Adaptations: Trailer Thoughts

I guess this really is a wait-and-see kind of deal.

News about this movie (namely, that it's rated PG and that the ending has been altered from that of the book) has only compounded my prior concerns about the book-to-screen adaptation of Half-Blood Prince (specifically not feeling that I've seen anything from Bonnie Wright in the movies so far to suggest that she's up to selling Harry and Ginny's (in my opinion, already undersold) Great and Epic Love). This trailer made me feel more optimistic than previous ones have, though - particularly the images of a cursed Katie Bell flying up into the air and the lake full of Inferi: both, to me, look like they will be haunting on the big screen, and also build visually on what Rowling originally wrote. Everything else cautions for reserved judgement - it's hard to tell from this two-and-a-half minute package how the somewhat disparate tones and storylines of the book are all being condensed. As a book, Half-Blood Prince has its strengths and weaknesses - the history of Tom Riddle's transformation into Voldemort serves as a well-executed example of Rowling's ability to spin stories, but cumulatively, there's something about it that screams "penultimate book in the series!" just moving pieces into place for the last installment.

To some extent, I don't go into the movies with terribly strong expectations anymore. Alfonso Cuaron's decision to streamline the plot for Prisoner of Azkaban made that film work very well, but also set the movies off on their own narrative, for better or worse. To me, that streamlining made Goblet of Fire a scattered, pale imitation of my favorite book in the series. I'm interested to see what ultimately makes it into the Deathly Hallows movie(s). Off the top of my head, I can think of a few characters who've been effectively written out of the movie narrative who figure into some of the book's biggest moments. If Fleur's not present (the dulling down of her character is one of my chief issues with the Goblet of Fire movie), what will be the incident that forces Harry, Ron and Hermione out of their normal lives and into that of fugitives? With Dobby absent since the Chamber of Secrets movie, will his death (one of the most wrenching moments of Deathly Hallows) be written out of the movie? Most have been solid adaptations of their source material, condensing a lot of plot, characters, and mythology into a few hours of story, but the more time has passed, the more I feel alienated from the movies as a fan of the books.