Harry Potter and the Half Baked Evince!

Once upon a time in India, on the 23rd day of the 7th month of year 2007, I did something which reinforced people's belief in my insanity. I did something which nobody thought I would ever do. I took a day off to finish reading Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows. It was released two days earlier, I had advanced booked it, waited till Sunday evening to start reading it and there was no way I could do anything else before finishing it!

Such is my love for Harry Potter! So with Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince released today, I had to do everything to watch it the first day! And off I go and come back and end up writing this post. I could not stop this too.

Half Blood Prince is my favorite book of the series. It has so many answers, so much action and so much teenage romance in it that I still wonder how JKR managed everything in one book.

I don't believe there ever has been a movie which was as good as the book. Harry Potter movies are hardly an exception (Namesake is an exception). I also understand the problem with this because there is so much, so so much that JKR has written that I honestly think that each book would need atleast 2 movies to cover everything.

Honestly speaking, the Harry Potter movies had started getting better. When the Order Of the Phoenix was released, I thought the magic finally began! I was so much hoping that Half Blood Prince took the next step. But I was royally disappointed. I could not believe what I was seeing, rather not seeing. The events of the book were only referenced and never built up to cause any emotion. I had to remember what I had felt when I read the book. There was so much back story on Voldemort and Snape. They hardly showed anything. This book is about Tom Riddle and Snape. Tom Riddle got some screen space, Snape hardly any. The movie title just appeared to be a lame name for the contents of the movie.

This movie, in my opinion, is not even the most visually stimulating one as it has been claimed to be. Looking back, I now think that The Goblet of Fire was so very well filmed. The tasks of Triwazard Competition were filmed almost the way I had imagined them. The OOP rocked specially showing Harry as Nagini and the last confrontation of Dumbledore and Voldemort. I think HBP had much more scope of visuals in the entire series of Harry Potter. Sadly, except for the army of inferi and a few scenes like Katie getting cursed, nothing really matched to what was shown in the previous movies.

A secret I can tell you though. I liked the teenage romance shown in the movie, at least in a few places. I specially liked Emma and Rupert. But why devote so much screen time to it and end up forcing the characters to fall in love. The subtle emotions and connections shown in the previous movies were way better. They lost the plot completely when it was time to show the obvious.

In favor of the movie, I do not think I was bored in the movie. But I think there were completely misplaced priorities at the time of filming it. They gave much more importance to the romance of the characters and completely disregarded the importance of Snape and the Tom Riddle's childhood in the whole scheme of events.

Do I recommend the movie? Well you gotta watch it because you really do not have a choice. If you are a Harry Potter fan and if you have read the novels, you know you would go. If you are a Harry Potter fan and if you have not read the novels, well, you need to watch it to follow the series. Go watch it and curse it! I would not mind using Sectumsempra to curse it!!

Do not go and watch this movie if you have no interest in it or if you are just starting to read or watch the movies. Don't go just to give company to a friend! Honestly people, you need to be able to separate your veritaserums with felix felicis and dementors with patronuses to understand what the whole thing is about. Don't go with a friend who is a big HP fan and expect him/her to explain you things in the middle of the movie. It is very annoying!!

And I highly recommend reading the entire series. Nothing matches the magic of reading the books themselves. I am so glad I was so crazy about it. I had some of my best moments of joy reading it! And I am going back to reading HBP again!

P.S : All said and done, I don't think I will be able to resist myself from watching HBP in 3D. :D