As much as I wanted to flaunt my nerd-dom and stand in line wearing a cape last Tuesday night at midnight...the professional more serious me took hold and decided it was worth the wait & better for my sleep patterns to see it over the weekend in a more peaceful, civil environment. Cue, a Sunday matinee...the crowd spans vast age ranges...the smell of popcorn wafts throughout the theater...and the groups of friends and families that have flocked to this particular movie can barely contain themselves. Knowing what is to come (spoiler alert), I am upset that I have forgotten to bring Kleenex. My reaction to JK Rowling's book 6 is fresh on my mind. I read it a few years ago but the memory remains strong. Will the movie deliver the same intensity of emotion? I wonder.
For the record, I'm still ticked off at Warner Bros. The film was supposed to release last fall but the studio deemed that it would be a better fit for their 2009 lineup. Their reasoning? They had already made plenty of money. GOOD FOR YOU WARNER BROS. So instead you tease, taunt, and otherwise piss off tens of thousands of Harry Potter fanatics, such as myself. Why not? You know we'll still come to the movie. We won't boycott it. I think you're just mean-spirited. You released trailers. You had it on the Fall Movie Preview edition of Entertainment Weekly. You had us primed and ready for magic 8 MONTHS AGO. So I suppose I have you to thank for delving into Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series. I'll be sure to take my money over to Summit Entertainment when "New Moon" comes out. Yeah, I'm still mad at you WB. It's unconscionable that you would do that to your fans. And while I'm at it - you should have trusted that your audience can handle and appreciate the glorious and artistic eye of director of photography, Bruno Delbonnel (who's responsible for crafting the look of eye-candy gems like "Across the Universe", "Amelie", and "Paris Je T'aime"). But NOOOOO, you had to tinker with his work too and "re-treat" the footage to make it more pleasing to broader audiences (by that you mean, water it down).
Well, I have news for you, nothing you studio execs could do to Delbonnel's footage would have mucked it up. "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" is GORGEOUS...make that STUNNING! Cinematography is always an essential component to any good film but in this case with a story so chalk full of activity, it is largely responsible for setting the appropriate atmosphere as each scene unfolds. One minute you're moody and a bit sad, then you're having a good laugh, and then perhaps being creeped out a bit, and then all of the sudden you're on the edge of your seat...Delbonnel's work did a great deal of that mood-setting legwork. He in turn was bolstered by some incredible special effects and art direction. Everything was just top notch! And I haven't even started talking about the performances yet!!
In the same endearing way that the books mature and become more complex as they progress so too have the films, and now they have taken us on an incredible journey in their own right. Beloved characters Harry, Hermoine, and Ron are almost all grown up and their interests and focus have matured alongside them. The acting by our three heroes is first-rate. All those years of working with so many of Britain's top thespians has paid off in full. They've really come far and can evoke so much emotional range, front and center in this film is their comedic timing.
Overall, I thought the film was outstanding...and I don't just mean as it exists in the Harry Potter collection. Yes, I do think it's the best effort of the bunch to date but honestly, it's a terrific film on its own. It's a well-crafted, beautifully executed, great piece of filmmaking. And now, broken into two films, the final chapter awaits us to complete the film story of Harry Potter.
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