HP 6... Finally

So, last night I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and very good it was too. As far as I can see this installment is up there with Azkaban in terms of the series' best. I thought the first half was excellent with loads of laughs, mostly at Ron's expense. This got me thinking, a lot of the humour in the first half comes from teenage awkwardness surrounding burgeoning relationships and in many ways it felt like an American teen-comedy, but how many British comedies like this do we see? I can't think of one, sign Ron up for one quick!

The second half of the film was just as good but does seem to take more liberties with the book. Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing, films 1 and 2 are the most direct adaptations and are really slow, whereas Azkaban manages to find a clear path through the plot to deliver a strong film. So, back to 6: I don't mind the screenwriter and director changing things if it makes sense, so we'll have to wait and see why the Weasley's house gets torched and why Harry CHOSE not to intervene in the unfortunate event whilst in the book he CAN'T. We'll have to wait and see.

Finally, I saw the film in an single screen independent cinema in the Lake District (the Alhambra in Keswick http://www.keswick-alhambra.co.uk/). Small cinemas like this only get the prints a week or so after the big chains (Vue, Odeon, Cineworld) have finished with them. However, they are important because they allow people in smaller towns to see films they wouldn't otherwise get the chance to see. For instance yesterday's programme was: Ice Age 3 at 2pm, HP6 at 6pm and Bruno at 9pm. They also try to cater for their local area, sometimes showing older films, classics and often running films by local filmmakers too. More than just this, the tickets were cheap as was the coke and popcorn!

So here's to HP 6 (four stars me reckons) and also here's to independent cinemas, for offering a different choice.