It gets easier to discuss “Harry Potter” with each passing year, especially this year – after Emma Watson was photographed at a football match with Abramovich, sparking rumors of a relationship. The rumors were unfounded, but the shock the public experienced at the thought of a romance between Hermione (my apologies – it was unintentional) and He-Who-Owns-“Chelsea” clearly showed: “Harry Potter” still lives in the hearts of millions, even if those millions think they’ve forgotten about it.
The release of the penultimate book’s film adaptation, however, is surprisingly quiet. Obviously, the uproar that will begin when the two-part final “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I/ (2010)” is released will be deafening, but for now, the main noise is being made by the first viewers, who have already declared “The Half-Blood Prince” almost the best in the entire series.
Romance and Resistance
Best or not, it’s definitely the most romantic. Dangers still lurk for the members of the magical resistance, but all the participants are much more consumed by love sufferings. Harry is tormented by Ginny Weasley, Ron is madly cuddling with a classmate, and Hermione, in love with Ron, is beside herself with jealousy and rage. Death Eaters, meanwhile, are completely out of control and wreaking havoc even in the Muggle world. The worst, however, is yet to come: the conspiracy orchestrated by the Death Eaters with the complicity of Draco Malfoy and the search for Horcruxes – objects in which Voldemort has imprisoned his soul.
Magic Takes a Backseat
The strangest thing about “The Half-Blood Prince” is that it has surprisingly little magic. The destruction of the London bridge by the rampaging Death Eaters, the most dramatic spectacle of the film, flashes briefly at the beginning. The obligatory Quidditch match, duels with wands, potions lessons, and other essential attributes of the series are already perceived as routine. But it seems that it’s not just that the two and a half hours of the film are filled more with relationships than battles. This part of the story is almost devoid of the outstanding freaks that adorned the previous series – like Mad-Eye Moody or Sirius Black. The appearances of the witch Helena Bonham Carter and the gloomy Alan Rickman are too brief, and the excellent dramatic actor Jim Broadbent, who played the potions professor, is too “normal” to give the action even a little of the frivolous ferocity that greatly adorned the series.
Relationships and Romanticism
Well, relationships it is, romance it is. In the end, Ron, who drank a love potion, is really funny, and the funeral of the giant spider – with funeral speeches and subsequent drinking – turned out really touching. “The Half-Blood Prince” is clearly made as an introduction to the last part and in this sense looks quite comfortable (if comfort is what you expect from a film about the confrontation between good and evil). When “The Deathly Hallows” comes out, Potter will have been with us for ten years, and today this story enters its final phase. Missing it is like a demobilized soldier not going to Paratrooper Day.