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July 24, 2009

Adann Movie Reviews for July 24

By Adann-Kennn Alexxandar

VDT View — ‘Potter’ still magically charms



“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Adventure/Fantasy: 2 hours, 33 minutes); Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Maggie Smith; Director: David Yates; Rated: PG (Violence, mild language, and some thematic elements, including sensuality)

Movie Review: With the aid of Albus Dumbledore (Gambon), Harry Potter (Radcliffe) searches for clues about stopping the Lord of Darkness, Lord Voldemort. To do this Potter and Dumbledore will need the assistance of retired Hogwart’s professor, Horace Slughorn (Broadbent), once the mentor closest to a younger Voldemort, also known as Tom Marvolo Riddle (Frank Dillane). What Potter and Dumbledore find could change the future for all in the land of wizardry.

“Harry Potter” films are all so interesting. They take audiences away to a land of adventure and magical action. All this is from the mind of author J.K. Rowling. Her books have created one of the largest followings in the world.

That written, movies based on books typically do not compare. The theory stands with even the “Potter” series of books. This stands true because movies are linear and books are multifaceted with a plethora of tangent storylines that movies do not have the time to cover. The “Potter” films try to cover too many sub-plots. The films only main drawback is this aspect. Rather than offering a straightforward story, each movie in this series has too many mini-stories that do not help the screenplay’s main story. Fans might like these nuances, but the films could be 30 minutes shorter if the writers only stuck to the facts and just the facts needed to come to a conclusion. Good examples are the Quidditch tournament scenes that continue far too long, and silly romances of the characters that add nothing.

Still, the actors and Rowling’s imaginative, original concept still make for an entertaining, over two-hour runtime production, and fans of the books will enjoy the series no matter the flaws. This outing is different somewhat; it plays like a drama more than previous, more adventurous prequels and appears only as a filler for the concluding films of the “Potter” series.

While the manner in which the story is elongated is the major problem, the rest of the film, as with others in this series, is fantastic and a nice getaway from the real world containing economical, political and social problems worldwide. Too bad, wizardry does not exist to fix those problems.

Grade: B- (Potter still magically charms.)

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