The boys and I watched the latest -- and longest -- Harry Potter movie yet, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, last weekend. And I can't muster enough energy or enthusiasm about it to say much more than that; it's a big flashy movie that has less verve or directorial presence than the last couple of movies in the series, and follows (as best I remember) selected high points of the novel as closely as it can.The end feels rushed and muddled, as if the movie itself realized that it only has twenty minutes left and has too much left to get in. And I'm afraid Michael Gambon both overacts horribly and fails to convince as his Dumbledore drinks the nasty potion of lingering pain (or whatever it's really called). On the positive side of the acting ledger, Helena Bonham Carter has a ball chewing the scenery as an EEEEEvil (with five capital "E"s) Death Eater, and brings the audience along in her enthusiasm.
(I was also going to credit Imelda Staunton with her great, giggly, nastily motherly performance, but then I realized she was in the previous movie. They do begin to run together at this point, though the fans don't seem to care.)
Anyway, it's a well-made piece of popular entertainment, with state-of-the-art special effects, and it provides work to nearly the entire British filmmaking profession. Those are all good things, I guess.
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Listening to: The Mountain Goats - Lovecraft In Brooklyn
via FoxyTunes
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