Day 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Welcome to the sixth day of my eight-day long Harry Potter marathon. This is purely because I have not seen any of the Harry Potter's and I promised a whole lot of people that I'd watch 'em all when the last DVD came out. That was over a month ago, so I have to do it now. I will be blogging about my journey through Hogwarts...and such.

We're getting down to the big stuff. Half-Blood Prince is the last step to Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2, so this one really had to make it count. And it sure did. From an outsider's perspective:

-My, have things gotten dark around here. Except I felt like this movie waffled about a little bit, but I guess it had to.
-It is very jarring to show how happy everyone acts even though they might die or something. Then again, if they acted how I imagined they'd act, then this would be the most depressing thing since Requiem for a Dream. Okay, maybe not that far...
-Okay, so I did like that there was a bit of a love square/triangle/pentagon/however many people were involved in the film. I felt sorry for Hermione because Ron was too busy with Lavender Brown. At first I didn't understand the relationship between Ginny and Harry but I came around to it in the end. But I think Hermione and Harry should be together. Just saying.
-Is it just me, or did Malfoy's hair get whiter? He's a very interesting villain. I don't know whether to hate him or not, because it's like he doesn't want to be horrible. But he just is.

-Speaking of villains, let's talk about Tom Riddle. Did you know that he is played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, who is Ralph Fiennes' sister Martha's middle child (I'm not a stalker, I just did my homework). I see talent runs in the family (and with a family name like Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, I wouldn't expect anything less). Despite his age and limited screen time, he managed to capture the darkness that I'm sure someone like Tom Riddle was going through. Colour me impressed.
-Jim Broadbent was awesome as Horace Slughorn. But he is also awesome, so that isn't saying much.
-I'm glad that the three principal actors have finally come to the party together. Usually one is better than the other, or one let's the team down, but now they're all on equal footing and it is cool to watch.
-The emotional strain of the movie is also in check. I usually found the emotional tone extremely inconsistent, but it is a lot better here.
-Helena Bonham Carter is eeeeeeeeeevil in this movie. But she is so devilishly good at it.

-Then again, she did set fire to Hagrid's hut. Bitch, nobody sets fire to my main man Hagrid's hut.
-Snape. Even though your character is technically the best that the series has, I hate you.
-How dare you kill Dumbledore?
-Wait, how dare anyone kill Dumbledore?
-If Malfoy couldn't do it, then why couldn't you?
-Dumbledore was awesome.
-That was actually a very sad moment. Which is why I feel like this movie was more emotionally in check than the other ones. Not because somebody died, but because it felt much more genuine in it's emotions than it did when Cedric died in Goblet of Fire.
-While the end showed the familiar shot of the river going out of Hogwarts, it wasn't a glorious moment like it has been in the other films. The music was dark, the place was dark, we know that even more dark times lie ahead. Which is something that is crucial to this series.

While I felt that this wasn't better than Order of the Phoenix, it is still an extremely good instalment. A very good build up to the final films, indeed.

What I got: