In which...Dumbledore prepares Harry.
Highlights:
- "The Other Minister" and "Spinner's End": great opening two chapters, with a graceful and ingenious recap of events in the previous five books, then a truly puzzling and ominous start to the action in Snape's house.
- Sectumsempra
- More teen angst
- Dumbledore's theories/the Pensieve/HORCRUXES
- Turning-Point-That-Must-Not-Be-Named
When the movie came out, I read an article about the screenwriters having trouble adapting the book because, as they claimed, flashbacks are always boring and you can't have a movie filled with flashbacks. So, to those writers, the Pensieve journeys were just flashbacks. Too bad. They cut most of them out and actually added a gross action sequence involving the Burrow getting bombed and Harry and Ginny kissing in a cornfield. The Pensieve scenes are the most important in the book. They're the setup for Harry's task (Book 7). And - in case the fact that they contain tons of necessary information is not enough of an argument for keeping them - they are gripping. Okay, fine. Stupid writers.
My point about the movies, as we wait for the two Deathly Hallows films, is: the film adaptations have been sometimes saccharine (1 and 2), sometimes aesthetically brilliant and true (3), and sometimes tragically unfaithful, cutting details but that were both deeply meaningful and of vital importance in the unfolding of Book 7 (3, 5, 6). The fourth movie is the most faithful, I think, and is still funny, visually interesting, easy to follow, and rich. So what's the problem? Rowling, in the end, proved to be a thorough and thoughtful storyteller. These books don't have a whole lot of unnecessary elements, especially where the plot is concerned, and especially in the final three or four books. The films have tended to be rash and short sighted. We'll see how they reconcile the information they've left out (don't get me started) now that they do have to actually film the final book.
Nerd alert!
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