Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince

I took the family to see Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince last night and loved it. As the books get longer and longer, the filmmaker found a way to condense it down to where it kept moving nicely and 2 hours 20 minutes didn't seem that long. However, I have to admit that having read the books, the ending didn't have the same shock value as it did the first time I read it.

It was nice to have a movie that the whole family could see. It's been getting harder later. Child #1 is almost 17 and likes loud rock music, sophomoric gross out movies with Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler and chick flicks. Daughter #2 is 14 and can't stand cussing or kissing in a movie. She likes horses, manga and anything sweet and cuddly. Harry Potter was a good fit because the language is clean with only a few tame kissing scenes and it's full of action. It is a great good guys vs. bad guys movie.

J.K. Rowling hit the jackpot on this book series thanks to a combination of good luck and good plotting. What I like about Harry Potter is the juxtaposition of the familiar and the fantastical. On the one hand, this is a story about aspiring wizards battling the dark lord to save humanity. However, it is also a story about school and friendship and bullies and strange teachers. Although I have never been to an English boarding school, I can imagine Hogwarts as the image of one. Hermione Granger is the archetype of the studious working class girl who earns the right to see inside the privileged world of the elite. Ron Weasley is the young son of a family with a noble title but not much else to their name. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy come from strong noble families who are bound to clash.

I also like the humor in the stories. Although the stories kept progressively darker, they save room for moments of humor. In the Chamber of Secrets, the scene with Moaning Myrle the Ghost, who offers to share her bathroom haunt with Harry if he gets killed is priceless. In the Goblet of Fire everyone ends up at the dance with mis-matched dates. As Harry and Ron and their twin dates are feeling terribly uncomfortable, a boy approaches and asks one of the girls for her hand and she says "Take my hand, take my ..., take me out of here" or words to that effect. Finally, in the Half-Blood Prince, Luna Lovegood is so unselfconsciously weird and so comfortable in her own skin that she generates a chuckle just to look at her, but not in a mean way.

I also like the character development over time. Ron, Harry and Hermione don't change much, but the characters around them do. The transformation of Neville Longbottom from a scared, stuttering child to a hero is inspiring. On the other hand, Prof. Dumbledore's progression from omniscient and omnipotent to frail and fallible makes him an endearing character. Finally, the change in Draco Malfoy is perhaps the most pronounced. For several films, he is the caricature of a bully surrounded by his sidekicks. However, by the Half-Blood Prince, he is a lonely, haunted figure in black, a Hamlet-like character dwelling in the shadows of indecision.

I can't wait for the final chapter to come out. Although I was disappointed by the overly long book, the story is a journey which deserves a conclusion. Besides, the homage to the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the end makes the failure to edit down the first 500 pages forgivable.