Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
[SOM #29]
This is the sixth of eight movie reviews of the Harry Potter films.
Sharon Shaw of Gonzo Planet returns along with James Batchelor of GameBurst, and this week’s Defense against the Dark Arts teacher is Daniel Floyd of Extra Credits.
It was the longest recording session yet and the final conversation clocked in at over three and a half hours. I pulled out all the stops and distilled the best two and a half for your listening pleasure and in the end this feels like the best Potter review so far.
This episode, we go in-depth on Pensieve flashbacks, Horace Slughorn, the Tripod at age 16, Draco Malfoy, Albus Dumbledore and the unhappy event, all scored by the moving, playful and sometimes haunting music of Nicholas Hooper.
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March 4, 2012
Yes, production, VFX, SFX, and acting improved but Broadbent’s Slughorn made HP6 my fave. Guess I’m just partial to Ton Brown, and Powlett Jones, and Porterhouse.
2 points of wonder, though flawed, if Tom did find out about Horcruxes in the forbidden section, why hadn’r Dumbledore gone through it, esp when he had the evidence of the diary? Secondly, to find the horcruxes all he needed was a little “luck”, too.
Missed moment: in HP5, when Harry is fighting the possession and gets his flashbacks, it’s not the visuals that bring him back, he’s always having flashbacks,it’s Hermione’s laugh.
I loved all the visual misdirection’s in HP1, nothing was as it “appeared” to be.
Thanks, for these reviews, good length and very one topic.
November 20, 2012
I’m listening my way through the archives and this is where I’m up to… but yeah, just wanted to throw in that the lack of modern world items in the Potter series is a huge thing. They are trying to make it seem odd but… really… no soda? Pumpkin juice? You can say ‘magic’, but then why not delicious sprout syrup?
But really… and this speaks a lot to when the books were originally set/written… nowadays (certainly during the time of the movies) all the kids would have been brought up with cell phones and the internet. The communications technology in the Wizard world is pathetic (slow owl mail, fire powder, etc…). The quickest method sort of teleporting are the paintings! I just keep wanting them to use their wands like telephone handsets / cell phones and talk to one another that way.
July 17, 2013
To be fair, the passage of time in the books was slower than the real world. Only 7 years passed from Philosopher’s Stone –> Deathly Hallows: 1991 to 1998. Cellphones might have been a thing for adults, but the only kids that had cellphones were exceptionally privileged kids.