Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: A Commentary on the Upcoming Movie Versus the Book

One of the most eagerly anticipated movies this year is the adaptation for the sixth installment of the Harry Potter series. This movie will be released in July 15, 2009 and will set the stage for the final movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to be released in two parts in 2010 and 2011. The movie preview seems to promise many fans of the book a decent interpretation of the book itself, especially after the disappointment of some of the last few movies.

David Yates directs this movie (as well as the previous installment and the final two in the series) and he appears to keep with the precedent that he set forth in Order of the Phoenix. I was very pleased with how he handled the fifth Harry movie and it seems that he plays into the expectations with this movie. Jim Broadbent joins the cast as Professor Slughorn, the teacher that Dumbledore goes out of his way to woo back to Hogwarts to teach and take place as the new Potions teacher (as Snape finally gets his coveted position as Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts). We find out that another reason that Dumbledore wants him is because he thinks he holds a crucial key in figuring out Voldemort's past (the Horcruxes; see below). Broadbent appears to be a perfect choice for the role of Slughorn as he fits the description that J.K. Rowling put in his book and most people remember him as the slightly pompous Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge!, which is somewhat the same personality that Slughorn has. Broadbent is a welcome addition to the already well cast entourage of the movies. Of course, the regular cast returns, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint.

In the book one of the main focuses is Harry and Dumbloedore's task to find out about Voldemort's past, especially to find the Horcruxes he may have split his soul into so he could never be full destroyed. In this storyline, you find out much about Voldemort's past, including how Dumbledore found him to bring him to Hogwarts, his lineage and what he finally did to his father which explains his hatred of him a little bit better, and find out the type of person he was when he was at Hogwarts. You also find out how Voldemort found out Horcruxes as it is not common magical knowledge among Hogwarts students or even the rest of the magical world for that matter. As you read and figure out what the Horcruxes are and how to find them, you as the reader are let into the type of person Voldemort was and is.

In the previews when we see a brief flashback of Dumbledore visiting Voldemort (then called Tom) in the Muggle orphanage he was in, we see the memory he sees of the invitation he extended. Although it is a brief moment, it seems from the preview that they do a fairly decent job of catching how unnerving Voldemort was as a young boy when he delivers the line "I can make bad things happen to people who are meant to me" and as you watch Dumbledore and the look on his face that seems to say he knows that this particular wizard is going to be trouble, it seems that the director and producers were pretty spot on with this part of the novel.

Another main focus of the novel is just who the half-blood prince is; this is the person who's old sixth year textbook Advanced Potion Making that Harry finds and it helps him throughout the year until it is taken away from him by Professor Snape. There is a mystery throughout the novel of exactly who the "half-blood prince" is and it is in this mystery that we finally learn more about Snape's past a character who has been decidedly ambivalent and left readers unsure of whose side he really has been on during Harry's time at Hogwarts. While there is not much to allude to this in the previews, we see and hear more from Snape, which could be used to indicate that he is indeed going to play a huge part in this next installment.

Another aspect that is in the book that seems to have been portrayed well on screen is that we finally get to see more about Draco Malfoy and through this we are exposed to another side of him. While he is been painted as the villain throughout the series in this book we see him as a scared little boy who has been put up to a task that is way behind his capability. In the brief glimpses you see in the previews you can tell this. There is the flash of Malfoy taking something of what appears to be the Mirror of Erised to find whatever it is to make his task less daunting. Then there is the glimpse we get of him looking to another mirror, seeming out of breath and frustrated which shows that he realizes this task that has been entrusted to him may not get done and that he knows what will happen if that is the case.

Most noticeable is that this movie has an over hanging look of gloom to it. The shots you see are very dark, and not just the shots you see of Voldemort (young or old) or the Death Eaters and the various destructions that they rain down upon England. Like the book which has an overhanging feeling of anticipation, trying to figure out exactly what is going to go on at the end, this movie keeps that theme of darkness. Save for the last book (naturally) this is one of the darkest books in the series because of it. I for one am eagerly awaiting the next movie because I want to see if the current trend of having decent interpretations of the books like they have done for the last two movies and it appears from the previews that have been shown on TV and the internet that they are going to do a fine job indeed.

One of the reasons that this movie is so eagerly anticipated is because it is the next to final movie in the Harry Potter franchise. Another is that it originally was suppose to come out in November like most of the other movies, but the release was pushed back as a result of the writer's strike. For those who haven't read the books, this book is also anticipated because they get to find out everything they need to know before the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort. This movie will no doubt be just as successful as the other movies and leave movie audiences clamoring for the final movie, due out in another year.