The Half Blood Prince

An old drawing of Harry I did once upon a time.

I went to the premier of The Half Blood Prince last night, and boy was the theater PACKED. We arrived a little over an hour early and already had a little difficulty finding seats. We did end up finding some nice ones in the third row. Can't say the same for the bigger groups of people who arrived after us, though.

Anyone who's read the actual book will already know what happens, so I don't expect I will spoil anything for anyone. Those who haven't read the book will likely be confused.

Because I'd watched the Order of the Pheonix earlier in the day and the Half Blood Prince picks up exactly after the Dumbledore and Voldemort duel, it was great to feel the continuation between the fifth and sixth movies.

My first favorite line came when McGonagall told Harry to hurry up to potions class, and to "Bring Mr. Weasley with you; he looks far too happy there." The two were idling in the hallway watching the other students go to class because originally they were not going to take Potions at the NEWT level and subsequently had a free period; McGonagall soon reversed that situation for the both of them.

The other memorable moment was definitely not on the part of the film, but on the theater goers. As I'm sure many people are aware, a great number of people in the fandom are shipping the couple of Snape and Draco, and they certainly had their moment in our theater when Snape forcefully told Draco to leave Slughorn's party with him. A massive array of wolf calls followed the two as they left, and when Snape pinned Draco against a wall it began again. My humor was definitely tickled but it wasn't over until Draco angrily said, "I don't need protection!" The final straw for the audience who burst out laughing and cat calling.

I always thought Draco was rather dashing in the sixth book in terms of his character, and he still is rather dashing on the screen.

Ron's expression after eating Romilda Vane's chocolates laced with love potion was also quite hilarious; that sequence was probably the most amusing I'd seen Ron's face get.

Ron and Harry's conversation about Ginny and Hermione is also a memorable dialogue. I'm not sure where they came up with "Harry should talk about how nice girls' skin can be an asset in attractiveness," but well they did.

I didn't realize that the Felix Felicis scene where Harry finally actually consumes the liquid luck would be so funny; Harry's personality was great during that sequence.
"How do you feel?"
*Beaming smile* "... EXcellent!"
"Good, now remember - blah blah blah-"
"Yes, well, I think I'll go to Hagrid's now!"
"Wait Harry, remember our plan?!"
"Yes but... I've got a good feeling about Hagrid's." He exits the portrait and gives a cheery "Hello!" to some random students coming in.
Slughorn meanwhile is sneaking around the precious plants when Harry cheerily saunters over and gives him a shock. He talks for a little with the professor, still in his hilarious cheery manner, before turning to leave the grounds to Hagrid's.
"Harry!"
"Professor!" --> Probably the best expression and voice he's ever had behind this line, win to Harry
"How did you get out of the castle??"
"Through the front door!"
Then final line of Harry's during his Felix Felicis induced humor that amused me a great deal is definitely, "They also got those pincers..." after which he proceeds to mime some said pincers.

Well that was a lot. I'm sure there are a ton more I'm forgetting - like how irritating but amusing Lavender was in the film. I didn't realize they were going to make her such a ditz, but well, they succeeded in making her rather annoying.

They did spend a while building up the Ron x Hermione deal, and they added a lot of what I like to call fan-service scenes with Harry and Ginny, which I thought were a little too much but the cat calls in the theater were probably worth the suffering. Even Dumbledore kept remarking to Harry about girls, as one of the first scenes with Dumbledore picking up Harry from Little Winging clearly showed.

I'm sure we were all just waiting for the dead things in the water to come up and attack Harry while he was in the cave, and we all in the theater knew when the exact moment was about to come. You could feel everyone curling up in their seats and when the hand finally shot out of the water and grabbed him, some woman or girl screamed incredibly fiercely, so loudly I thought for a second it was part of the film until I realized there shouldn't be a woman's voice screaming in that scene.

Alan Rickman also wins. His subtle facial expressions as Snape were phenomenal, from when he makes the unbreakable vow to when he finally does the deed.

Young Tom Riddle was also great, especially when he was asking Slughorn about the Horcruxes.

I suspect I should end this now, before I go ahead an post the entire movie down.