Despite all the poor reviews, I decided to go to a movie theater and watch the movie myself. The author of the book on which the movie is based wrote a very clearly understandable book, and I used to wonder how can a script-writer for the movie get anything wrong.
But at the end of painful 3 hours, I was left shocked, amazed and dismayed. Did the script-writer ever care to read the original book himself, or did he just make a movie listening to an oral summary of the story from his kids? The focus of the movie and the book were two different extremes. And in the end, it made mockery of the abilities of a great man.
The book and the movie I am talking about is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. If you haven’t yet watched the movie, better don’t go. Read the book again and you’ll utilize your 3 hours better.
If you cannot comprehend my anguish, I’ll try to put in words a few scenes from the movie.
Its a quite night, and Harry is back in the Burrows for the winter vacations. He is idly looking out of his window. Ginny climbs up the stairs in her night dress and walks up to Harry. They look into each other’s eye and she says ‘your shoe laces’. She sits down next and ties Harry shoe laces. She stands up and they kiss ! What a dumb thing. And at this time, she was supposed to be dating Dean.
And yeah, immediately after this scene there was an appearance of two death eaters, who after fooling around with the boy and his to-be girl friend burn down the Burrow. Now, I am not sure this happened in the book. I need to check this.
Funnily, totally out of context, at one point in the story, Dumbledore summons Harry and asks him if there is anything between him and Hermoine ! Now I am damn sure this was never written down by Rowling.
The whole movie was a romantic comedy. The book had lots of excursions of Harry and Dumbledore together. Dumbledore imparts a great deal of information to Harry so as to help him in his future quest. They plunge down the memories of the great warlock and see Riddle’s mother. They try and understand what Voldemorte values the most, which then later enabled them to take a blind shot as to what might be the horcruxes. But nothing of this sort ever happens in the movie.
There are only ever two pensive visits. The first was that of Dumbledore meeting the young Riddle in the orphanage. The second was the conversation between Horace and Riddle. That’s it! Could the script writer not have omitted a few smooches and inserted a few travels. The director should realize that its not a cheap crowd that watches Harry Potter movies. These lowly tricks are not required to lure people into the theaters. By her narrative Rowling has already ensured that almost everybody will watch all the movies however poorly it has been depicted on screen.
And yet I was ready to forgive the director, until the last scene atop the Astronomy tower. They literally made mockery of the Dumbledore.
Now this is what happens in the book :
A death mark is hovering above the Astronomy tower. Horrified by the presence of the mark, Dumbledore, though tired and drained, flies to the tower. Harry accompanies him in his invisibility cloak hidden. Malfoy comes up the stairs. At this point two spells are cast – one by Malfoy disarming Dumbledore, and another by Dumbledore petrifying Harry. And this was crucial.
Now this is what is shown in the movie:
Dumbledore requests Harry to go and hide behind. The coward Harry does so. Then Draco walks up to Dumbledore and disarms him. The warlock, who just an year ago was able to duel Voldemorte, and not only that, who after wards was ready to fight the aurors too, get disarmed by a young school going boy who hardly knows ten spells. Bullshit. After a few moments, Snape walks up to the place where Harry is hiding and gestures him to remain silent. Snape next clilmbs up to where Dumbledore was and kills him. All this time the apparently courageous Harry is hiding below. Harry can move, but he doesn’t. And afetr killing Dumbledore, all the Death Eaters raze through the castle and escape unchallenged.
Why ? Why ? Why ?
Why could they have not just copied Rowlings ending. There is a reason why Rowling has more money then the script-writer of the movie. People want to read what Rowling has written, and so why can’t the director just make what people want. Why does he have to use his brains? Damn it, if he cannot figure out what is important and what is not, could he not just simply ask Rowling to mark the passages that should be made into a movie? Who the hell did advise him to infest the movie with kisses and romance leaving out all the important stuffs.
It was so stupid watching the movie of a story I so dearly loved. It angers me. It pains me. And now I hear people who haven”t read the story talk about how crappy Rowling’s concept has been.
Had I been the author, I would have most certainly sued the director.
My suggestion – If you are a great fan of Harry Potter books, do not watch the movie. Its a crappy romantic piece of shit. If you haven’t read the book yet, better invest your 3 hours in reading the book than watching this sorry excuse for a movie. Once again the Harry Potter movie disappoints me.
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