Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Directed by David Yates
Written by Steve Kloves, based on J.K. Rowling's novel
Cast Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Jim Broadbent, Bonnie Wright, Helena Bonham Carter
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417741/



Reviewed by Paivi
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth installation of the Potter -series is a story of Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) sixth Hogwarts wizard school year. The evil lord Voldemort has gained more and more strength and his impact has reached even the muggle world - bridges are collapsing and people are dying because of the work done by his Death Eaters. This affects also the wizarding school and the school is covered by extra protective spells to prevent the evil from coming inside the school grounds. However, even the best is not always enough, the evil has its ways, and this leads to events that make Harry once again lose someone important to him.

Voldemort and his Death Eaters are not the only pain the students in Hogwarts face. They are growing up and it is no less than sex that causes them trouble and heartache.

Hogwarts school gets a new Potions teacher, professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) and former Potions master, professor Snape (Alan Rickman) gets to teach the Defence against the Dark Arts (it's a pity all of the actual classes have been cut of the movie). Slughorn is not asked to Hogwarts by professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) without a reason, but he holds a secret Harry must find out, as this secret may help in destroying lord Voldemort.

Finally - professor Dumbledore takes Harry along with him in the action. The headmaster gives Harry a lot of new information on Voldemort and together they continue discovering the Evil Lords secrets in their attempt of destroying him once and for all.


Half-Blood Prince continues the Potter-saga in a very similar fashion as the couple of previous movies have done - it leaves most of the book's complex plotlines out. This is good in a way that it is impossible to squeeze everything from those enormous novels into a bit over 2-hour-movie. But even though something has been gained, something is also lost in this process, and Half-Blood Prince feels a bit hollow, as if it was made without a heart totally involved. The biggest flaw is probably the fact that even though the name of the movie is Half-Blood Prince, the mystery around the Prince is totally left out and the discovery of the Prince in the final scene seems almost corny.

The pains and sorrows of growing up are very prominent in the movie, so much it made me ask were they really that important? That so many scenes were included in the movie in the expense of the actual Harry-Voldemort -story? I would have preferred a deeper digging into the storyline that really matters, and leave the love life of the young ones less visible - after all it is not that much visible in the original story either.

The main trio of the saga have really grown up, but they still fit into their roles as before. Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) has grown up to be a total stunner and Rupert Grint's (Ron Weasley) talent as a comedian has strengthened on. Radcliffe has always had a bit stiff style of acting, and he continues the same way. Tom Felton (Harry's arch enemy Draco Malfoy) however looks perfectly like his father's son in his suit. Rickman as Snape and Gambon as Dumbledore are brilliant as always. It is wonderful to see these classic actors work so well in a movie targeted to young audiences.

Half-Blood Prince offers the fans of the saga a nice and working piece of magic and action, but don't expect to see a masterpiece.

Inkheart (2008)

Inkheart is a fantasy movie based on Cornelia Funke's novel of the same name. It is a story of a father, Mo (Brendan Fraser) and his 12-year-old daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett) - and they both love books. However, it has been nine years since Mo last time has read anything out loud to her daughter, and reason for that is that he has the power to bring the creatures from the book to our world. His skill has given him an extra name, Silvertongue.


This skill has its downside. Every time someone is transferred from a book to the real world, someone from our world is transferred to the book - always keeping the balance between the worlds. Nine years ago Meggie's mother (Sienna Guillory) was lost in a book called Inkheart, and ever since has Mo been trying to find a copy of that book for saving his wife and the mother of their daughter.

The evil Capricorn (Andy Serkis) had accidentally entered our world from Inkheart and he had become so fond of our world that he did not want to go back. And that's why he had been destroying every single piece of Inkheart he's able to get his hands on. He is also keen on getting Mo's power in his hands.

Mo has an ally, Dustfinger (Paul Bettany). also from the pages of Inkheart, and his will is to get back - to his family. Capricorn's quest for Mo's power, Mo and Dustfinger's quest for finding a copy of Inkheart and that way getting back to their loved ones - well, that's the story in a nutshell. There is also the girl , Meggie, who eventually plays a pretty important role in the story, Mo's aunt Elinor (Helen Mirren) who lives in a castle in Italy and adores her library, and also a young, amazingly beautiful boy Farid (Rafi Gavron - look out Orlando Bloom, you have a young challenger!).

Inkheart is an entertaining fantasy movie. It has an impressive cast - Mirren, Jim Broadbent (as the author of Inkheart the novel), Bettany, Fraser, Serkis... although it is not clear why are they all actually in the story, Mirren for example. And the story - well, it is a very basic fantasy story, but as Mo in the beginning says he has no control over the events that happen between the two worlds when he reads, suddenly towards the end there seems to be a lot of control and everything happens as the reader tells.

Even though the movie is targeted to young audiences, I would not recommend it to very young kids. Would it make kids afraid to read when they'd start fearing the events might come true? Maybe for some who'd be afraid to lose their mothers like Meggie did in the story. Some might be couraged to start reading books just because of that.

The movie is shot in beautiful surroundings - the mountains of Switzerland, the lakes of Italy, all extremely beautifully shown. Otherwise the visuals and effects are pretty average, although pyrotechnics by Dustfinger look pretty cool.

Recommended to fantasy lovers seeking for pure entertainment.



Directed by Iain Softley
Written by David Lindsay-Abaire, based on Cornelia Funke's novel
Cast Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Eliza Bennett, Sienna Guillory, Andy Serkis, Rafi Gavron, Jim Broadbent
IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0494238/

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) - movie review

David Fincher came to my knowledge a few years ago with his terrific horror movie Se7en. With that he owed me a few nights of sleep. Then came Fight Club that solidified Fincher's skills in my books. Couple of years back came Zodiac which was also a nice piece of work.

This time Fincher has taken a totally different kind of story in his hands - a romantic drama of a man who is born old and gets young all his life. The story is loosely based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920's.

Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is born in 1918 and his mother dies in childbirth. His father is devastated by her death - and even more when he sees his baby boy who looks more like a dying old man than a cute little newborn baby. He abandons him at the door of nursing home for old people, where he's taken care of by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson). Queenie believes all God's creatures deserve to live, and especially because she could not have children on her own, she takes Benjamin as her son.

Soon she realises that Benjamin is very special. He refuses to die as doctors predicted, and starts growing up, and at the same time getting young. When he meets a cute little blue eyed granddaughter of a lady living in the house, his life gets a new turn. Somehow the old young man and the girl get connected. The blue eyed girl grows up to be a stunning young lady called Daisy (Cate Blanchett) and eventually her and Benjamin's paths cross again.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a delicate romantic drama. The story holds up surprisingly well for its whole duration of 2 and a half hours. Surprisingly, because when I first heard about the movie, I thought the story sounds stupid. But it is far from stupid. It is a very sweet story, and even though you know exactly where events lead to, even just seeing other people get old and Benjamin get young is fascinating. The idea of being able to use all your old age wisdom and experience when young is interesting. But the idea has major downsides: the people around you just die of old age when you still continue to flourish. This will eventually lead to serious loneliness.

This is the third time Fincher and Pitt work together, and every time they do brilliant job together. It is beautiful to notice how Pitt has grown into a great actor after his "cute boy" years, and him working with one of without doubt the greatest actresses of our time, Blanchett, is fantastic to watch. Blanchett's variability is just amazing, how she can do pretty much any role she's given, and always in such a passion that captures the viewer deep into the story she's telling with her presence.

Benjamin Button was nominated for 13 Oscars which made it the most nominated film this year.



Directed by David Fincher
Written by Eric Roth
Cast Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond, Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton
IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0421715/

Låt den rätte komma in (Let the right one in) (2008) - movie review

The funny thing how two movies of the same subject - love story between a human and a vampire - are released at about the same time. And even funnier thing is, how different these two movies are from each other!

Let the right one in is nothing like Twilight. It is a Swedish film based on a Swedish novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay and it has been directed by Tomas Alfredson. It tells a story of a lonely, bullied 12-year-old school boy Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) who lives with her mother in a suburb of a small Swedish town and visits his father occasionally at his cabin outside the town.

Suddenly a strange, dark haired girl (Lina Leandersson) moves to the neighbour with her father. She introduces herself as Eli, and becomes an odd friend of Oskar - always meeting him outside after dark.


Strange deaths start to happen in the previously peaceful neighbourhood, but Eli's and Oskar's friendship gets deeper even though she tells him they should not be friends. For a little boy without friends a powerful vampire as an ally is a nice asset against the other boys.

Let the right one in is such a different vampire movie. It focuses on a perfectly traditional Swedish neighbourhood with perfectly traditional people - drunks, loners, working moms, lonely kids and gangs. And then there comes the vampire that changes the balance, dramatically.

The movie is dark and very grim, but it is not horror in the very sense. And it sees the world via the eyes of a pre-teenager. It is not a movie for children even though it's central characters are young in age. It is a story of loneliness and what loneliness can make you do. Desperate things.

Directed by Tomas Alfredson
Written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, based on his own novel
Cast Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson
IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139797/

Twilight (2008) - movie review

The inner teenager woke up inside of me when I read the novel Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, and despite the pretty negative reviews, I wanted to check the movie with my own eyes. I thought that even though the cinematic values might not be that great, the fandom, excitement and entertainment values might be ok.

The story in the movie follows pretty closely the one in the novel: Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) moves from Phoenix to her father Chief Swan (Billy Burke) in the cloudiest part of the state of Washington, a small town called Forks. There she goes to a new school, gets new friends and gets curious of the strange family of Cullens, especially their son Edward (Robert Pattinson) who sits by her side in biology.

Edward acts like she hates Bella and that makes her even more curious, and finally she finds the answer: Edward and all his family are vampires, who have adapted themselves to the normal life. Instead of being afraid, Bella falls in love with Edward - whose visible hate turns out to be pure lust - for Bella's blood.

The Cullens are "good" vampires, but there are also "bad" vampires, and Bella's and Edward's relationship gets Bella in great danger because the bad vampires want her blood as well. But Edward and the Cullens promise to protect her, as this is the first time in almost 100 years that Edward finally falls in love...

My expectations of the entertainment values were a bit too high, because I felt very disappointed in the movie. I did not like the idea that instead of being insecure about herself as in the book, Bella was selfish and not interested in people. Also her overwhelming love towards Edward was somehow missing, the chemistry between Bella and Edward was nowhere near the passion that is oozing from the pages of the novel. Overall acting was not natural at all.

I am planning on reading the sequels and will probably check also the movie sequel, which will be directed by Chris Weitz the director of for example the Golden Compass, with which movie version I think he succeeded ok. Hopefully it will capture the story's atmosphere a bit better than Twilight.



Directed by Catherine Hardwicke
Written by Melissa Rosenberg, based on Stephenie Meyer's novel Twilight
Cast Kristen Stewart (Bella), Robert Pattinson (Edward), Billy Burke (Chief Swan), Cam Gigandet (James), Peter Facinelli (Carlisle), Ashley Greene (Alice), Nikki Reed (Rosalie), Taylor Lautner (Jacob), Kellan Lutz (Emmett), Jackson Rathbone (Jasper), Anna Kendrick (Jessica), Michael Welch (Mike)
IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1099212/

The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) - dvd review

The Spiderwick Chronicles is yet another movie version of a children's book. However, this time it works and the result is an entertaining movie for both children and adults, with all fantastic and original fairy tale creatures and a well made story.

A reluctant Jared (Freddie Highmore) moves to his great-great-uncle's old mansion with his twin brother (Highmore's double role), sister (Sarah Bolger) and mother (Mary-Louise Parker) after his mother's and father's divorce. The reluctant mind changes when he finds a curious field guide from the attic. It is not a common field guide, but a guide to a magical world with amazing creatures. With the help of the book Jared gets to know all the creatures living in and around the house, both good and evil.

Mark Waters who has previously made mainly comedies (Freaky Friday, Mean Girls) holds the reins very well and the result is an adventure in a fairy tale world inside our own. Arthur Spiderwick's field guide is wonderful and the characters both funny and scary. Even though entertaining, because of the scary monsters I would not recommend this to the smallest of the family.

Directed by Mark Waters
Written by Karey Kirkpatrick, David Berenbaum and John Sayles, based on the novel by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
Cast Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger, Mary-Louise Parker, David Strathairn
IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416236/