Thuban Malfoy's Views on the Half-Blood Prince Movie
--------------*************--------------
My parents started to explain their actions during the last Wizarding war to me when I was about six, but it wasn't until I was eight that they started to get into the hard details. Many people may think that was a young age but they had to do it before I heard the half truths from other children or heard details on the Muggle television when I was at Mum's friend Hermione's house.
It was strange to learn that Harry Potter had told the story of his life to a Muggle woman. He used to put on his Invisibility Cloak, and then sit next to her at coffee shops and on trains whispering his story into her ear. The Muggle woman wrote a book for each year Mr. Potter should have been in school. She got most of the information right in books one through six. The seventh book is just plan wrong because she made it all up. Dad rolls his eyes at the name Scorpius, and Ms. Asteria Greengrass only went to one Malfoy Christmas Ball with Dad. Well, talking about the seventh book isn't why I'm here. I wanted to share with all you Muggles what I thought of the Half-Blood Prince movie.
Mum and Dad had read the Half-Blood Prince book to both Cam and me last year. They explained first that the story was from Mr. Potter's point of view and that he never liked the Malfoys. Dad also explained his actions and why he had to do what he did. I would do anything to save Mum's life, so I understand why he did it. Finally they explained Mum's relationship to Mr. Potter. Again I understand about girlfriends, Uncle Charlie, Uncle Fred and Uncle George have had a lot of them. So before Mum took Cam and me to the movie, we already had things explained to us.
I was confused when the movie started. They skipped the whole part about Mr. Potter becoming the owner of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, and then they had him showing up at The Burrow unannounced. Grandma knew he was coming, and she was waiting for him. These were minor things, but I don't understand why they had to change them. By the way, The Burrow looks a lot nicer than what they showed.
I was so happy that Dad had decided not to join us when the first scene with Grandmother was shown. He would have put a hex on the screen. WHAT IN THE MUGGLE WORLD WERE THOSE PEOPLE THINKING? The Muggle writer of the books had Grandmother described correctly. WHY DID THEY HAVE HER HAIR BLACK AND BLONDE? WHY DID SHE LOOK SO OLD?
My grandmother is one of the most beautiful witches in the world. She looks so young, many people who don't know us think she is my mum, not my grandmother. Narcissa Malfoy has long blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes.
The writers of the movie are lucky that Mum won't let me send them any owls. If any of you Muggles would be kind and send me the Muggle address of the writer and director of the Half-Blood Prince movie, I have bubotuber pus and dragon dung I need to send them. No one portrays my grandmother as an old woman with no sense of style and gets away with it.
The movie writers messed up the scene with Grandmother, Aunt Bella and Professor Snape. Grandmother was risking her life by going to see Professor Snape. But she had to do something. The Dark Lord gave my dad the task of letting Death Eaters inside Hogwarts and killing Albus Dumbledore as a punishment for my grandfather. That evil wizard was sure my father would be killed in his attempt. It was all explained in the book, why the movie writers didn't use it is puzzling.
As for Great Aunt Bella, they went a little overboard, I think. My mum thought she was right on. Great Aunt Bella was always nice around us. She loved Grandmother, Dad and us boys. But she was a real nutter. I think they got Professor Snape right.
The scenes at Borgin & Burkes and the train scenes were wrong and didn't make sense. Only my dad went to the shop, and he had to sneak away from Grandmother. Dad didn't tell Grandmother what he had planned. My Grandmother is very protective of those she loves. The scene writers missed another opportunity to show Grandmother's love for dad. Also they missed the opportunity to explain how dangerous Fenrir Greyback was. Dad lied about him being a friend of the family to scare Borgin. Dad had never seen Fenrir Greyback until he came through the cabinet at Hogwarts.
There were a lot of things that happened on the train that year. A number of the people on the train were talking about Mr. Potter being the Chosen One, how he was the wizard who would defeat the Dark Lord. Then Mr. Potter learned that Dad wasn't doing his Prefect duties that year, which made him think Dad was up to something. The first Slug Club meeting was on the train, and we learned why each person was asked. My mum does have the best Bat-Bogey Hex. (And she never cried over Mr. Thomas.) After the meeting, Mr. Potter followed Uncle Blaise into the closed compartment where dad was.
I don't understand why the movie writers rewrote the train scene and the first Slug Club meeting scene. It was better in the book. Aunt Luna didn't find Mr. Potter on the train, Dora Lupin did. So they missed showing that the Order of the Phoenix was looking after Mr. Potter and Hogwarts. They didn't talk about the Order enough in the movie. How sad. Many Order members gave their lives, and they were important to the downfall of the Dark Lord.
Cam and I couldn't stop laughing when we saw the scene where the lady playing Mum tied Mr. Potter's shoe. Mum does that for Serpens all the time. That's something you do for your children, not a boyfriend. She's never tied Dad's shoe, but he has untied her shoes and taken them off for her. He does that a lot for her when she is growing a baby. They always start snogging when he does that. Oh, sick… Back to my movie review.
Mum shouted when the writers had The Burrow burning up. That never happened. The Burrow is still standing. I slept there just two days ago. I don't know why they added that scene. They messed up with Greyback again. He was known to use his teeth more than his wand. And I think they were trying to say it was a full moon. Mr. Lupin used a potion so he wouldn't transform but Greyback would have been a werewolf. Either way Greyback would have tried to maul them. By the way, Uncle Ron was the wizard how finally brought him down, which released Remus Lupin, Uncle Bill and many others from their curses. Speaking of Uncle Bill, why wasn't he in this movie?
I could go on and on about what I didn't like, but I think I will stick to how the film showed my family. In the book, the Muggle writer showed that Dad was really torn by what he had to do. In the movie it came across that he was only worried about himself, but his actions were to save his family. Voldemort was staying in a wing of Malfoy Manor. Dad couldn't think of a way to save Grandmother. The Death Eaters could gain control of Azkaban, and could easily kill Grandfather at anytime. Oh, and Dad doesn't have a dark mark, never did, but that's pointless. He was a Death Eater for a year. An unwilling Death Eater, but still a Death Eater.
Dad wasn't the attacker in the bathroom. Mr. Potter was. It was written that way in the book, and even Grandma and Grandpa agree. Mr. Potter was very upset that he almost killed Dad. He didn't mean to do that, but he did mean to attack first.
I wish the movie had shown the following:
I wish the movie had shown less of:
Mr. Potter's sixth year at school revolved around three main themes.
The movie writers made the story too much about young love.