Harry #6

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson David Yates directed

This is a compulsory movie-watching. Com’on. I have read all Harry Potter books and watched all movies so far, I am not going to miss one episode. The need to have a complete collection drives many people. If you are one of us, just go. Resistance is, not necessary.

The good news is: it ain’t bad. It is, however, a bridge movie designed for the next one. (I felt the same about book #6.) I am not sure one can appreciate this movie without having watched the previous ones or read the book.

Of course, this geezer found himself confused with the plot and wrecking his brain trying to remember the book. Good thing Kid was next to me, so I extracted many of her memories. (Faster than using a pensieve.)
That is the problem with the Harry Potter series: the unbearable wait. We waited patiently for the next book and waited patiently again for the next movie. When they final come out, we have forgotten the details. Note to J.K. Rowling wannabes: learn from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Each of Sherlock Holmes’s stories is appreciable on its own.

That’s why I refreshed my Harry Potter that very night. Stop reading if you didn’t read Harry Potter #7 book.

• Voldermort was frustrated for not being able to kill Harry. He blamed his wand. First it was a twin with Harry’s. When Lucius Malfoy’s also failed. He kidnapped Ollivander the wand maker. In book #7, he found Elder’s Wand and thought it would do the job.
• Elder’s Wand, the most powerful one, choose its new master when the current one is defeated. Draco, unknowingly, became the new master when he knocked it off from the badly weakened Dumbledore. Snape killed Dumbledore, but never mastered the wand.
• But Voldermort misunderstood and killed Snape. Snape, before his death, poured out his memory. That’s how Harry knew that Snape was his protector all along.
• The last Horcrux was Harry himself. To kill Voldermort, Harry must die first. But since he self-sacrificed to save others, he, without the part of Voldermort in him, came back to life.
• Harry defeated Draco and took his wand (his own was accidentally destroyed) and, therefore, became the new master. When Voldermort attacked Harry with the wand, it backfired and killed Voldermort instead.
• There were 7 Horcruxes: Tom Riddle’s Diary, destroyed by Harry with Basilisk’s fang; Gaunt’s Ring (also the resurrection stone), destroyed by Dumbledore with Gryffindor’s Sword; Slytherin’s Locket, destroy by Ron Weasley with the same sword; Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup, destroyed by Herimone with Basilisk’s fang; Ravenclaw’s diadem, destroyed by Crabbe’s Fiendfyre; Nagani the snake, slayed by Neville Longbottom; and Harry Potter himself.