Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince Movie Review

I have been wandering how was I going to tackle this film way before getting to it... but well, time has come and there is just no going back; I´ll say it... this movie is pretty weak... and this is me putting nicely...

Before "Half-blood Prince" the series had a solid run, but this one really came close to make lost interest in the series completely. This movie should have been called "Harry Potter and the Puberty Blues"; more than half of the movie is about the cock tease romance between teen agers! making the main plot be a distant second! Why is Harry so suddenly interested in Ginny? Where did this come from? Granted, Ginny is a quite pie... but what happened with Cho? Is Harry that quickly to passed over the poor girl? Is it because she betrayed him? It wasn't intentional you know! Why are Hermione and Ron here? They do nothing at all! Who is the half-blood prince? Why is he called that? Can he help defeat Voldemort? Where does he live? Is he in Howarts? Oh yeah, we do find out who this prince is... but why? no people, a single line of dialog is not gonna cut it; there is a complete lack of emphasis on important story elements that NEEDED to be explored...

I am honest guys... out of all the Potter films, this one feels like the worst... the teenage hormones just take over everything in this film; the visuals are uninteresting, the acting is average at best, the writing is plain lazy and the directing feels unfocused... I think the only reason why this movie was made was because it was a chapter of the Potter saga and they just decided to include it because they HAD to make it, almost like the people involved didn't wanted to make the movie at all...

There are rays of hope in the movie, of something that could have been great and that is Draco Malfoy´s story line that is just nearly untouched upon... We know Malfoy is a cowardly bully, but this is the first time he shows a more human side; he is assigned with helping lord Voldemort in his mission and you can tell he doesn't want to but he must; has the life of his family and himself are in danger; Tom Felton did an amazing job showing Draco´s plight, I can tell he is a very emotional actor, he did a great job... shame the script doesn't let this interesting story line be explored much more in favor of teen agers making out for Twilight audience members... I also did a little research about the "Half-blood Prince" book and there is plenty of interesting story elements that were not mentioned anywhere in the movie; including extensive details about who the Half-blood Prince is...

I can´t bring myself to call this movie a good one when it was a film made more for the sake of having it done than something where authentic feelings were putted like in the first 3 films... "Half-blood Prince" is in my opinion the weakest of the Potter movies; putting ahead unnecessary relationship issues instead of the actual dark story I am sure Rowling told in her novel.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Movie Review

Next stop is "The Order of the Phoenix", the fifth entry in the series... and is painfully average; despite having some good things it hurts me when I see just how cliché it can get at times.

So now that Voldemort is back, dangers are lurking even more and even the ministry of magic can´t do anything to help because they DON´T BELIVE THE BOY WHO SAVED HOWARTS MANY TIMES BEFORE!! *ahem*... instead they decide to interfere in Howarts and prevent the students of learning defensive spells because they believe Dumbledore is trying to destroy the ministry with his own "army"; so now is up to Harry to use his knowledge and experience to train his fellow students in combat magic.

The story is good at it´s core, however there are just too many dumb moments that it breaks my immersion, it sometimes breaks the continuity of the previous films has well... Why fly all over London risking being seen by moguls? Is it part of the plan to be seen? Why is Dumbledore a total dick to Harry? What makes him think that ignoring the kid will make Voldemort less interested in him? Why is Sirius risking being seen in public to give Harry a photo? What about the mission? etc...

Umbridge is a total bitch and you will love to hate her; I truly believe this is the one character they were really trying to get to be hated. The other new character is Luna Lovegood; she is quite attractive in that "quiet girl who seats at the end of the row" kind of way, has well has her crossed cables make her more adorable. There are also plenty of interesting magic elements, even if they make little sense of why they are there, but meh... I will just ignore that anyway...

David Yates becomes the new director and he is the last guy to be changed, this man will remain to direct the rest of the films, his style is very particular; I can´t say is bad, he knows how to fallow a script but he either has a bad sense of humor or no humor at all, for example: Emma Watson has some funny lines in the movie and while I think she is a good actress, the puns just don´t stick... I think the reason is because Yates is taking even the moments of tension relive has drama; I notice these by the passing... is just off for a humor moment; not to mention everything is just too dark, it feels lifeless, I know that things are bad at this point in the story: Shit hit the fan in the last film, Voldemort is back, people think Harry is a lair (even if they saw Cedric´s body at the end of Goblet of Fire)... but still, is just too ugly looking, everything is black, dark blue, dark sapphire blue or just plain white.

Order of the Phoenix is alright, there are to many things that unfortunately work completely against itself in the way everything is presented to us a audiences... fans of the book will sure tell me that everything is better explained by reading them, but the propose of a film adaptation is to have the story itself be functional has a stand alone film; Rowling´s story sure is an epic tale of good versus evil, but this film sadly squanders it.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Movie Review

Now up the forth Potter film, "Goblet of Fire"...

The slogan of the movie says "Everything will change" and it sadly does; because it takes a turn from fun and colorful into dark and grim...

That´s right this is the point where the Potter films become a dark series of films. Now just to be clear I like dark stuff, but you see, is not about this series becoming bad because of the serious approach, I am not saying that at all... they just turned into something I was enjoying for being fun and joyful into something much more edgy and serious. But again, the movie itself is actually very good; the beginning is fast and I mean that in a bad way; you nearly get the felling that the Wesley´s and Harry are having fun in the Quidditch World cup because it just flashes by in like 12 minutes of screen time!

After that it´s very good, I like how they represent the teen age like school life at Howarts and it works very well by almost putting you in the setting of the characters we are watching. If there is one thing I absolutely didn't like about this movie is the twist at the end... I wish I could talk about it in details but for the sake of not spoiling anything to anybody; let me just say that I am sure there was a better way to do it...

The best new character is Mad eye Muddy, he is just the most crazy teacher ever; has a matter of fact the scene where he is giving class to his students is maybe my favorite moment of the movie, is both fun and scary. Fleur Delacour (played Clemence Poesy) is very beautiful (even if she gets little development in the movie), Cedrid is likable and Victor is, well, muscular i guess...

Mike Newell is the director of this movie after Cuaron left, he actually did a great job with the movie if I have to be any judge, the script is probably more at blame here than him with the problems I personally have with this movie; this film also had a change of composer from John Williams to Patrick Doyle and his music kicks in way better at emotional moments and quiet scenes.

Goblet of Fire is a good movie, even if by the middle of it, it goes dark and leaves the fun behind... I know this is more about me but hey, I am being honest about how I feel for this movie and I can´t keep it quiet; has much has I enjoy the movie, this is the last of the fun ones if you ask me.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Movie Review

Well here it is, the one everybody loves apparently... "Prisoner of Azkaban" is the 3rd entry in the series and with it comes a new story and new situations. It´s hard for a third parter to be has good has the previous entries, considering that by this time is easy to perceive that there is beginning to be a missing part, thankfully this film not only manages to be good but a worthy kind of good.

A dangerous criminal named Sirius Black has escaped from the prision of Azkaban who happen to be a "loyal" follower of the dark lord Voldemort and now Harry´s life is in danger... again... but what is the truth behind the escape of Sirius?

The film has a different feeling than the previous entries in the series, there are plenty of grays and blacks... compared to the last two movies that were much more colorful and, dare I say, more full of life compared to this movie. The fact that is more dark (visually speaking) doesn't really add to the kind of story told here, it works very well when added to a scene that is indeed dark and edgy, but when it´s not it just does not stick well with the moment.

There are plenty of new characters and most of them are very much likable and welcome, like professor Lupin, he is very cool and is very competent at he does. The story is once again very strong and the characters are likable for the most part so there is no doubt there is a very good movie here and while is not the greatest (at least not for me), I did found myself enjoying it has much has the previous ones.

Chris Columbus is no longer directing and instead we have Alfonso Cuaron, who was producer in "Pan´s Labyrinth" and would also move on to make the film "Gravity". Although Cuaron does make his best to tell this story and he does a good job in my opinion, he does stumble a couple of times, he did got the main story across with success if you ask me. Actor Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore in the past two movies, sadly passed away; so they casted Michael Gambon and he would remain in the role for the rest of the series, he is good but I can´t help but feel that Harris´s Dumbledore came across has a wiser and even more likable than Gambon´s; but he still gives a good performance.

"Prisoner of Azkaban" is a great entry in the series, although I personally think is debatable if it´s better than it´s predecessors, I do am happy that I watched it, It´s a fun movie that scratches the dark surface of the Harry Potter universe.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Movie Review

The second movie of the saga is "Chamber of Secrets" and I consider this one somewhat better than the first but basically because of the foundation that it moves the story forward, is slightly more dark than it´s predecessor while still being comedic and fun to watch, not to mention takes slightly more risks.

Harry is back on Howarts for his second year and again danger is on sight when a hidden chamber is opened in the school endangering all the students with a monstrous criture roaming freely around the Howarts castle; despite the warnings Harry still decided to attend and now he must play the game of death and discover the chamber of secrets...

While I do stand by that this movie is very good, I can see the problems it has, most of the problems are because of the writing though... like for example: Why is the Whomping Willow so close to the school? such a dangerous killer tree should not be there, casualties of students would skyrocket! But regardless of does there is a strong story backing it up, it really made me wanna see what was the mystery all the way to the end; and the ending is really heart warming. The performances from the main trio really improves in this film, even Radcliffe has some really good moments on screen; and he should (he plays the main character after all). But if there is one thing I absolutely did not like about this movie one bit was the Dobby character, while not the most annoying character in the world he did came across has an obnoxious little pest at times...

Chris Columbus takes the director seat once again and like in the last movie I can notice his style of "friendly" but "serious" when it needs too be, even on visual terms I can see the style echoing has well, even more than in the last film, I can imagine he was maybe trying to improve over the last movie and I think that for the most part he did even if it may not really be for the compliance of everybody in his audience and I can respect that.

I can say that for the most part the changes in passing are for the best in contrast to does in the first movie, but I can tell when there are things good and when they don´t work like they should. Knowing that this movie is solid and that it holds up very well against the standards of the franshice is more than satisfactory for me. Chamber of Secrets is a good sequel, I know some don´t like it has their favorite but I know a good movie when I see it and this one was very good and worth a watch.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer´s/Philosopher´s Stone Movie Review

Harry Potter is one of the most popular franchises of all time, so is no surprise when you look at the overall numbers of sold movie tickets and seeing just how high they are; it matches that of big franchises like "Star Wars" and "James Bond 007".

So I have recently decided to look at every movie lunched from Harry Potter and I will be talking about each one of them, so consider this a marathon!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let´s start off with the first movie... "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer´s Stone" or it´s original name "Philosopher´s Stone" (Why change names I don´t get it); the title character is our protagonist and in this movie he discovers he is a wizard, so he is then invited to go to the most recognize school of magic, Howarts... and there, all sorts of things happen, the movie on it´s own it´s very good.

Of course the films are based on the hit book series written by JK Rowling, I will admit I never read the books except for Order of the Phenix and no other after that...

I like the world of magic and the Howarts school itself is very interesting, The fact that Harry himself is an outcast in the world where he discovers that he belongs later in the movie, makes him very likable, you find yourself connecting with him has the movie progress; thanks to the directing and the writing in general.

The special effects are beginning to show their age by today´s standards, the CG in the movie is really glaring when you see it, back then it looked great but now it´s really loosing it´s touch. The child actors are alright, Daniel Radcliffe does seem a little stiff in this movie but the problem is that despite his somewhat natural performance there is just too many times where he shows little emotions compared to Emma Watson or Rupert Grint; but he was a kid so it´s forgiven... child actors can be pretty hard to work with (I know that by experience).

John Williams, the composer behind themes for movies like Star Wars, Superman, Indiana Jones, ET, etc...

made the iconic theme for this movie has well, and is the theme that remained for the rest of the series even after he left.

I think is also import to remark that the director Christopher Columbus was the perfect choice to direct this movie, simply because in many of his past project he has shown he is very versatile with  "friendly" pictures and having a very unique sense of humor, but knows how to treat his own audience and knows when to slowdown and for this film in particular, he was just the man to make a proper introduction to the franchise in movie form no doubt.

I liked this movie, I still believe is a very good stand alone film, I am certain of that after watching it again now after almost 13 years later... I would suggest watching just this one if you are not interested in the whole series; It´s fun, colorful, with good characters and a good story.

"Abstraction" Short Film

I made this short flash video when I was on college; is short and simple...