Harry Potter Half Blood Prince movie - A brief review

I can’t wait for the last line to give my verdict. Instead of reading this, you better get behind the queue of the box office. Yes, it is the best Harry Potter film of the series, till now. I was fortunate enough to watch the 1st day 1st show at Fame.

The lead characters played by Daniel Radcliffe (as Harry), Rupert Grint (as Ron), Emma Watson (as Hermione), Michael Gambon (as Dumbledore), Jim Broadbent (as Slughorn), Alan Rickman (as Snape), and others are really good. Daniel, Rupert and Emma have simply grown as actors. Their acting has matured a lot (probably with all the acting stints besides harry potter series, helped a lot). The characters themselves have matured a lot, so it does make sense to have seasoned actors. The whole film is dark, in the sense that a lot of mean, evil and bloody battles are going on, both mentally and on the ground with or without wands. Harry, Ron and Hermione provide a bit of comic relief in between with their cute love affair and their emotional in-fights revolving around their attraction for their respective partner. The romantic angles have been beautifully cinematized and provide a lot of depth to their characters. The most vivid and beautifully cinematized part of the film is where Dumbledore and Harry go to collect the Horcrux. The scene with Dumbledore’s wand and fire comes out of the cover of the book. Marvelous and chilling at the same time. Few unmentionable scenes seemed to have been shoddily shot whereas most have been really good, with awesome camera movements. There are a lot of stunning visual effects in this film with obvious reasons but all have been beautifully done. Just to make sure you are not under any wrong impression, there aren’t much Quidditch in this film. Just enough to make sure you don’t miss it. The climax of the film has been changed a bit, possibly taking in mind about kids as viewers. But it seems Harry didn’t even try to do anything in that scene where Snape kills Dumbledore. If a person hasn’t read the book, the film would seem really really amazing to him/her. Since I have read the book, I had to critically analyze the film in all respects. But I must say this film has impressed me a lot. A must see for everyone.

~Lots of Love~

Terminator Salvation - A brief review

I want to start with a confession. I have never seen Terminator 1 although Terminator 2 has been my all time favorite movie. It is only rare that such cases occur where a sequel is more popular than its prequel. Terminator is possibly the biggest example. Anyone who has seen Terminator would soon recognize Arnold Schwarzenegger and his robotic T800 act. Terminator 1,2 & 3 all saw Arnold in his prime. Terminator Salvation however is different, the difference being the absence (almost) of Arnold. Fans of Arnold would be really sad by this. After all Terminator movie and Arnold go hand in hand.

John Connor has grown up to be mankind’s savior (or some believe it to be). Thus the whole story out here is of surviving the menace of machines after the Judgement Day. Christian Bale as John Connor does a pretty good job as does Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright. It is primarily a very fast and predictive storyline primarily meant for kids, I guess. But I believe the storyline should have been more strong and they should have got in bigger actors. Arnold gets a blink and miss role which should not have been. The graphics and effects are good but expected better of such a highly anticipated sequel. I was hoping they would show how John sends the T800 into his past to save himself. I was disappointed. Sound effects and lighting should have been better. Overall a highly anticipated film with pretty average of everything you see. Sometimes you wouldn’t even believe it’s a Terminator film. To be honest I went expecting a lot more out of this especially after a good sequel of Terminator 3. At the end they even left some areas which can be explored (read another sequel). I would rather watch Terminator 2 yet again instead of watching a sequel of this quality. But yes terminator fans should go and watch this movie.

~Lots of Love~