freckles_and_doubt | let me see you stripped down to the bone

It's not a pervy subject line, promise. Although I suspect that young Cormac McLaggen might strip down quite nicely, thank you, it would be a crying shame to remove Draco's Brooding Byronic Monochrome Suit of Svelte Young Brooding Doom, it was so admirably adapted to Byronic Posing. Besides, if they're in any way faithful to Deathly Hallows the next couple of movies have to strip Daniel Radcliff at least twice, one of them in multiple versions. Jack Sparrow Also Ran.

Anyway. I was, in fact, agreeably surprised by Half-Blood Prince, to which I finally dragged my long-suffering mother last night. (She was surprisingly up for it, having once nursed Emma Watson through a 'flu attack on a school trip to France, and thus having a certain interest in her subsequent activities. Apparently Emma's a nice child). Half of the Internets seem to have hated the movie, citing insufficient Horcrux action, insufficient attention paid to the Big Damn Death, weird wand mix-ups and suchlike. I say, cheerfully and without malice, that Someone Is Wrong On The Internet. It was a very watchable movie, its slightly multiple-personalitied Cute and Dark components actually nicely balanced, and above all it was stripped of all that Rowlingified extraneous detail, plot point multiplication and general amusing inessentialness which makes her writing, on the whole, the antithesis of elegant.

A lot of the things that were missing from the film were, in fact, inessential in the book. The identity of the Half-Blood Prince? so a red herring, and the central fact of Harry's fascination with the annotated potion book was nicely played up as the essentially moral issue it is. The story refines down very neatly to three major facets: (1) teen love, (2) Death Eaters infiltrating Hogwarts, and (3) Dumbledore's sacrifice over the Horcrux and subsequent death at Snape's hands. The whole is bizarrely tied together with an interesting potion-making theme that links Snape, Slughorn, Harry and Lily and the love stories themselves. The film managed to hit all the essential points in a fairly distilled sort of fashion - for example, all the Quidditch matches, and Ron's development as a Keeper through his own lack of confidence, compressed into one punchy sequence. I also loved the additional humour the writers have found in the adolescent interactions, particularly Ron all love-potioned-up and Harry giddy on Felix Felicis.

The love story elements were well done and compelling, but the Death Eater infiltration plot counterbalances it with somewhat horrible reality, and in a funny sort of way this was actually Draco's film. Tom Felton seems to have grown a whole new set of acting muscles, he was exceptionally convincing as a nasty boy who suddenly realises that he's not actually evil. He was also beautifully served by the cinematography, which was frankly stunning - the film kept blowing me away with these dramatically framed and balanced shots through windows, arches, cages and wheels, using almost-monochrome to highlight the darkness of the film's themes.

I dunno why so many comments I've read were all uptight about Dumbledore's death being too briefly represented. I think it was all there in essentials - I missed the battle between Death Eaters and students, but I can see how the filmmakers wouldn't want to steal the thunder of the climactic Hogwarts battle at the end of the series. The minimalism of the last few scenes worked extremely well for me. The Horcrux bit was not quite as extended as in the book, but my personal theory is that they will relocate a lot of that background detail into the extended space of the doubled Deathly Hallows film. This film was a set-up, establishing the mere fact of the Horcruxes - the whole Hufflepuff cup/Ravenclaw diadem bit can quite cheerfully happen in the last film. Also, prediction - I know the Elder Wand ends up on Dumbledore's desk, where it shouldn't be, but I darkly suspect the next film is going to start with Dumbledore's funeral. Well, it can't start with Bill and Fleur's wedding, the films have omitted that sub-plot entirely and then burned down the Burrow for good measure. (To which I have to add: silly).

Things I Also Really Liked:

The opening sequence with Harry and Dumbledore facing the cameras. Pithy, pointed, poignant.
Hermione's pain over Ron, Ron's cheerful obliviousness, the essentially teen-hormone pointlessness of his relationship with Lavender.
The change in Ron's body-language as Keeper when labouring under the delusion that Harry had slipped him the Felix Felicis.
The cragginess of the Horcrux lair. Real, tangible, not the distant-ideal-fantastical of the book covers.
My favourite piece of magic yet, which isn't in the books and wasn't even shown - Lily's rose petal-to-fish transformation for Slughorn. Beautiful, restrained, emblematic, full of pathos.

Things I Didn't Like:

The de-Slytherification of Slughorn. The casual racism of the Hogwarts house system is a bit of a hobby-horse of mine, and really Slughorn is the only example the books offer us of a Slytherin who's power-hungry without actually being evil. I'm sorry the films let slip the opportunity to make that point.
The Burrow burning down, plus all the dashing around in fields and bogs. Silly.
Alan Rickman appears to have put on weight, which is sad, although the basic delirious happy-making velvet sneer of his voice and delivery remains right on target.
Ginny. She wasn't given enough to do, and she's turning into a bit of a cipher whose significance to Harry is emblematic rather than real. She should be sparkier than this. Then again, Rowling cheerfully sidelines her, so we can't be too surprised if the film does too.
I still wish they wouldn't insist on Death Eaters trailing all that inky black smoke, it's silly. On the upside, using the effect on the closing credits was particularly effective.

I'm slightly fascinated by the disparity of responses to the film - equal amounts of love and hate. Is this the particular emotional baggage of the death at the ending, perhaps? I'm also wondering if the hate-bits will abate a tad when the next film comes out, if my sense of the narrative decisions they've made is accurate and the next film makes the logic more obvious by filling in gaps?