Movie Monday: Harry Potter and the Half-Bad Movie

The latest installment in the Harry Potter movie series will be available on DVD tomorrow and as such, I feel it's my duty to warn peeps about this movie. Now, if you heart Harry Potter with all your magical being, I'm sure you'll purchase the DVD and love it. However, if you held off from seeing it at the theater and convinced yourself it would be an early Christmas present, meditate on it for a moment.

I didn't get to see The Half-Blood Prince when it came out in July but from the trailer, I expected it to be spectacular. That's what I expect from Harry Potter movies, mystery, magic, adventure and awesome special effects.

Back in October, Half-Blood Prince came to the dollar movies here and my husband and I thought, "Why not?" If I could ask the cast of this movie for our $2 back, I probably would. Wow! It was a huge disappointment.

The movie staggers along like a drunk on the way home from a bar, and there's a huge lovey dovey scene with Ron and the moon and his pining over some chick that is just plain stupid. The best scenes were flashbacks or "memories" from Tom Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort. Oh, and as for the magic world colliding with the real world like you see in the trailer? That most have lasted a whopping 2 minutes because we were maybe 5 minutes late for the show and didn't see any of the calamity that invaded the muggle world. Draco is initiated by Bellatrix and gang to perform a task for Lord Voldemort and then he spends the rest of the movie practicing a specific magic trick.  

Spoiler Alert!! He's supposed to kill Dumbledore but in the end he just can't do it and so Snape steps in and finishes the job. And you know what? I felt absolutely nothing when Dumbledore died. I felt nothing when the students were mourning him. Btw, Snape is the Half-Blood prince.

I just felt like the characters were total shells in this movie. There was no intensity, even when Dumbledore finally bit it. At the end of the movie, Harry and Co. decide to skip the next year of school to go in search of the Horcruxes and thwart Voldemort's evil plan. Fade to black.

For me, I just hope the next adventures are worth the price of general admission and popcorn. I'm not giving up on Harry Potter yet. I'm just waiting for the magic to come back.

P.S. I should point out that the special effects in this film were great. That's your spoonful of sugar to go with this review.