Is this the dubbing or is this the film?

[oloriel]

When on Monday I bought (among other things) a bottle of white wine, I was - wait for it - asked for ID.

Now this is Germany. Meaning, wine and beer may be bought from age 16 onwards.
And the lady at the register asked me for ID to prove that I had, you know, reached that age.

The situation was so absurd that I was not in the least offended. At the ripe old age of 26 I am beginning to feel flattered when I am, in other words, told that I may be mistaken for 15.

- - -
Must be those Elves in my head.
- - -

Accordingly I (and other equally young at heart people) went to the so-called "children's showing" of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince. Now the term "children's showing" is misleading: It's the same movie (rated 12+) that's shown at any other time. It just takes place in the afternoon, not in the evening/ at night like the "grown-up showings". Basically it means that you get to share the theatre with a lot of kids. Well, teenagers, and a few kids with their parents.
Which was surprisingly unproblematic. Although I'm not sure I'd reccommend the movie to ten-year-olds, parental supervision or no.

And that's not just because the translation had some... um... sketchy bits. I hope it's just the translation. I hope the English version doesn't also come across like Hogwarts is full of paedophilic paedagogues. "Dumbledore wants me to get close to him." --- "So, you and Hermione-" - "Just friends! Why?" - "Oh, no reason..."
...um, WHA?


Potential Spoilers ahead!

On the whole, however, the film was pretty awesome. Heart-wrenching, but awesome.

My hubby, who still hasn't read the books, wants to see the film. I also know various kids who haven't bothered to read the books because hey, there's the movies.
And let me put it like this.
I knew what was coming and I still found it painful to watch. And yes, I cried in the end. >_>

I missed a few things - the political spectacle, Rufus Scrimgeour and all the rest - the Snape flashbacks, because DUDE, was the explanation of the bloody TITLE OF THE FILM handled unsatisfyingly and in two seconds or what? - Apparition practice - and even the whole Weasley Is Our King thing - but it was still a good adaptation. The cinematography was mostly awesome (except for the Wobbly Bridge thing, which looked kind of cheap). The pacing was fast, and people who haven't read the book will (aside from the emotional deathwrench) probably find it hard to follow, as usual, but that's hardly my problem (yes, I'm heartless like that).

Lavender was brilliantly annoying. Slughorn was great. Snape, as always, was gold, though he didn't have enough screentime. There should also have been more Luna. The world could use more Luna.

The film is also very dark - as it should be - yet full of seriously funny moments. Some were probably unintentional, but enough of them are really meant to be funny.

And then the last quarter-hour or so... *SOBS*

What bothered me: The "your shoelace is undone" scene. I am possibly being unreasonable here, but Ginny kneeling down to do Harry's shoelace WTF WTF WTF I found that not cute but... grah. Can't imagine JKR acquiesced to that!

I doubt I'm going to manage a more coherent review, but I'm sure a lot of you others who watch the film will write something intelligent ;)

Comments

[yoodi.livejournal.com]

This is the first comment I see on the new HP movie that is positive.

Me, personally? Hated the last one (I blame the director), don't like the trailers for the new one, HBP is my least favourite of the books anyway. ---> Meh, not interested.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Really? So far the only negative reviews I saw were in the yellow press papers, where there were complaints that the movie was "too slow" and needed "more action and SFX". ... whatever, BILD.

I quite enjoyed the last one, though, so my opinion may not be of help to you ;)