"Hello, darling. Fancy a drink?"

I finally watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I'll admit, I spent the first 10 minutes trying to remember what the heck happened in the first 5 books/movies and if I had even seen the 5th movie (I know, my memory fails).

Overall, the movie was good if you don't compare it to the book. I think this is fairly obvious since the majority of movies-adapted-from-books don't seem as good if you've read the book first. Of course, seeing as I have read the books, it's kind of a given that I would unintentionally make comparisons. But I really only have two beefs with the movie. One is that the movie is much more tame than the book in terms of action. This is understandable because there are time constraints, general flow of the movie, potential of overloading/confusing the audience, etc to keep in mind.
The other is that there is so much (too much, imo) emphasis placed on the personal relationships of the characters. Yeah, it makes for some great scenes but I found that it took away from the overarching plot line of "Harry Potter trying to kill Voldemort". It almost lightened the movie a bit too much when it should be a mostly dark, depressing film.
(Just for the record, I don't remember the books. If I remember correctly, J.K. Rowling did spend a significant amount of time developing the personal relationships but think about it in terms of percentages.)

One thing that I was really impressed with was the cinematography. The shots were amazing; the composition, the detail, the feel... if nothing else, this alone would have made it a good movie. And even though he didn't play a huge part in this movie, I was probably the most impressed with Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) cast-wise.

I enjoy the Harry Potter movies, I really do. But I think that anybody would benefit greatly from reading the books, even after watching them (I think I read the first book only after I watched the movie). For one thing, the books are great. And I find that reading the books, either before or after, makes everything fall into place that much more cleanly.

On a side note, the LEGO Harry Potter game looks ridiculously cute. And I would like to visit the Harry Potter theme park in Florida if I ever get the chance. Previews are a wonderfully great marketing tool.

Listening to right now: SS501 - Unlock

P.S. I chose probably one of the most trivial quotes from the entire movie as my title, lol.