Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Due to the round robin of directors tapped for the Harry Potter film series, the quality of the movies thus far has varied wildly, from the solid first and second films to the highly inventive Prisoner of Azkaban to the unpolished Goblet of Fire. Director David Yates took the helm for Order of the Phoenix, and will see J. K. Rowling’s series through to its cinematic conclusion. While I enjoyed Order of the Phoenix, I wasn’t entirely convinced that the franchise was in good hands. After viewing Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, however, my doubts are assuaged. David Yates has transformed the sixth installment of the series into an emotional and rousing film.

Purists beware. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince takes some liberties with the source material. Entirely absent are the Dursleys, Harry’s abusive biological family, and Professor Sibyl Trelawney, who plays a small but pivotal role in the novel. Furthermore, several scenes are either inserted or amended. For instance, when Harry is left bloodied, petrified, and concealed on the Hogwarts Express, it isn’t the shapeshifter Tonks who finds him, as in the novel, but the quirky, enigmatic Ravenclaw student Luna Lovegood. For some, I’m sure these omissions, additions, and amendments are cause for concern. The net result, though, is that the film maintains a strong thematic unity and solid pacing.

The sixth novel was marked by romantic developments in the lives of our young heroes. While in these book these scenes seemed to drag on for pages, the medium of film was able to address them much more succinctly. Thus the chapter “Hermione’s Helping Hand”, whose only purpose in the book is to show Hermione surreptitiously helping Ron retain his position as Gryffindor keeper, is here handled in a single, tight scene that lasts only a minute or two. The romantic story arcs are still present, but they don’t dominate the story to the extent they do in the book.

There are no real stand-out performances in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, but the acting is solid and enjoyable throughout. Michael Gambon finally comes into his own as Dumbledore, though I still don’t feel he can compete with the late Richard Harris’s portrayal of the old, odd wizard. Alan Rickman’s Snape is as oily smooth as ever, and the trio has aged gracefully. Newcomer Jim Broadbent embodies the soul of the ambitious, social-butterfly potions professor Horace Slughorn, though the absence of walrus mustaches disturbed me greatly. Tom Felton’s Draco Malfoy also becomes far more emotionally textured than he has ever been before.

The film isn’t perfect. While most of the film’s omissions are forgivable and perhaps even laudatory, a few plot holes are left unaddressed. One key pensieve flashback scene from the novel, in which we learn of Voldemort’s parentage, is missing from the film, and this information seems to me of great thematic importance. Hopefully director Yates has simply shuffled the scene into the forthcoming two-part adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The ending, while emotional, still felt a bit rushed, and the climactic battle that concludes the book is all but absent.

As I sit here now, I can probably think of many other little quibbles with various aspects of the film. But sitting in the theatre, I was enthralled by the film from start to finish. The magic and mystery of Harry Potter is still very much alive.

Star Trek

In the hype-filled ramp-up to this reboot of the beloved Star Trek franchise, the spotlight shone on director J. J. Abrams, creator of geek TV franchises Alias, Lost, and Fringe, and groundbreaking films like Cloverfield. While Abrams’s directorial chops are on prominent display in the new Trek film, the film’s writers are the real unsung heroes who make the movie a success.

Before I proceed, I should caution readers that I am not a trekker, trekkie, or any variant thereof. I grew up in the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation and have a passing familiarity with that series, but I’ve only seen a smattering of the original cast TV episodes and films. The advantage to this, of course, is that I went into the fil with very little in the way of expectations, since I wasn’t carrying in any major geek baggage of Star Treks past.

The first third of the movie plays out like a VH1 Behind the Music of the characters who will become the central crew of the Starship: Enterprise. What these scenes lack in plot, they more than make up for in character development. The movie takes pains to explore the motivations for each character’s decision to join Starfleet. Special attention is paid to the backstories of James T. Kirk and the vulcan Spock, as they are without a doubt the film’s central characters.

As soon as  the viewer is nice and settled in to the rich world of the Starfleet Academy crafted by the writers and brilliantly executed by director Abrams, the action begins in earnest when the Starship Enterprise investigates a disturbance at planet Vulcan. The villainous Romulan Captain Nero, slightly overplayed by Eric Bana, has used a black hole event horizon to travel back in time from the future and wreak retroactive vengeance on Vulcan for mysterious reasons. To reveal anything more about the plot would ruin some of the film’s more delightful, though perhaps to fans divisive, surprises. Time travel seems to be in vogue nowadays, in film, in television, in literature, and Star Trek handles the theme reasonably well, although I have some nebulous misgivings about its execution.

Star Trek excels by virtue of its balance of action, humor, and emotion. As directorial veteran of Mission Impossible III, J. J. Abrams feels right at home directing the movie’s exhilarating, sometimes heart-stopping action sequences. The film’s humor largely takes the form of inside jokes that even a casual viewer of the original series like me was able to appreciate. While these moments occasionally feel forced–case in point: Bones’s “dammit Jim, I’m a doctor” line–most of them work in their own right. Surprisingly, much of the film’s heart flows from the development and internal conflicts of the logical Vulcan Spock. As a half-human, half-Vulcan outcast, his story is by far the most compelling thread in the film’s tapestry.

Spock’s story is complemented by stellar acting by Zachary Quinto, of NBC’s Heroes fame. His portrayal of a cool, cerebral, stone-faced Spock with emotions roiling just beneath the calm exterior is poignant without straying into the territory of overwrought. The other actors play their roles well. Chris Pine’s young James T. Kirk carries the necessary weight as the film’s other central character along with Spock. I find Karl Urban’s comedic performance of Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy noteworthy if only in contrast to his stern, somber Éomer in Lord of the Rings. Eric Bana’s performance as the vile Captain Nero is the only weak link; Nero is little more than a cardboard villain cum plot device. The writing is probably at much as fault here as Bana’s performance, though.

I really enjoyed Star Trek for what it was: a fun, rousing, and occasionally thought-provoking science fiction flick. If its aim was to kindle the interest of a new generation in a series that, for me at least, held little immediate cultural relevance, then it certainly succeeded. I’ve always fallen on the the Star Wars side of the Trek/Wars divide, but this movie is certainly tipping the scales.

For a contrary opinion, see author George R. R. Martin’s take.

From AnticipationSF:

“Hellboy” (Sony Pictures)

I’m not sure if this qualifies as strictly fantasy/science fiction or not, but it’s my site and I’m calling the shots.

I’ve had this queued up on my iPod for weeks now. Soon I will give it a gander, and report my findings here. I may also check out del Toro’s twisted fairy tale world of Pan’s Labyrinth, which also comes highly recommended.