Anticipating Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

One thing that has taken my mind off my life recently is all the discussions of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The trailer was just released and that has sparked commentary from the people behind the scenes such as director David Yates. I have to say I'm not impressed so far with what I've seen and heard.

Firstly Steve Kloves is back as screenwriter which in and of itself doesn't give me much confidence of WB's interpretation of HBP. He has proven in the past that he is more interested in putting his own personal stamp on the series rather than accurately rendering JK Rowling's masterpiece.

With the exception of the first two movies, Mr. Kloves has deleted important scenes in favour of inventing his own to create more CGI opportunities or simply waste valuable screen time that could be used to properly tell the story. Sorry to be the one to burst his bubble but Ms. Rowling's story is exciting as written and needs no tweaking.

I read an article in which David Yates was quoted as saying they had to cut back on the memory sequences as there were too many to be able to use them all. After seeing the trailer I think I have a good idea of what they have left out.

It would seem that the sequence with the Gaunts (Tom Riddle's Grandfather, Uncle and Mother) has been deleted. Natalia Tena confirmed that Dumbledore's funeral was ommitted also.

I haven't even seen this movie and I'm already angry. The above mentioned scenes are important to the core of the story and their removal suggests to me that the WB should never have been trusted with the HP series.

Everyone says that Chris Columbus (who directed the first two movies) did a horrible job but I honestly think that he was the one who was most loyal to the books. The elements of HP that fans loved found them present in his interpretation of the first two movies. When it comes to Harry Potter I want the heart of the story respected and since Chamber of Secrets I have been sorely disappointed.

This is the problem when you get people who aren't invested in the story to create the movies - everything gets lost for the sake of CGI and momentum. Being an avid fan of the novels I can safely say that I have never felt any of the books lacked momentum.

I believe the problem to be that the writer and director lack the imagination to be able to use what JK Rowling has already so painstakingly written. There is no lack of material - only lack of skill in visualizing and placing on-screen what is already artfully crafted.

Simply put the writer has too big of an ego to defer to the material. Peter Jackson showed, in my opinion, a complete lack of ego in his creation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The difference though is that Jackson is a true fan of the work of JRR Tolkien. Kloves clearly is not an admirer of JK Rowling's work.

Of course the WB is ultimately to blame for the lacklustre production of the Harry Potter series because they are an American company and the American movie industry is only interested in making money and not in being true to a novel.

The only thing that has been done right so far is the casting has been spectacular - but again if they had had their way we would have had American actors faking British accents. It is only thanks to great foresight on the part of JK Rowling that they couldn't get away with that.

Knowing that they are going to do Deathly Hallows in two movies did lift my spirits briefly but after the butcher job they have done on the last few movies I have absolutely no faith that it will come out well.

I suppose my imagination will always be better than a movie screen anyway. If only I was a screenwriter. I'd show Mr. Kloves how it should have been done.