Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

As Lanie said, this movie is great if you're a fan of the movies and you've never read the books. If you have read the books, well...

Look, it's not the most faithful adaptation in the series, but it's a damn sight better than Order of the Phoenix was. It did not have the big "what the HELL?" moment like Order did, so that's A+.

As far as the movie itself is concerned, yes, it is somewhat of a romcom in the way past Harry Potter movies haven't been. However, in its defense, the source material is much more romcom than previous books, too.

Now, what do I have issues with, as a fan of the books? Well, the Kreacher/Dobby fistfight is missing. In fact, these two characters have been so downplayed by the movies (they've been left out of HBP entirely now) that I'm not sure how well Deathly Hallows is going to work out at this point, and since that is by far my favorite book in the series, I'm nervous. But I digress.

My main beef with the movie: Why is the death/funeral of [Spoiler] so damn rushed? What's up with that, you guys? It's like, romcomromcomromcom for two and a half hours, then CONFLICT! then DEAD! then END. There's not even the first battle of Hogwarts, which, um, hello! The ending of this was weak.

If you can ignore all of the flaws of being a book-turned-movie, it's good. I didn't need a second viewing to not hate it this time, so points for it!

- Julie


(PS: But what the fuck is up with Narcissa Malfoy's hair in this? BLONDE, SHE IS POINTY AND BLONDE. Why is her hair two-tone? This bugged me for that whole scene.)