Hal ... I think HBP is a very enjoyable
film but a disappointing
adaptation. (Whereas I think PoA is both an excellent film and an excellent adaptation.)
What made HBP a good experience in the cinema:
-- The Draco subplot was handled excellently.
-- Jim Broadbent's Slughorn was one of the best adult character parts in any of the HP films. Horace is a fun character in the books, and a well drawn one too (if a bit creepy, with his penchant for collecting talented boys and girls), but Broadbent is an awesome actor and I loved his subtle, nuanced portrayal of Horace and his flaws.
-- Lovely bit of Lily foreshadowing, with the fish story.
-- Lavender was a riot!
-- So was Cormac.
-- Nice, poignant acting from Emma.
-- Loved Harry getting high on Felix Felicis.
-- Snape brooding.
-- The cave scene with Dumbledore and Harry was really very moving. Gambon rocks.
What made it a poor adaptation
-- Far too much is left unexplained.
-- Snape's storyline has been diluted (although Rickman, of course, is awesome, and conveys hidden depths). All the same: the missing note is the Harry/Snape hate, and as a Snape fan, I think that's a shame. I did like the subtle foreshadowings about Snape's true feelings in the film (probably only discernible to those of us who know the story) but Yates missed the chance to go full throttle at the end, when Harry was chasing Snape and Snape goes ballistic on him (and also tries to teach him a few DADA moves
).
-- The Burrows attack scene was shoehorned in rather clumsily and had no consequences of any note in the rest of the film narrative, so the point of it was ... what?
halplm wrote:As with PoA, there is very little of the "essential" parts of the book left out. I find the "felix" portion of the film to be adequate, although the abbreviated Harry/Ginny aspect was kind of sad.
Book Ginny can get on my nerves, but Bonnie Wright is a bit wooden.
The most interesting aspect I found on multiple viewings was the fact that it seems apparent that several of the child actors/actresses cast for the various films have not really developed their acting skills. At times, Ginny has felt really flat in this film.
Yes, I agree. She did.
At this point, the most intriguing point I'm interested in seeing is if they can pull off the ending of the 7th book, and particularly the epilogue, which is quite possibly my favorite part of the last book...
The Epilogue is controversial in the fandom!
Many fans dislike it, and not just because they're disappointed Harry/Draco shippers.
Personally, I think it's one of the worst-written bits of the entire saga. It just sounds so ... fanficcy. I could write a whole post on how I think it could have been so much better. The saving graces for me were Draco's curt nod to Harry (whatever that means) and little Albus Severus.
Sam's wistful, yearning "Well, I'm back" at the end of LotR speaks volumes. "All was well" somehow doesn't quite ring the same.
Rowling originally was going to write the last line of the book along the lines of "And only those who loved him noticed the lightning-shaped scar" or something like that, and I thought that was much better.
Also: I want to know who went back for Snape's body in the Shack.
"Frodo undertook his quest out of love - to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could ... "
Letter no. 246, The Collected Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
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One of them even opines that 'they don't regard it as a Harry Potter film at all.' 
