioso, estúpido, y divertido video que me mostró mi novia (atacada de risa por cierto). Debo confesar que yo quedé igual cuando lo vi, y desde entonces lo he visto unas 100 veces. Seré estúpido, sí o muy, muy simple… pero no me importa, y si no se ríen, pinches amargados, bueno… sigan cortándose las venas, jaja. Pueden verlos en YouTube, o en www.potterpuppetpals.com, además de que planeo postear algunos más. Diviértanse y no se pierdan!!!

“Voldemort, Voldemort, Voldy, Voldy, Voldy Voldemort!!!”

You’ve probably all read this, but I’ll put it up anyway. I don’t think it needs an introduction; almost everyone on the planet has at least heard of these books, if not owned a copy. But if you’re one of the few who -hasn’t- read it, then I highly, highly, highly recommend you to buy the book, and follow Harry from start to finish.

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I. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
II. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
III. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
IV. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
V. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
VI. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
VII. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

hai freunde…
sebagia sarana refresing, aku juga akan menulois tentang apa2 saja berita ter-hot
yang sedang melanda di hollywood,, aku dapat dari berbagai sumber (web) yang valid (insya Allah) dan majalah juga teman2Q…
here it is…

yang pertama, karena yang lagi lumayan happening adalah Harry Potter 6 (harry potter and the half-blood prince)
maka saya hadirkan disini beberapa fakta dari film ini :

1. PERLU 10 KALI TAKE UNTUK MENDAPATKAN ADEGAN KISSING YANG SEMPURNA
- ya..,, setidaknya sebanyak itulah rupert grint mengulang untuk adegan kissing Ron-Lavender.
“sangat memalukan. kami berdua sangat gugup dan sutradara David yates mengarahkan dengan baik sekali.
dia cuma mengulang adegan itu sebanyak 10 kali” kata rupert =P
parahnya, rupert dan jessie cave (lavender) melakukan adegan itu dalam ruangan penuh orang.
“mereka nonton sambil heboh” kata rupert lagi sambil senyum ngenes. oya, adegan yang lumayan sukar dan menegangkan ini,,
di lakukan bahkan pada hari ke-3 si Lavender syuting, bayangin aja.., blom apa2 udah dapet adegan ciuman!?

2. DI LOKASI SYUTING HARRY POTTER ADA 2 DAN,EMMA,RUPERT !?
- hal yang pertama kali bikin kamu tercengang saat berkeliling lokasi syuting harry potter (semoga) adalah,,
semua pemeran utama punya kembaran!!! jadi, (dan, emma, rupert) punya stand-in (pemeran pengganti) yang secara fisik super mirip sama mereka =D
bahkan, pemain2 itu pakai kostum yang sama dengan mereka (kembaran). lucunya, banyak kru yang terkecoh karena kemiripan mereka hehehe…
“it’s weird” gumam rupert…”mereka bahkan duduk bareng saat makan siang!” ungkap emma…
perbedaannya cuma dari faktor usia, pemeran utama emma udah umur 24 lebih …

3. RUPERT GAK JUALAN ESKRIM DALAM WAKTU DEKAT
- hal lain dari rupert adalah dia benar2 tergila2 dengan eskrim, terutama mobil penjual eskrim!
dia bahkan punya 1, buatan tahun 1970. tapi kalian jangan terlalu berharap selesai harry potter rupert bakal jualan eskrim keliling hollywood yow…
“urusannya agak ribet, kamu harus ngurus berbagai izin Dep.Kes untuk bisa jualan eskrim” ucapnya.

4. KAMAR GANTI MASING2 PEMAIN
- ada benda apa saja di masing2 trailler mereka?
dikamar rupert ada dart, bilyard, tenis meja, dan game2 console.
ruangan dan penuh dengan CD2 music dan buku.
sedang ditempat emma ada lukisan mural, buatan emma sendiri, katanya lukisan itu ia buat waktu bosan di lokasi syuting!?
dan kalau gak gitu, kamarnya bakal penuh lilin2 hias dan benda2 girlish…

5. DAN DAN RUPERT KALAH TELAK TENIS MEJA LAWAN EMMA
- nah, berita yang satu ini bener2 banyak dibicarain dimana2…
ada di teen, popstar, web yang tak bisa kusebutkan.., dan mungkin beberapa majalah lainnya…
jadi … dan dan rupert, hobi main tenis meja, pingpong…kalo lagi break…
tapi kesenangan mereka sirna kalau emma gabung dan berhasil mengalahkan keduanya =P
saat itu, mereka lagi main bareng “it’s irritating that emma is so good…” rupert dan aku sudah main tenis meja selama 8 bulan lebih bergantian menang atau kalah…
suatu hari emma muncul dan permainannya keren abis. nggak satupun aku atau rupert bisa menang lawan emma. sekarang permainanku sudah lebih baik, tapi aku nggak punya rencana main lawan emma.
singap dan. hehehe..,, takut kalah lagi kali ya?!?

6. BONNIE WRIGHT IS SMOKER
- yepz, bonni adalah seorang perokok…(radcliffe juga)
dia (bonnie) beberapa kali tertangkap kamera sedang merokok.
beberapa fotonya yang merokok pun sudah beredar diinternet.
seperti ini :

sayangnya,, binnie gak mau berkomentar atas kebiasaannya itu…

7. DANIEL RADCLIFFE IS AN ATHEIST
“i’m an atheist, but i’m very relaxed about it”
gitu katanya daniel radcliffe … for your info, artis laen cowok yang terkenal dan juga atheis adalah pemain narnia, skandar keynes.
hmmh…, kata itu kukutip dari majalah esquire, majalah yang biasanya bercover hitam-putih itu mengungakap sisi lain Dan dan kedekatannya dengan emma.
cover kali ini (edisi khusus kali ini) dibuat agak sephia, dan bergambar daniel radcliffe rapi dengan jas dengan make-up seolah habis ditonjok pada mata kanan..
juga efek mmimisan dihidungnya yang bikin super dramatis =)
ini dia gambarnya :

lain2 dapat kalian baca di harrypotterandthehalfbloodprince.com atau googling aja =)

I finally saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I meant to see it opening day, but I spaced out, and then I moved to a new apartment so I really didn’t have the money to spare, and I finally got around to seeing it yesterday. It was, in a word, disappointing. This review contains spoilers. Duh. I don’t know if I’d rather have seen it opening day, if the Potter-mania and hype would have created a social atmosphere that would make the movie seem less blah, but maybe it would only have heightened my disappointment.  I will say that, as always, the special effects are brilliant, but the humanity that separates the Harry Potter series from other flashy SFX-driven action films was missing.  I’d say that was mostly a result of the barebones script – trying to condense a complex book into a two and a half hour movie is difficult enough, taking up a third of the time with dialogue-less special effects makes it impossible. The best performances came from the three teenage leads – Daniel Radcilffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione), and Rupert Grint (Ron) – as usual they were spot on in their characters.  Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) seemed dazed throughout the entire movie, his performance seemed rote and emotionless.  His best performance was in the cave scene, though even that had its flaws, and his final line, “Severus, please,” was offered with a lack of emotion better suited to asking Snape to pass the salt.  Alan Rickman (Snape) gave an excellent performance, given the limited script he had to work with.  His facial expressions said more than his dialogue, which seemed stilted to me, because the dry affected arrogance of his tone came off forced when condensed to one-line quips.  I don’t think he said more than two sentences in a row the entire movie. Jim Broadbent gave a great performance as Horace Slughorn, capturing the sycophantic arrogance of the character perfectly.  I’d say one of my favorite scenes was when he and Hagrid, two polar opposites, sang wizard drinking songs together to mourn Aragog.  Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) wore his emotions on his face the entire movie, which lessened the impact of his final scene, but he did that scene well enough to make up for it. There was a lot of online fuss made over the casting of Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy.  I can see where the complaints were coming from – she looks more like a middle-class housewife than a cold beauty – but her performance well made up for it.  In the books, Mrs. Malfoy goes from being an arrogant aristocrat to a protective mother who would sacrifice anything to save her family, particularly her son.  Since this is her first screen appearance, and she had only one scene, it would have been impossible for McCrory to capture the nuances of that transformation.  She plays the Narcissa Malfoy whose husband is in Azkaban, whose son has been chosen to complete a task that will most likely kill him, and who is more concerned with her family than notions of “blood-purity.” As far as the scenes in the movie, they seemed random and disjointed.  I wonder what someone seeing this movie who hasn’t read the books would have thought of it.  The scenes with Draco and the Vanishing Cabinet barely made sense even after they were explained, and there was SO MUCH PLOT missing from this movie, that I don’t know how they’re going to make the Deathly Hallows make sense. Far too much time was spent on the “Ron-Lavender-Hermione” love triangle.  I mean come on.  At first, I was annoyed at the scene of Hermione crying that Ron was dating someone, then I remembered she was a socially awkward bookworm, so it kinda made sense, then I remembered she went to the Triwizard Ball with Viktor Krum and I got annoyed again.  And Ginny tying Harry’s shoelace? What. Was. That?  This is supposed to be the darkest, grittiest installment of the series so far and they turned it into a cutesy teen-love flick? Five things left out that are far more crucial to the plot than “Won-Won”:

• Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Sr.
• Harry inherits the Black family home. And Kreacher.
• Snape finally snapping (“Don’t call me coward”) after killing Dumbledore.  That could have been such a powerful scene, Snape carried out Dumbledore’s wishes and Harry, the embodiment of James and the boy he’s sworn to protect, calls him a coward for it.
• Dumbledore showing the Hepzibah Smith memory and explaining to Harry what sort of items the Horcruxes are so he knows what to look for in Deathly Hallows.
• Harry being paralyzed under the invisibility cloak when Dumbledore is killed.  Having Snape go “shhhh” when he could capture Harry and bring him to Voldemort kinda gives away the ending of the series, y’know?

I am so glad that Deathly Hallows is going to be split up into two separate movies.  I really wish the producers had done the same for this one, or at least added another hour or so of footage, because this movie is supposed to contain so many crucial scenes that lead up to the series resolution.  In comparison to the preceding movies, this one falls flat.

I finally saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I meant to see it opening day, but I spaced out, and then I moved to a new apartment so I really didn’t have the money to spare, and I finally got around to seeing it yesterday. It was, in a word, disappointing.

This review contains spoilers. Duh.

I don’t know if I’d rather have seen it opening day, if the Potter-mania and hype would have created a social atmosphere that would make the movie seem less blah, but maybe it would only have heightened my disappointment.  I will say that, as always, the special effects are brilliant, but the humanity that separates the Harry Potter series from other flashy SFX-driven action films was missing.  I’d say that was mostly a result of the barebones script – trying to condense a complex book into a two and a half hour movie is difficult enough, taking up a third of the time with dialogue-less special effects makes it impossible.

The best performances came from the three teenage leads – Daniel Radcilffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione), and Rupert Grint (Ron) – as usual they were spot on in their characters.  Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) seemed dazed throughout the entire movie, his performance seemed rote and emotionless.  His best performance was in the cave scene, though even that had its flaws, and his final line, “Severus, please,” was offered with a lack of emotion better suited to asking Snape to pass the salt.  Alan Rickman (Snape) gave an excellent performance, given the limited script he had to work with.  His facial expressions said more than his dialogue, which seemed stilted to me, because the dry affected arrogance of his tone came off forced when condensed to one-line quips.  I don’t think he said more than two sentences in a row the entire movie.

Jim Broadbent gave a great performance as Horace Slughorn, capturing the sycophantic arrogance of the character perfectly.  I’d say one of my favorite scenes was when he and Hagrid, two polar opposites, sang wizard drinking songs together to mourn Aragog.  Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) wore his emotions on his face the entire movie, which lessened the impact of his final scene, but he did that scene well enough to make up for it.

There was a lot of online fuss made over the casting of Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy.  I can see where the complaints were coming from – she looks more like a middle-class housewife than a cold beauty – but her performance well made up for it.  In the books, Mrs. Malfoy goes from being an arrogant aristocrat to a protective mother who would sacrifice anything to save her family, particularly her son.  Since this is her first screen appearance, and she had only one scene, it would have been impossible for McCrory to capture the nuances of that transformation.  She plays the Narcissa Malfoy whose husband is in Azkaban, whose son has been chosen to complete a task that will most likely kill him, and who is more concerned with her family than notions of “blood-purity.”

As far as the scenes in the movie, they seemed random and disjointed.  I wonder what someone seeing this movie who hasn’t read the books would have thought of it.  The scenes with Draco and the Vanishing Cabinet barely made sense even after they were explained, and there was SO MUCH PLOT missing from this movie, that I don’t know how they’re going to make the Deathly Hallows make sense.

Far too much time was spent on the “Ron-Lavender-Hermione” love triangle.  I mean come on.  At first, I was annoyed at the scene of Hermione crying that Ron was dating someone, then I remembered she was a socially awkward bookworm, so it kinda made sense, then I remembered she went to the Triwizard Ball with Viktor Krum and I got annoyed again.  And Ginny tying Harry’s shoelace? What. Was. That?  This is supposed to be the darkest, grittiest installment of the series so far and they turned it into a cutesy teen-love flick?

Five things left out that are far more crucial to the plot than “Won-Won”:

• Merope Gaunt and Tom Riddle Sr.
• Harry inherits the Black family home. And Kreacher.
• Snape finally snapping (“Don’t call me coward”) after killing Dumbledore.  That could have been such a powerful scene, Snape carried out Dumbledore’s wishes and Harry, the embodiment of James and the boy he’s sworn to protect, calls him a coward for it.
• Dumbledore showing the Hepzibah Smith memory and explaining to Harry what sort of items the Horcruxes are so he knows what to look for in Deathly Hallows.
• Harry being paralyzed under the invisibility cloak when Dumbledore is killed.  Having Snape go “shhhh” when he could capture Harry and bring him to Voldemort kinda gives away the ending of the series, y’know?

I am so glad that Deathly Hallows is going to be split up into two separate movies.  I really wish the producers had done the same for this one, or at least added another hour or so of footage, because this movie is supposed to contain so many crucial scenes that lead up to the series resolution.  In comparison to the preceding movies, this one falls flat.

Why waste time with a boy wizard when you’ve got Vanya to do your bad guy slaying?

Your scary face and card tricks are nothing compared to the awesome might of Vanya’s meat clubs

You wouldn’t need 600 movies to finish him off – just an afternoon in between mountain eating and river surfing

El bueno de Harry Potter ha sido retado por Lord Voldemort a un combate de rap a muerte, quien vencerá?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series and I would consider it one of the best books of the series. So what did I think of the movie? I really liked it. There were some creative changes made in the movie that weren’t in the book, but I thought it worked for character development and ultimately a good setup for the last movie, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, which will be split into two parts.

Synopsis via IMDB.com:
In the sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, and in both wizard and muggle worlds Lord Volemort and his henchmen are increasingly active. With vacancies to fill at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore persuades Horace Slughorn, back from retirement to become the potions teacher, while Professor Snape receives long awaited news. Harry Potter, together with Dumbledore, must face treacherous tasks to defeat his evil nemesis.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the darkest film thus far, but yet they tried to lighten the darkness with the development of relationships amongst the students of Hogwarts. I admit there are a lot of details that were left out, but the gist was there while the character development was well acted by the young ensemble cast which in turn has a good lead in to the last movie(s). Although I thought the movie was good in general, I do believe the movie suffered a little bit with the PG rating. In my opinion, if the movie were rated PG-13 rating, I think this movie could have been even better. This book was dark, ominous, and a bit scary – and I can appreciate that they tried to lighten the movie, but in my opinion the movie should have been a little more menacing. The sixth book is not all about love and relationships, although there is significant relationship development which was well adapted from the book to the movie. However, there are dark things afoot and I think the movie did not fully convey that to the audience.

What worked?
Great performances by the ensemble cast. Who knew that Bonnie Wright would grow up to play the role of Ginny Weasley so well? She was strong and subtle which was just right for the character. Kudos to Tom Felton as well for really stepping up his character of Draco Malfoy. You really see his internal conflicts. As conniving as he is, you aren’t sure if he is really sinister or not. As I said before, the character development in this film is really amazing and this book really delved into that not only for our favorite Hogwarts students but for Tom Riddle (aka Lord Voldemort) as well. Jim Broadbent was brilliant as Professor Slughorn! His performance was just right, if anything I would say he played the role more compassionately than portrayed in the book which worked for the film. There were some creative changes that I liked in particular the marsh scene, I thought it was an interesting way to build up the Harry and Ginny relationship.

What Didn’t Work?
The pacing of the film was a little lopsided. It started off great and through the middle it was still well paced, but the end was rushed a bit. There was a lack of details for certain parts of the story lines. In particular Snape being the Half-Blood Prince. No, Snape is not a real prince, but his mother’s maiden name was Prince, and she was a muggle. So we find out Snape is half muggle and half wizard, hence half-blood. Also there were a series of Snape related flashbacks that showed how he was bullied by Harry’s dad James that I thought were important to show in the movie, but for some reason it was left out. I hope this is something that is shown in the 7th movie(s), because it is actually more crucial toward the 7th book than it is for the 6th book. Also what was a little lacking were the flashbacks on the ring and the locket. They sort of touched upon it and I understand for the sake of timing that Harry touching the ring was suppose to be some sort of revealing climax but I think it really didn’t make too much sense (in the grand scheme of things) except to tell the audience that they were going to the cave.

Final Thoughts:

All in all, I still really enjoyed the film despite some shortcomings. Part of me wonders if I haven’t read the book, would I have enjoyed the film more or less? Also, I understand this film was PG…but come on…give Potter fans what they want and let Harry and Ginny kiss! On the flip side, I guess their relationship has more to build on for the 7th movies which will be interesting to watch.  “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was a solid B in my book.

While watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in a packed theater, I was repeatedly reminded of a line from Ira Levin’s play Deathtrap: “This script is so good, not even a gifted director can ruin it!” Only in this case, replace the word “script” with “J.K. Rowling’s novel.”

That’s not to say Half-Blood Prince is a bad movie — far from it. This is a very watchable, cleverly made picture, second only to Prisoner of Azkaban among the films to date. Two and a half hours never passed so quickly in a theater.

But unlike the blowsy, overwritten Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which cried out for filmic streamlining, the Half-Blood Prince novel earned its page count with storytelling muscle. Of the four behemoths looming at the end of the Potter series, Half-Blood Prince was the most tightly written and carefully plotted. It was also the book in which the mountain of seemingly random details Rowling scattered through the first five novels started to snap into place to reveal a coherent design. Any cuts were bound to do serious damage. The interesting thing is that while director Daniel Yates and Steve Kloves so often chose the wrong things to cut, the strength of Rowling’s conception — and the quality of what remained after the cutting — still puts the film over the top.

I come to praise Half-Blood Prince, not to bury it, so let me say that the film showcases some excellent choices along with the mistakes. The masterstroke was casting Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn, the errant magician who may have unintentionally given nasty young Tom Riddle the means to become monstrous Lord Voldemort. Broadbent doesn’t match Rowling’s description, but he perfectly captures the character’s blend of appealing and exasperating qualities: the heedless snobbery that underlies the outward cheer, the generosity that redeems the instinct for social climbing, the guilt that spurs the evasiveness. Slughorn is the emotional center of Half-Blood Prince, just as Severus Snape is the tragic hero of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Broadbent — who has contributed expert supporting work in everything from Time Bandits to The Crying Game — brings him off superbly.

Yates also gives the film an artful, highly distinctive look, full of desaturated colors and unexpected camera angles that had me wishing, not for the first time, that the first two movies had been directed by an artist instead of a hack. Instead of making every scene groan under the weight of special effects, Yates has an instinct for backing off and giving us palette-cleansing moments, such as a seemingly blank screen that turns out to be an immense snow-covered field with Harry and his friends reduced to black specks. Yates is currently filming the two-part adaptation of Deathly Hallows, and I’m eager to see what he does with a story that spends long stretches outside the visual confines of Hogwarts.

So what are the mistakes? Chiefly the decision to cut back the long investigation into Voldemort’s background, conducted by Harry and Albus Dumbledore with the aid of captured memories, and amp up the various teen romances, which provide some good laughs but also distract from the whole point of the series: how a troubled young man turned himself into the embodiment of evil, and how his actions in turn shaped another troubled young man into his own nemesis. The few flashbacks remaining are handled with enough creepy flair to make us wish there had been more, a lot more.

Watching Half-Blood Prince, not only did I miss the climactic battle when the death-eaters invade Hogwarts, I really missed Rowling’s grace notes and character detailing: the satiric wit of the opening chapter and Rufus Scrimgeour’s hilarious exit line; Fleur Delacor and the wonderful moment when the woman everyone has dismissed as a beautiful twit reveals her inner steel; the disturbing secrets hinted at in the cavern scene, while Dumbledore is under the influence of Voldemort’s potion. I would have gladly traded any one of them for the long, pointless action sequence in which a band of Voldemort’s Death-Eaters attack the Weasley family abode.

But the two biggest mistakes, aside from the shift of emphasis to young love instead of old evil, are the fumbled climax between Dumbledore and Snape, and the disastrous ending, which is so disorganized and scattershot that I hesitate to say the film even has a proper conclusion. Rowling’s book shows Harry coming to grips with the utter grimness of his situation and, while not completely shaking it off, at least finding the determination to go on. Yates and Kloves give us some decorative images, an appallingly out-of-place joke from Hermione, and a sense that filmmakers who can march so confidently through passages of humor and action are unqualified to handle the deeper emotional currents Rowling created for her maturing characters.

What Half-Blood Prince needs is a Sam Gamgee moment, the equivalent of the moving speech Peter Jackson and his collaborators used to knit together the plot strands of The Two Towers and point the way to the conclusion in The Return of the King. That Yates and his collaborators felt no such need goes to the heart of why the Potter movies, for all their charm and imagination, are works of high-level craftsmanship instead of genuine artistry, like The Lord of the Rings.

There’s plenty of wizardry shown on the screen in Half-Blood Prince, but the real magic of Harry Potter remains on the printed page.

Finalmente después de 5 intentos fallidos entendieron una cosa los encargados de esta saga: tratar de seguir todo el libro al pie de la letra y meter todo para satisfacer a los fans no funciona en hacer ni una película buena ni en satisfacer a dichos fans. Así que esta vez decidieron irse por algo un poco más normal, lineal y, aunque le exageraron un poco en las cosas que quitaron del final, lo que nos queda es un producto muy satisfactorio, muy entretenido que te tiene bien pegado a la pantalla sin andar buscando todo el tiempo todo los elementos y pequeños detalles del libro.

Disclaimer: cuando critico cine soy totalmente subjetivo, no soy crítico, ni estudioso… como puedo amar una película de arte o indie como puedo odiarlas, me importa primero que me divierta o entretenga o produzca un sentimiento y ya después la parte técnica y méritos artísticos y demás

Rottentomatoes.com: 84%

Michael Gambon dando cátedra

Uno pensaría que hay mucho que comentar acerca de esta película pero en realidad es más fácil justificar el porqué ir a ver una película que cuando justifico el porqué no irla a ver.

Las cosas son sencillas, como ya mencioné: decidieron no tratar de meter todo el libro y todo lo que los fans locos quieren en la obra y mejor escogieron hacer una historia un poco más lineal, enfocándose a un tema y poniendo en el final lo único que importa. Qué significa esto? en cuestión de trama que solo verás una película con mucho tinte romántico estableciendo las relaciones del futuro de los personajes, poca trama detectivesca y muy poca acción llevándote al final sorprendente que hace unos años estremeció a todos los que leyeron el libro, aunque un poco modificado y no perfecto a mi gusto.

Esto está combinado con muy buenas actuaciones,  dirección y en general un proyecto integral bien hecho que satisface a grandes chicos, fans normales y no tan fans, los únicos que repelarás bastante son los fans mas obsesivos.

Qué es lo que veras y no veras si eres fan obsesivo?

• como ya dije: la historia se centra en la subtrama romántica del libro entre los personajes principales Y SOLO los principales, las demás historias están fuera. Además la trama está un poco modificada para hacerla más obvia pues no puedes leer todo lo que pasa en una película cierto?
  
• No hay verdaderas escenas de acción, en medio hay una inventada y un poco chafa en mi opinión, y al final no hay escena de acción. esta es mi única queja real con la película, hasta el imperio contraataca tiene una pelea de lightsabers y la batalla de hoth. si no querían verse repetitivos en la batalla de hogwarts podían poner solo 5 minutitos de aurores vs mortífagos pero no eliminar totalmente la batalla que dentro de la saga presentaba la primera batalla verdaderamente de pros vs pros.
  
• Como ya es costumbre en la saga, no se adentran a fondo en el pasado de Voldemort ni en las clases y las tramas escolares ni familiares ni nada de eso. Te muestran lo extremadamente esencial del Pensieve y nada más. poco más y de plano no habría siquiera Pensieve.

Si cualquiera de estos puntos te hace rabiar muchísimo pues tons ni vayas a ver la movie porque eres fan obsesivo y te hará rabiar, si en cambio no surtió efecto entonces puedes ir a ver una cinta entretenida, que hace que el verano valga un poquito la pena entre toda la cantidad de decepciones que hubo este año. Una cinta muy bien hecha que nos abre la espera para la última parte de la saga (que estará dividida en 2 películas sabían eso?)

P.D. al fin hay un poco de quidditch de nuevo! jeje.

Deja tus comentarios aqui!

I usually go into Harry Potter movies knowing full well that I’m not going to like them as much as I like the books. That’s why I leave all criticism at the theatre door and enjoy the films without thinking too much. But reality intrudes as it always inevitably does. All of the Harry Potter movies are flawed in some ways. Some are better and some worse, but the thing is, you’re not going to “get” them if you haven’t read the books and even if you have, there’s something missing. Therein lies the problem of Harry Potter. The movies are never going to measure up to the expectations set by the books. The movies are all about money and pleasing the audience who are eager to see their favourite scenes up on screen. Sure, there are bound to be disappointments but also the occasional whoops of delight.

I have tried to avoid any spoilers in this review, but if you don’t want to know anything about the latest movie, stop reading now.

What the latest movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince did was give us a lot of  nice scenes, but not much else. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the film, but afterwards it was pretty difficult to ignore the (glaring, obvious, giant) weaknesses of the movie. According to a friend, the sixth book in the series is the only boring one. And although I don’t subscribe to that opinion myself I do understand what she means. The book mostly deals with old memories of Lord Voldemort/Tom Riddle and that is the driving force of the book. It gives us the background of Harry’s nemesis before the final, climactic battle between them in the seventh book.

Yet, in the movie, there is no driving force. We do get a few glimpses into the very important memories but the rest of the film, aside from the serious beginning and the final scenes, is devoted to a wholly different kind of movie, namely a teenage comedy with I-like-him-but does-he-like-me dialogue. I really liked watching the kids falling in and out of love, but that’s not what Harry Potter should be about. The puppy loves should not be ignored, but they are not supposed to be the most important thing either.

As already mentioned, if you haven’t read the books don’t expect to understand who The Half-Blood Prince is and why. Although the identity of the prince is revealed in the movie, it doesn’t come across as very important (the movie is called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for Pete’s sake, maybe you should’ve tried explaining? No?). Instead, the focus is somewhere else entirely. Okay, this rant makes it seem like I didn’t actually enjoy the movie. I did enjoy it, but it’s pretty difficult to ignore such huge gaps in the plot (although I have read the books). There were a few very nice scenes and the movie was as visually interesting as ever, even scary at times. It doesn’t stand on its own as a film, though, which it ought to have done.

I just hope the last two films, namely the two different parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows turn out better. I still can’t be very disappointed in Half-Blood Prince: The Movie because it has a lot of scenes with Ron Weasley, my favourite character alongside Snape.