Half-Blood Prince trailer released

[Olo401]

Didn't see a topic about this yet, but the next Harry Potter movie installment, The Half-Blood Prince, trailer was released tonight. If I missed a thread about it, please lock.

Can watch it here.

The trailer looks pretty sweet, and the film is set for theaters on November 21.

If they fucked up this movie as bad as they did Order of The Phoenix and Goblet of Fire, I'm gonna be very pissed off. I don't mind that an adaptation to screenplay is going to leave out scenes and take some liberty with stuff - in fact I expect it. But what they did to the last two movies went way beyond that - they cut essential stuff out and put in completely new garbage to fill in for dramatic effect.

And even worse, they did it with JKR's blessings since she's approved every adapted screenplay for the movies.

The only thing I really didn't like about the movies was in the Goblet of Fire, in the end scene in the graveyard when Voldemort explains to Harry why the curse backfired and why he could now touch Harry without pain.

Spoiler: show

The fact that Voldemort doesn't know that is an integral part of the story. I mean it even says it in the damn prophecy, which Voldemort only wanted because he wanted to know what power Harry had that he didn't. Adding it into that scene in the movie didn't do anything for them, and is only gonna make it harder to explain things in the last movie.

Dueling spoilers!

Spoiler: show

No no no no no. Voldemort does know this in the books - he is obsessed with ancient magic and knows from his quest for knowledge about the enchantment that protected Harry - he just didn't realize that it had prevented him from killing Harry as a baby. What he doesn't know is the second part of the prophecy, which if he had heard it would've tipped him off that there was something more to his connection with Harry beyond what he had already figured out - like the idea that Harry became another Horcrux.

[Lexa]

So much hate for Harry Potter.

I loved the books, and I loved the movies. I have no problem viewing them as two different types of media. JK Rowling also goes over all scripts and is pretty involved in the movie productions, so they can't have taken it too far beyond what she felt was reasonable. *shrug*

If you think the movie's gonna suck so badly, don't watch it and save the rest of su the bitching. :D

Me, I'm about to piss my pants, I'm so excited!

[Bagel]

Still waiting for a sequel to Wizard People Dear Reader.

[Azalee]

Love the books, love the movies, can't wait for this one.

Movies are never as good as books, and you can't just put 600+ pages into a 2.5 hour movie and expect to hit every single plot point.

[Ivve]

Love the books, love the movies, can't wait for this one.

Movies are never as good as books, and you can't just put 600+ pages into a 2.5 hour movie and expect to hit every single plot point.

No, but I expect better judgment about what plot points are necessary -- especially considering the length of the series. You can't just omit shit that is a cute subplot in one book if it becomes a major plot point toward the end. It's just poor planning, especially when they wasted time on unnecessary garbage comedy. Maybe if some of it had actually been funny, I'd feel a little less disgusted. I dunno, it's just that this series has spanned a pretty good number of years, and many of the children who started reading it are now teenagers or young adults, not to mention how many adult fans there are. I didn't think it was necessary to dumb down the humor and the plot so much. Not just that, either. The direction/production team seriously sucks at pacing and making the events seem like they're spread out over the series of a school year. There's no concept of time progression at all, imo.

I might have been willing to cut them a little slack since they were making these movies before the series was even finished, but they are working with the author and from my understanding were completely informed about where their characters were going in terms of plot progression. They were given information about the series before everyone else just so they could plan shit out properly. I just feel like with the quality of the material and the budget they've been given, they really have not made the best use of it at all. As someone who's been reading Harry Potter since they were like 14 years old, I'm really annoyed to see something that had potential to be really kickass reduced to fluff entertainment.

Seriously, look at the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I read those books too, and from what I remember, they did a much better job of condensing things and removing unnecessary elements than the Harry Potter team did. I guess the main shortcoming is that they set out to make movies specifically for little children, completely forgetting that a sizable portion of the fans of the source material were already older than the children they cast as protagonists.

[EternityEnd]

Love the books, love the movies, can't wait for this one.

Movies are never as good as books, and you can't just put 600+ pages into a 2.5 hour movie and expect to hit every single plot point.

No, that isn't realistic at all. However, they could stop adding scenes that weren't even in the books as Ivve said. They also cut entire characters that are very important or, at least, serve a mini-plot for the book. Ludo Bagman, for instance. They cut him out of his minimal part in the 4th book just to replace him-- There was no point to it, it would've been easy and would've cost no run-time to show him.

Dobby is another case entirely. They planned the movies so poorly, Dobby was integral to the plot at some points and they left him out almost entirely. Looking back, I'm shocked he made it into the second movie. I have no idea how they're going to work this in movie 7... Let alone Kreacher, since Kreacher had like three inaudible lines in the 5th movie as I recall. Point being, the movies are not good film adaptions at all. The first three were great, 4-5 and soon-to-be 6(Most likely) were/will be terrible. There's almost no one they can rectify their plot at the moment, they've left out so many key sub-plots that they're only going to be able to have an extremely butchered plot that makes zero sense in the 7th movie.

I really question wether or not anyone involved in the movies has read the books.

[Katlan]

If they fucked up this movie as bad as they did Order of The Phoenix and Goblet of Fire, I'm gonna be very pissed off. I don't mind that an adaptation to screenplay is going to leave out scenes and take some liberty with stuff - in fact I expect it. But what they did to the last two movies went way beyond that - they cut essential stuff out and put in completely new garbage to fill in for dramatic effect.

And even worse, they did it with JKR's blessings since she's approved every adapted screenplay for the movies.

It's understandable that they have to cut material from the books unless they want to make a 3 & 1/2-4hr+ movie... But what is disturbing to me about the HBP movie is that they are taking out very important scene's, such as...

Spoiler: show

Where Harry uses that Curse [he learned from the book] on Malfoy in the bathroom and Screaming Myrtle(sp) gets the attention of Snape

I mean thats a very important scene as it shows Harry following in Snapes footsteps. I overall enjoy the movies even though I read all the books... I don't expect the movies to live up to my expectations, but they are worth the admin price. I just hope that the last book will be recounted well as a movie if it's true they are breaking it into two showings.

[Ivve]

Katlan -- that scene occurred in the Half Blood Prince book.

[Starless]

When Radcliffe and Watson are able to act, I may see this.

...Maybe.

[Chips]

I could care less if the Harry Potter movies aren't like the books -- I keep them as two separate identities. I know what happens in the book (what really happens), and the movie (which is just a dirty pleasure).

[Ivve]

I think their acting has improved somewhat from what it was. These are child stars after all, not seasoned vets. It must be hard for Radcliffe to also be constantly faking pain and other dumb shit that isn't happening to him on set. It's difficult for anyone to make their actions look genuine when most of the scene they're doing is added later through CGI. I'm much more annoyed with the things they've done poorly for no good reason.

[Katlan]

Katlan -- that scene occurred in the Half Blood Prince book.

Maybe I worded it wrong.. but i was trying to say that they decided that incident in the book wasn't important enough to add into the movie.. Cuts are understandable, i just wonder how they decide filler materials is needed yet important moments like that can be left out

[Olo401]

It's understandable that they have to cut material from the books unless they want to make a 3 & 1/2-4hr+ movie... But what is disturbing to me about the HBP movie is that they are taking out very important scene's, such as...

Spoiler: show

Where Harry uses that Curse [he learned from the book] on Malfoy in the bathroom and Screaming Myrtle(sp) gets the attention of Snape

I mean thats a very important scene as it shows Harry following in Snapes footsteps. I overall enjoy the movies even though I read all the books... I don't expect the movies to live up to my expectations, but they are worth the admin price. I just hope that the last book will be recounted well as a movie if it's true they are breaking it into two showings.

Yeah this is exactly what I'm talking about. HBP was out long before the OoTP movie was made, so they could've made adaptations to the screenplay to put in these little essential items and it would've added that much more coherence to the movies as a series.

A good example of something they did well was at the very beginning of Order. The book has the whole scene with Dudley's gang in the park, then the mess with all the owls delivering letters from various people. You don't see that at all in the movie, but it works because they got the essentials right - Harry and Dudley run into each other on the way home, get attacked by demetors, Mrs Figg comes along and escorts them, Dudley's a mess and his parents flip, Harry is forced into a hearing. About the only thing essential that's missing here is the Howler sent to Petunia.

[Ivve]

Maybe I worded it wrong.. but i was trying to say that they decided that incident in the book wasn't important enough to add into the movie.. Cuts are understandable, i just wonder how they decide filler materials is needed yet important moments like that can be left out

I'm confused. This trailer is for the Half Blood Prince movie. The scene you were referring to was the Half Blood Prince book. Just because this scene is not included in the trailer for the movie doesn't mean it was necessarily cut. I'm not sure what you mean.

[Katlan]

I'm confused. This trailer is for the Half Blood Prince movie. The scene you were referring to was the Half Blood Prince book. Just because this scene is not included in the trailer for the movie doesn't mean it was necessarily cut. I'm not sure what you mean.

Oh... lol... It's been mentioned in [earlier] press releases what they were excluding from the books & the cast cuts they were doing. That's what I'm talking about, not referring to what was shown in the trailer.

[Ivve]

Oh... lol... It's been mentioned in [earlier] press releases what they were excluding from the books & the cast cuts they were doing. That's what I'm talking about, not referring to what was shown in the trailer.

Oh, I see. I'll have to look some of that up, because I haven't heard anything outside of this trailer. Tbh, that cut doesn't particularly bother me. It's not like Snape and Harry have any kind of familial connection. Harry really doesn't follow in Snape's footsteps in any way except that they are similarly bullied at school. Harry has no love interests that he spends years mooning over, nor does he have a particular brilliance for potions or penchant for creating or (knowingly) using damaging spells on other people. He even goes out of his way not to use "dark" spells, which is a giant plot point. In most ways, I would consider Snape and Harry to be more opposite than they are alike. It's much more important to me that they spend the duration of this movie explaining the connection between Voldemort and Harry than anything else. Without a proper understanding of that full plot line, it would be incredibly hard to make a cohesive finale.

[Sojourn]

I've been a fan of the Harry Potter books long before the movies started coming out. Even though they aren't "true" to the books, I still get chills when I hear the Harry Potter jingle.

[Elvis]

No film would ever capture all the stuff that goes on in the books.

The only way you'd satisfy people is w/ a TV show. Each season could represent a book.

These films are good in their own way but aren't meant to be standalone. THey are supplemental to the books.

If these movies were the source, then what a letdown that would be? so much of the lore is explained in depth in the books. so no one should think these films are trying to supplant the original material. think of it as a companion piece.

that being said, i think they suck mainly due to Richard harris not being dumbledizzle anymore. he perfectly captured how dumbledore was powerful/calm/wise/caring.

gambon, the new guy, is way too harsh. both in the way he looks, which is out of his control, and the way he acts the character, which is his own fault.

[Azalee]

that being said, i think they suck mainly due to Richard harris not being dumbledizzle anymore. he perfectly captured how dumbledore was powerful/calm/wise/caring.

gambon, the new guy, is way too harsh. both in the way he looks, which is out of his control, and the way he acts the character, which is his own fault.

I agree with this completely... He makes Dumbledore seem so... Mean. Harsh was also a good word for it. I can't really recall Dumbledore ever being "mean" to people.

About the whole books and movies thing... I definitely agree that part of it is that the story line wasn't complete before they started making the movies.

One of the scenes I wish they would have included in the movies was Nearly Headless Nick's Death Day Party... But it is one of those scenes that doesn't -really- contribute to the plot.

If they put everything into the movies they would be well over three and four hours along.

But yes, I can see how they left out really important aspects. In the 4th movie wasn't it Dobby that got the Gilweed(?) for Harry when they did the diving to rescue people? I don't think that they showed that at all... But if they are ignoring the fact that Dobby plays a huge role in the series then it makes sense.

I guess what I am trying to say is that if you want to fully understand the plot, read the books OR watch the movies. You can't switch it up and expect to understand everything.

[Katlan]

No film would ever capture all the stuff that goes on in the books.

If these movies were the source, then what a letdown that would be? so much of the lore is explained in depth in the books. so no one should think these films are trying to supplant the original material. think of it as a companion piece.

Even if they did a TV show, the lore still wouldn't be correct. The way I look at it is... when somebody reads a book they have their own image of how the lore is represented and its individualized to the person. So when movies/shows/ect... are made of a book, they are only one person's interpretation of the "said" lore. This is why, imo, it's significant to read the book first of any "book-to-movie" iteration; otherwise your image of the characters is usually of how you first saw them in the movie and its hard to move beyond that.

and here is one article on the movie cut i was refering to: http://movies.ign.com/articles/873/873954p1.html