Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Product Description
As harry potter begins his 6th year at hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry he discovers an old book marked mysteriously this book is the property of the half-blood prince and begins to learn more about lord voldemorts dark past. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 12/08/2009 Run time: 135 minutes Rating: PgAmazon.com
The sixth installment of the Harry Potter series begins right where The Order of the Phoenix left off. The wizarding world is rocked by the news that “He Who Must Not Be Named” has truly returned, and the audience finally knows that Harry is “the Chosen One”–the only wizard who can defeat Lord Voldemort in the end. Dark forces loom around every corner, and now regularl… More >>
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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Since I had to look elsewhere for DVD details (to decide whether to buy the 2-disc or one-disc film), I thought I’d post here:
1-Disc Wide screen and Full Screen DVD
*Includes both a wide screen and full screen version of the film.
*No special features
*RRP $28.98
2-Disc Digital Copy Special Edition DVD
*Widescreen version only
*Additional scenes (6:31)
*Close-Up with the Cast and Crew of Harry Potter special. Matthew Lewis (”Neville Longbottom”) and Alfred Enoch (”Dean Thomas”) lead us on an entertaining look at the cast of Harry Potter as they explore their interests away from acting and spend a day on set with the production team (28:30)
*J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life: A fascinating and intimate look into the life of J.K. Rowling over the last year of writing “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” (49:32)
*One Minute Drills: The cast has 60 seconds to describe their character’s personality, history, relationships and other traits before time runs out (6:43)
*What’s On Your Mind: Hosted by Tom Felton, the cast is put on the spot when asked a series of rapid-fire questions on their likes and dislikes. (6:41)
*Universal’s “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” Sneak Peek: Get an “inside look” at the amazing world of magic and excitement being created at Universal Orlando® Resort in Florida (11:38)
*Digital Copy of the theatrical film (2nd disc)
*RRP $34.99
I can’t believe the negative reviews. I read the book and thought the filmmakers did a fantastic job with it. Anyone who wants a film to be an exact replica of any book should do themselves a favor and just read the book again. Am looking forward to enjoying it again (and again) on DVD.
Rating: 5 / 5
First. please let me say that I adore (nay, worship) the Harry Potter stories. So, being a gen-you-wine “Potter-Head” I was first in line to see Half-Blood Prince.
It was an interesting movie. Nice special effects.
Disjointed enough however that one MUST have seen all the previous movies and/or read the books to follow the plot.
…Most importantly, it bears little resemblance to the Harry Potter books!!!
Really. I can forgive replacing the actions of one character with another character, to save time, I can even forgive eliminating whole chapters for the sake of brevity, but to change scenes, edit whole parts, and invent whole chapters???
Beware, below, there be SPOILERS! Don’t read if you haven’t watched!
———————————————————————————————
Some examples of lost scenes:
-Dumbledore confronting the Dursley’s? Gone.
-The invention of a fight at the burrow, including the destruction of the whole house? Really? Where’s Bill & Fleur going to get married next movie? (Oh that’s right, in the movies, they AREN’T! Heck, they aren’t even in -this- movie!)
-The “Meeting of the Ministers” scene? Gone. Heck there’s absolutely NO sign of Scrimgeour -anywhere- in the whole movie!
-Tonks rescuing Harry from the train? Nope, now it’s Luna, looking for Wrackspurts, and removing Harry’s invisibility cloak with her wand. (As A Deathly Hallow, it should be immune to summoning and/or levitation charms.)
-The slow build up leading to the Quiddich victory kiss? Gone. Now just a “close your eyes” peck in the Room of Requirement, and this was done horribly!!
-The two months of Harry & Ginny dating? Gone.
-Harry breaking up with Ginny to protect her? Gone!
-Harry’s ownership of Grimmauld Place and Kreacher? (Key for the next movie) Gone.
-The Gaunt house flash-backs? Both gone. And with them any mention of Merope, Voldemort’s mother. Gone too the mention of her locket by Caractacus Burke.
-The memories of Hokey the house elf, and of Dumbledore’s job interview with Voldemort? (Key for the next movie) Gone. In fact, all references to the valuable heirlooms such as Hufflepuff’s cup are gone.
-Crabb & Goyle polyjuiceing into girls to stand watch? (would have been funny, but…) Gone.
-Snapes “Defense Against the Dark Arts” lessons? Gone.
-Apparition lessons and test? Gone.
-Hermione & Ron’s Prefect status? (Well, since it wasn’t mentioned LAST film, why mention it now?)
-Harry’s appointment as Quiddich captain? (Not mentioned, only implied during the tryouts)
-Mundungus stealing Sirius’ property? (KEY for the next movie) Gone.
-Snap’s betrayal of Trelawney’s prophecy to Voldemort? (HUGE!) Gone!!!
-Harry petrified by Dumbledoor to protect him? GONE!
-The Hogwarts battle between Death Eaters and Order members? (and Bill’s disfigurement?) GONE!!
-Dumbledore’s funeral? GONE!!!!
…oh sure, we’ll probably get to see a few of the minor bits I’ve mentioned in the “deleted scenes” portion of the “Deluxe” version of the DVD, but for this screen version, We get such useless add-on scenes as:
-All the trees around the burrow (HP 2/the flying car shot) have been cut down and replaced by a marsh?
-Harry wandering the underground, and chatting up a waitress??
-The aforementioned Burrow fight and subsequent burning??
Not to mention, Harry NOT petrified, but willingly hiding and watching Dumbledore’s assassination? (Does anyone besides me see how that fundamentally would change Harry’s view of himself?) Yeash!
And WHAT the heck was up with Jessie Cave/Lavender Brown? Worst acting since Brother Sun/Sister Moon! They tested 7000 girls, and they picked a 2nd rate ham? In fact, they tested using the hospital scene, which was single-handedly the worst scene she did in the film!
Ok, ok, on the positive side, the Quidditch tryouts and match were well done, and Dumbledore and Harry’s apparition is depicted quite well.
All in all, I am happy they are making Harry Potter movies, but they are -nothing- compared to the books, and THIS one should be prefaced with “Loosely based on the novel by J. K. Rowling”!!
Rating: 2 / 5
This is not a review of the movie, but rather of the poor job Warner Home Video has done with the Blu-ray video transfer. There are horizontal bands visible in various scenes throughout the movie. They are not constantly visible, but appear primarily in scenes where there are large areas of darkness – though of course that means they are visible in quite a few scenes of this very dark movie.
The bands are not being produced by my player – I can see them on all three of my Blu-ray players, including my PS3 and two computers with Blu-ray drives. The bands are part of the image and are visible when the movie is freeze-framed.
I recommend that those considering a purchase refrain from buying this disc until and unless a replacement is offered by Warner Home Video.
I own over 200 Blu-ray discs, and this is the first time I have seen this issue on any transfer. It is obvious to me that this disc was mastered incorrectly.
Rating: 1 / 5
This is my second favorite of the Harry Potter books, but my absolute least favorite of the movies, by far.
Acting was stilted. Too many story changes. No “magic” at all felt during the movie. I know it should be dark because of the story line, but the director and whoever wrote the screenplay totally ruined it for me.
At the end of the book, when Severus yells at Harry… “don’t call me coward!” That is a climactic moment and it was completely left out of the movie!
The whole backstory of Voldemorts mother and childhood are left out.
If it was too much movie for one book, then pick up the pace. It totally dragged. I will not watch it again.
If this same director is doing the next two movies, I won’t bother seeing them. I would give the movie ZERO stars if I could.
Rating: 1 / 5
The audio on the Blu-Ray set was perhaps the worst I have hardly heard. I should clarify, background and special effects audio was clear as far as I could tell but nearly all the voice audio was unbelievably bad – garbled in many places, muffled in others, too low to hear in other spots – I believe that less than half the voice audio could be understood – incredible, must not have had any test audiences.
AND the movie was so disjointed, and lack of intelligible audio so disturbing that finally the only thing left was to sit back and enjoy the video special effects (exception: try to take a close look at the mid-ground items in the storage room scenes ).
Rating: 1 / 5