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

[jassanja.livejournal.com]

Oh the nice thing about having a cinema that shows both the dub and the Edf version .... 2 in the afternoon and just 3 well behaved children in the crowd....

As for nonexistend screentime: If you blinked at the wrong moment, you did not even see Neville in this movie

[vout.livejournal.com]

This was weird. I read your post and thought: "Oh, spoilers, better not click then!" And then I remembered that I know the fricking book!

[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]

Aw, jealousy! Here there's just one cinema that shows the English version, and it's a kind of old cinema with out-dated equipment (some would call it "kultig")...
Although to be honest even at the super-modern Cinedom the sound system was made of massive fail.

Aw, but at least Neville was mentioned by name! And appeared on screen twice! And if he had more screen time, one might think he's liable to die in the next movie - I mean, even the little teenies picked up on the red-shirt-ness of Tonks and Remus. ("They're a couple? Wow. - How are they even relevant to the story?" - "Bet they're gonna die!")

Still kind of bitter about the missing Snape-flashback. Graah.

[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 ;)

(frozen)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Well, there's a lot of people who know the books but don't want to know just how they were adapted to the screen. So it wasn't that weird. ;)

[rahja.livejournal.com]

wir stimmen also0 ungefähr mit unserer meinung überein. ich fand es auch schade, dass eigentlich mal aben gar nicht erklärt worden ist wieso Snape nun der HBP ist. Aber gut. Der rest war klasse. Die Änderungen von Buch zu Film (z.B der anfang) haben mich kein bißchen gestört.

[chili-das-schaf.livejournal.com]

Ich werd ihn auf Deutsch und Englisch direkt hintereinander sehen und bin schon sehr gespannt.

In England wurde ich auch dauernd IDed. Meine Freunde, die alle fünf oder mehr Jahre jünger waren als ich, nie ¬¬

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Manche Sachen hab ich schon ein bissel vermisst. Aber bis auf die lieblose und viel zu knappe Abhandlung des "Wer ist denn der HBP?"-Rätsels hat der Film auch so gut funktioniert, das stimmt schon. Und insgesamt war er klasse.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

In England blieb mir das wenigstens erspart - da wurde nur eine Bekannte nach dem Perso gefragt, als sie sich ne Cola (!) bestellt hat. Mein Bruder und ich haben dagegen unbehelligt unseren Cider gekriegt...

[lainvess.livejournal.com]

Raus aus dem Kino, ab zu LJ, denn jetzt kann ich ja endlich deinen Beitrag lesen :p

Mit den meisten Änderungen, über die sich Das Volk beklagt, hatte ich überhaupt kein Problem. Scrimgeour hat mir auch gefehlt - ich fand, HBP hatte eins der besten Eröffnungskapitel aller HP-Bücher, und das dann von den ganzen politischen Wirrungen gar nix in den Film kommt, war irgendwie... träurig. Aber es waren ja sehr viele Sachen bloß angerissen, und das dann auch noch reinzuquetschen... hmm.
Dafür fand ich die Angriff-auf-The-Burrow-Szene überaus sinnlos. Ich mein, ich kann nachvollziehen, warum sie im Film war - aber wie so oft: dass ich was verstehe, heißt nicht, dass ich's auch mögen muss :p

Aber insgesamt mochte ich ihn. Aber ich mochte ja auch den fünften, und den mochte keiner :p

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!

Ooooooh yes. Hated that one, too.
I found that scene incredibly... submissive. I mean I was fine with all the awkward!Ginny/Harry moments - until the shoelace thing. I don't know. It would probably have been... not fine but o.k. if she'd been like several steps below him on the stair at the time, or, I don't know, they'd both have knelt down to tie it at the same time. Still WTF, in capital letters, but acceptable. Probably.
But Ginny actually going down on her knees in front of Harry was... weirdly submissive, like she was abasing herself, and at the same time belittling, like Harry didn't know how to tie his own shoelace.

Also the whole Harry/Ginny thing kinda vanished into nothing. I wasn't even sure in the end whether she'd actually kissed him in the RoR or Harry'd just imagined that.

There should also have been more Luna. The world could use more Luna.

Immer!

Und hallooooo, Tom Felton ist groß geworden. Hrrhrr.


Wilder Sprachenmischmasch. Whatever. Ich geh dann mal ins Bett.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Der fünfte war doch toll! Mochte den keiner? O.o Da hab ich wohl was verpasst...

Die Schnürsenkelszene war SOWAS von daneben, die ärgert mich IMMER noch.