#2: The Battle

So in the midst of Dumbledore easing Draco Malfoy out of his intended plot, there is a battle raging beneath the astronomy tower between Death Eaters, members of the DA and members of the order. First off, I'm just amazed Yates and crew didn't want to take another opportunity to have wisps of smoke flying around not doing any actual magic at each other. Second of all, this gets absolutely no mention, no acknowledgement, NOTHING. Harry was supposed to have taken only half of his Felix Felicis when he obtained the memory from Slughorn and, for fear of an attack, he gave the rest of the potion to his friends whom he asked to patrol the halls while he was gone. (Sidenote: did anyone else think that their depiction of Harry on liquid luck was basically like he'd just railed a few lines of cocaine. I mean that wasn't what I imagined at all. He acted like a total freak and there were plenty of mistakes in that scene as well, particularly his initial interaction with Slughorn). Anyway, Ginny later says something along the lines of, well if we hadn't had your potion I think we all would have been screwed, cause spells just seemed to miss us for some reason. In other words they were extremely lucky AND they were in mortal peril. This last point seems to me something worth noting in the film and it wasn't.

The reason this is number 2 is because to paraphrase literally everyone that I know who saw this movie, "Seriously, how could they not have included the biggest battle of the book?" This whole issue is indicative of the greater sin committed by these movie-makers: they're making an adaptation of the books, not a representation. So if they can come up with a plot that encompasses what they're trying to accomplish with their film, then they do so at the expense of every true fan's desires. It's just that simple. Because their plot wasn't directly fueled by the battle taking place beneath the tower, they felt it was expendable, much to my chagrin.

Stay tuned later today for the Number 1 Reason why The Half Blood Prince could and should have been better (along with the rest of the movies). And I don't know if I'll get to it today, but I have been jotting down an honorable mention list throughout the week. That might have to wait until Monday.