“[W]e are stuck with director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves, who, sadly, both seem to think they are way smarter than Rowling.
So much of what went wrong with Half-Blood Prince were things that were wonderful in the books and tweaked into nonrecognition by the filmmakers. And some of the great nuggets of scenes that were cut out (the Muggle President scene and the Dursley’s, for instance) would have been so much better than the scenes they added (like the Bridge attack and the attack on the Burrow). It does look like they believe the changes are improvements when they just aren’t up to par for me. These are things I mentioned in my review, but I can’t help but get nervous that these same filmmakers will make the same mistakes on the last two films.
The one thing Potter book fans have going for them is the splitting of the story into two films. By having twice as much time to tell the story, my hope is that they’ll keep in as much of the stuff from the book as possible. While that doesn’t guarentee they’ll stay faithful to Rowling’s writing, they won’t have the old excuse, “There just wasn’t enough time.”
While I do agree that they added some unneeded stuff, I felt the bridge scene was so visually well done I didn't mind it. and I am happy the director is staying on till the end, because I was completely blown away by the visuals of this film, I thought they did an amazing job, the writing could have been a bit more faithful, but I felt they did a good job of including most of what was needed. I really look forward to seeing the next two after seeing this film.
I hated the fact that they attacked the Burrow! It's not in that book or any book for that matter. I agree with Mr. Orr…they really aren't smarter than Rowling. I wish they would have included more about the Half Blood Prince in the movie–it's in the name for goodness sakes!!!
I'm curious to see how they divide up the two films. I've just finished reading Book 7 again and had a hard time finding a good breaking point. About the first half of the book moves quite slow due to Rowling wanting to develop characters further and tell interpersonal stories–all things that would be difficult to convey on film.