Reviews of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

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Since I had to look elsewhere for DVD details (to decide whether to buy the 2-disc or one-disc film), I thought I'd post here:

1-Disc Wide screen and Full Screen DVD

*Includes both a wide screen and full screen version of the film.

*No special features

*RRP $28.98

2-Disc Digital Copy Special Edition DVD

*Widescreen version only

*Additional scenes (6:31)

*Close-Up with the Cast and Crew of Harry Potter special. Matthew Lewis ("Neville Longbottom") and Alfred Enoch ("Dean Thomas") lead us on an entertaining look at the cast of Harry Potter as they explore their interests away from acting and spend a day on set with the production team (28:30)

*J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life: A fascinating and intimate look into the life of J.K. Rowling over the last year of writing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." (49:32)

*One Minute Drills: The cast has 60 seconds to describe their character's personality, history, relationships and other traits before time runs out (6:43)

*What's On Your Mind: Hosted by Tom Felton, the cast is put on the spot when asked a series of rapid-fire questions on their likes and dislikes. (6:41)

*Universal's "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" Sneak Peek: Get an "inside look" at the amazing world of magic and excitement being created at Universal Orlando® Resort in Florida (11:38)

*Digital Copy of the theatrical film (2nd disc)

*RRP $34.99

I can't believe the negative reviews. I read the book and thought the filmmakers did a fantastic job with it. Anyone who wants a film to be an exact replica of any book should do themselves a favor and just read the book again. Am looking forward to enjoying it again (and again) on DVD.

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First. please let me say that I adore (nay, worship) the Harry Potter stories. So, being a gen-you-wine "Potter-Head" I was first in line to see Half-Blood Prince.

It was an interesting movie. Nice special effects.

Disjointed enough however that one MUST have seen all the previous movies and/or read the books to follow the plot.

...Most importantly, it bears little resemblance to the Harry Potter books!!!

Really. I can forgive replacing the actions of one character with another character, to save time, I can even forgive eliminating whole chapters for the sake of brevity, but to change scenes, edit whole parts, and invent whole chapters???

Beware, below, there be SPOILERS! Don't read if you haven't watched!

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Some examples of lost scenes:

-Dumbledore confronting the Dursley's? Gone.

-The invention of a fight at the burrow, including the destruction of the whole house? Really? Where's Bill & Fleur going to get married next movie? (Oh that's right, in the movies, they AREN'T! Heck, they aren't even in -thismovie!)

-The "Meeting of the Ministers" scene? Gone. Heck there's absolutely NO sign of Scrimgeour -anywherein the whole movie!

-Tonks rescuing Harry from the train? Nope, now it's Luna, looking for Wrackspurts, and removing Harry's invisibility cloak with her wand. (As A Deathly Hallow, it should be immune to summoning and/or levitation charms.)

-The slow build up leading to the Quiddich victory kiss? Gone. Now just a "close your eyes" peck in the Room of Requirement, and this was done horribly!!

-The two months of Harry & Ginny dating? Gone.

-Harry breaking up with Ginny to protect her? Gone!

-Harry's ownership of Grimmauld Place and Kreacher? (Key for the next movie) Gone.

-The Gaunt house flash-backs? Both gone. And with them any mention of Merope, Voldemort's mother. Gone too the mention of her locket by Caractacus Burke.

-The memories of Hokey the house elf, and of Dumbledore's job interview with Voldemort? (Key for the next movie) Gone. In fact, all references to the valuable heirlooms such as Hufflepuff's cup are gone.

-Crabb & Goyle polyjuiceing into girls to stand watch? (would have been funny, but...) Gone.

-Snapes "Defense Against the Dark Arts" lessons? Gone.

-Apparition lessons and test? Gone.

-Hermione & Ron's Prefect status? (Well, since it wasn't mentioned LAST film, why mention it now?)

-Harry's appointment as Quiddich captain? (Not mentioned, only implied during the tryouts)

-Mundungus stealing Sirius' property? (KEY for the next movie) Gone.

-Snap's betrayal of Trelawney's prophecy to Voldemort? (HUGE!) Gone!!!

-Harry petrified by Dumbledoor to protect him? GONE!

-The Hogwarts battle between Death Eaters and Order members? (and Bill's disfigurement?) GONE!!

-Dumbledore's funeral? GONE!!!!

...oh sure, we'll probably get to see a few of the minor bits I've mentioned in the "deleted scenes" portion of the "Deluxe" version of the DVD, but for this screen version, We get such useless add-on scenes as:

-All the trees around the burrow (HP 2/the flying car shot) have been cut down and replaced by a marsh?

-Harry wandering the underground, and chatting up a waitress??

-The aforementioned Burrow fight and subsequent burning??

Not to mention, Harry NOT petrified, but willingly hiding and watching Dumbledore's assassination? (Does anyone besides me see how that fundamentally would change Harry's view of himself?) Yeash!

And WHAT the heck was up with Jessie Cave/Lavender Brown? Worst acting since Brother Sun/Sister Moon! They tested 7000 girls, and they picked a 2nd rate ham? In fact, they tested using the hospital scene, which was single-handedly the worst scene she did in the film!

Ok, ok, on the positive side, the Quidditch tryouts and match were well done, and Dumbledore and Harry's apparition is depicted quite well.

All in all, I am happy they are making Harry Potter movies, but they are -nothingcompared to the books, and THIS one should be prefaced with "Loosely based on the novel by J. K. Rowling"!!

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Warner Brothers is trying to fool us again calling this an "Ultimate Edition" when it is NOT the extended version of the film. It comes with behind the scenes extras and commentaries, but the movie itself is the same! I expect this is because they decided after the first 2 Ultimate Editions that they would wait and re-release all 8 movies at once in another Ultimate Edition, but this time a Box Set with extended versions of all films to entice everyone to buy all the movies yet again. Hold off for now and watch your DVD copies next year we can all buy the REAL Ultimate Editions!

Honest reviews on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

My main gripe with the previous Harry Potter movie "Order of the Phoenix" was that for some strange reason they took the longest of the books and turned it into the shortest Harry Potter movie to date. The result was that I felt like I was watching the movie fly by on a speeding train, as it rushed from one key event to another without really taking the time to explore anything in detail.

Now we follow up with "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" and....what a difference. There are plenty of cuts of course, no Harry Potter movie can be free of cuts without being waaaay too long. But the movie's length was at least comparable to some of the others. The 3 lead characters were as spot on as ever. Michael Gambon finally brings a bit more warmth to his portrayal of Albus Dumbledor than he brought to the last few movies. Tom Felton played Draco Malfoy with all the depth one would hope for in his most important role in the series. Alan Rickman isn't seen too much as Severus Snape, but when he is he's as wonderful as ever.

I really think this may be the best Harry Potter film yet, and I was really starting to think after the last film that the story had gotten to big for them to manage in film. Good work guys.

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This is not a review of the movie, but rather of the poor job Warner Home Video has done with the Blu-ray video transfer. There are horizontal bands visible in various scenes throughout the movie. They are not constantly visible, but appear primarily in scenes where there are large areas of darkness though of course that means they are visible in quite a few scenes of this very dark movie.

The bands are not being produced by my player I can see them on all three of my Blu-ray players, including my PS3 and two computers with Blu-ray drives. The bands are part of the image and are visible when the movie is freeze-framed.

I recommend that those considering a purchase refrain from buying this disc until and unless a replacement is offered by Warner Home Video.

I own over 200 Blu-ray discs, and this is the first time I have seen this issue on any transfer. It is obvious to me that this disc was mastered incorrectly.