"Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" was to be my final review of the "Summer Season" due to my semi-sabbatical (In other words, "how can we miss you if you won't go away"). After I was to complete this, I was going to stay out of the theaters for at least a month before popping back in once again to take a look at Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorius Basterds" in late August.
So I went to see Harry and the rest of the Hogwarts crew last Thursday. It's a week later, and I'm finally able to put SOMETHING to paper...but not what I expected. And that "something" is just to say that I can't truly do a fair review of this movie.
Why? Because I'm a fan. And because this series is completely unique to modern filmmaking history.
Of course I'm a movie fan. You don't become a movie critic if you aren't, unless you are truly a masochist (oh, wait. I'm a fan of Cleveland sports teams...maybe that should be telling me something). But there is a big difference between being a fan of movies, and a fan of a particular film. With the exception of the Harry Potter films, and the Lord of the Rings films, I am not a fan of a particular movie until AFTER I've seen it. There are movies I look forward to seeing, hoping that they meet the expectations I've raised in my own mind for them. Sometimes I become a big fan of these types of movies, such as "Star Trek", "The Departed", and "Sweeney Todd". Other times, I'm bitterly disappointed in the waste of potential, such as "Body of Lies", "The Taking of Pelham 123", and "The Other Boleyn Girl".
Read more...