Silver Screen Scene

Snogging and Ron/Hermione I joked with my friends after seeing this movie that it should be renamed Harry Potter and Everyone's Raging Hormones. My impression of this movie, only 30 minutes in, was "HELLO everyone hit puberty." The actors have clearly hit puberty in, well, movie three or so, but in this movie they really lay it on thick. He is kissing her, she's crushing on him, he's jealous of her boyfriends and she is creating love potions to make him fall in love with her. Everyone is so horny with everyone that there is a line where Dumbledore has to ask Harry if he's with Hermione just so Harry can say no JUST SO the audience knows that that is the only love story not possible from this movie.  If you've read the books, this isn't much of a stretch.

The 6th book talks about love potions, the Ginny/Harry love story (maybe I'm daft but I didn't see that love connection coming at all when it happened in the book), snogging, the Hermione/Ron surfacing love story, snogging, hormones and snogging. The book seemed to balance it well, though, between the action and main storyline (Harry's potions book and the Death Eaters' rise). I felt like the movie was just a teen romance that happened to have some light action. It's fine if  you like some teen romance movies, but it also detracts from the greatness that is the Harry/Dumbledore friendship and the miscellaneous parts of the magic of the Harry Potter books. 

Contrary to what I said above, though, I do wish there was more about the Ginny/Harry love story. The book talks about it so much (so, so much) especially Harry's burning and itching desire to be with her. The payoff in the movie? A peck on the lips. In the book? A twirling, passionate kiss after the Gryffendor win and a subsequent frolicking about campus for the rest of the term. Prior to becoming a couple in the books, Harry doesn't want to tell Ron of his thoughts (and oh does he have thoughts) in fear of evoking the anger Ron sets upon Ginny's various snogging partners throughout the book. But when Harry and Ginny finally do get together, it's okay by Ron, because she could have chosen worse. In the movie, though, Ron seems to know what's going on and not-so-subtly sneaks a seat between the two when they seem to be getting cozy on Christmas night. I understand that movies have to do things like this (after all, movies ARE visual) and that they cannot be just like the books (I know I wouldn't like it if they suddenly introduced a Harry narration for the movies just to give his inner thoughts as the book so often does). But sometimes you just picture something in your head and when it comes on screen completely changed, it can be a little disappointing.

I also noticed a Romeo-like quality introduced by Harry in the beginning of the film. If you aren't super familiar with the play Romeo and Juliet, you may not know that Romeo was madly in love with Rosaline, but it didn't work out. Then Juliet came along and, well, they ended up not-so-happily ever after. I remember discussing this topic in English class: If it worked out with Rosaline, would she have been the Juliet in the tragic love story? Was he destined to be with Juliet, or was she just the first chick he saw after the breakup? In the movie, there is an intro scene where Harry is flirting with a cafe waitress. He gets cut off by Dumbledore and the next girl in his path is Ginny. Was that really a true romance, or was he just jonesing for a girlfriend and there she was? In the books it seemed to come out of nowhere and it did in the movies, too (in my opinion). 

This book definitely dug into the Ron/Hermione love storyline, no doubt about that. The movies even started prefacing it in the 4th movie. While I was reading the 4th book, I didn't really read into the Ron/Hermione love storyline except for the subtle "There is clearly something going on here" in regards to Ron's anger that Hermione had a date to the big dance. But in that movie (Goblet of Fire), the directors chose to do a lot of "oops I just held his hand" and really obvious "there is romance here" moves. In the 6th book, it is really obvious that they like each other but are too afraid to make the first move. This definitely comes across in the movie in a sweet and genuine way. I love Emma Watson more and more, and she really is wonderful in this movie.

Humor

There are some great genuinely funny moments in this movie. It is more serious, as the past couple movies have benn, but there is some great comedic acting here that made me laugh out loud.

I enjoyed the scene where Harry and Ron dive into the potions cabinet to fight over the crisp, new potions book and the battered one.

I enjoyed getting a little less cardboard acting from Daniel Radcliffe when he took the Felix Felicis (luck) potion and came off a little cocky and at times odd.

Snape

I noticed something in the movies that I didn't notice in the books in regards to the Snape storyline. Since JK Rowling views the scripts and/or is on set during the filming, it makes me think there might be something to this...

What I noticed was that Snape seemed rather reluctant to working with the dark side. In the beginning of the movie, he makes the unbreakable vow with Narcissa, with an almost squeamish facial expression. Is that for us, the audience, to give us the impression that he is on the good side (Dumbledore's side) and is in a sticky situation, being forced to make an unbreakable vow (that would result in death if he disobey)? Or is Snape genuinely iffy on making that vow?

Since reading the book took me all of a month and the movie just about 2 hours, I can miss subtle things that are introduced. In the movie, the script makes a point to say "coward" to Snape on two occasions: Bellatrix says it to Snape before the latter ends up making the unbreakable vow and Harry says it to Snape when he chases him in the end sequence. Is this to further imply Snape's placement in a forced situation, or is it to just throw us as an audience to think there is some good in him and he really has been evil this whole time?

I watched the deleted scenes, which includes a clip that would be slipped before Harry and Dumbledore's return from the cave to the castle. It shows a hesitant Snape looking towards the night sky, almost as cowardly as Draco comes across in the final showdown scene. Snape has fear in his eyes, and you notice it in the mere seconds he is on screen during the deleted clip. Are we to think he doesn't want to do what he is about to do?

Differences from the Book

During the movie, there is a major scene where Death Eaters burn the Weasley house down. While watching this, I thought to myself "Did I just miss a major chapter in the story?" but no, this was purely invented for the film. Don't worry, there was reasoning behind it. In the book, Harry and his Hogwarts friends read the papers and discover death on every page, indicating the Death Eaters are truly a force to be reckoned with. However, none of these murders are of anyone they really know, which therefore doesn't affect them too much. To speed things up, the script avoids those throwaway deaths and instead makes things personal. The Death Eaters attack and burn down the Weasley house on Christmas of all days, just to say to the audience "Hey, these guys are MEAN. Real mean."

In the books, Slughorn came off as a weird jerk. He considered the Black family as a "set" to be had for students. He came off as pompous and/or arrogant. In the movie, he's just one of those jolly inept teachers, kind of like Hagrid. It worked for the movie, but it was definitely different from the novel.

In the book, there is an entire story about one of the older Weasley boys, Bill, and his engagement to Fleur Delacour much to the Weasley clan's chagrin. It's a pretty funny storyline because it brings the book to realism with a plot about that girlfriend/relative that everyone hates. After watching the movie, I can't see how it would fit in, so it's actually good they kept it out. I feel like it would force too much into the script.

The most obvious omission from the movie script was the opening scene from the book in which the British prime minister speaks with the Ministry of Magic's Rufus Scrimgeour. It's this great chapter where the magical world interacts with the Muggle world and the entire time I am reading it, I am getting all excited about the movie adaptation of the scene. But it never happens. Instead, there is a reference that the Death Eaters are wreaking havoc on the Muggle world via a bridge destruction scene and some other quick moments in London that don't happen in the books. This meeting of two superpowers would have been great to see on screen and I am upset they decided against it.

Overall story

I do like the absence of Voldemort in the book. He is only mentioned via memories in the Pensieve. His absence just makes it all that more intriguing. The absence makes the reader/viewer on edge the entire time, waiting for that pop out moment that never comes. It makes the anticipation grow for the 7th novel and the final two movies. It makes that showdown imminent.

In both this book and the former, The Order of the Phoenix, Rowling has a habit of having an awesome, edge-of-your-seat climax, and then falls into a couple boring chapters until the end. In this book, there was a slow but steady intrigue with the cave chapter. It's followed by the showdown between the Death Eaters and the good guys. There are spells zooming through the air, ceilings crumbling, and a heart-racing chase. Then, it ends. And there are still 60 pages left. It is such a bummer to know that the fun stuff has ended but you're still obligated to read those last 60 pages. They just drag on.