Since I had to look elsewhere for DVD details (to decide whether to buy the 2-disc or one-disc film), I thought I'd post here:
1-Disc Wide screen and Full Screen DVD
*Includes both a wide screen and full screen version of the film.
*No special features
*RRP $28.98
2-Disc Digital Copy Special Edition DVD
*Widescreen version only
*Additional scenes (6:31)
*Close-Up with the Cast and Crew of Harry Potter special. Matthew Lewis ("Neville Longbottom") and Alfred Enoch ("Dean Thomas") lead us on an entertaining look at the cast of Harry Potter as they explore their interests away from acting and spend a day on set with the production team (28:30)
*J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life: A fascinating and intimate look into the life of J.K. Rowling over the last year of writing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." (49:32)
*One Minute Drills: The cast has 60 seconds to describe their character's personality, history, relationships and other traits before time runs out (6:43)
*What's On Your Mind: Hosted by Tom Felton, the cast is put on the spot when asked a series of rapid-fire questions on their likes and dislikes. (6:41)
*Universal's "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" Sneak Peek: Get an "inside look" at the amazing world of magic and excitement being created at Universal Orlando® Resort in Florida (11:38)
*Digital Copy of the theatrical film (2nd disc)
*RRP $34.99
I can't believe the negative reviews. I read the book and thought the filmmakers did a fantastic job with it. Anyone who wants a film to be an exact replica of any book should do themselves a favor and just read the book again. Am looking forward to enjoying it again (and again) on DVD. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Warner Brothers is trying to fool us again - calling this an "Ultimate Edition" when it is NOT the extended version of the film. It comes with behind the scenes extras and commentaries, but the movie itself is the same! I expect this is because they decided after the first 2 Ultimate Editions that they would wait and re-release all 8 movies at once in another Ultimate Edition, but this time a Box Set with extended versions of all films - to entice everyone to buy all the movies yet again. Hold off for now and watch your DVD copies - next year we can all buy the REAL Ultimate Editions!
This is my second favorite of the Harry Potter books, but my absolute least favorite of the movies, by far.
Acting was stilted. Too many story changes. No "magic" at all felt during the movie. I know it should be dark because of the story line, but the director and whoever wrote the screenplay totally ruined it for me.
At the end of the book, when Severus yells at Harry... "don't call me coward!" That is a climactic moment and it was completely left out of the movie!
The whole backstory of Voldemorts mother and childhood are left out.
If it was too much movie for one book, then pick up the pace. It totally dragged. I will not watch it again.
If this same director is doing the next two movies, I won't bother seeing them. I would give the movie ZERO stars if I could.
This is not a review of the movie, but rather of the poor job Warner Home Video has done with the Blu-ray video transfer. There are horizontal bands visible in various scenes throughout the movie. They are not constantly visible, but appear primarily in scenes where there are large areas of darkness - though of course that means they are visible in quite a few scenes of this very dark movie.
The bands are not being produced by my player - I can see them on all three of my Blu-ray players, including my PS3 and two computers with Blu-ray drives. The bands are part of the image and are visible when the movie is freeze-framed.
I recommend that those considering a purchase refrain from buying this disc until and unless a replacement is offered by Warner Home Video.
I own over 200 Blu-ray discs, and this is the first time I have seen this issue on any transfer. It is obvious to me that this disc was mastered incorrectly.
I along with many other people bought year 3&4 expecting the deleted scenes to be added to the movies since year 1&2 had them. I was disappointed as most were that WB chose do not offer this option on further releases with out making their decision clear in the press release. If you offer something on the initial launch of a product you should make it clear if you remove a major selling feature of that product. It was not false advertising as WB never stated their would be extended cut of the movie on 3&4... but it is misleading.
The audio on the Blu-Ray set was perhaps the worst I have hardly heard. I should clarify, background and special effects audio was clear as far as I could tell but nearly all the voice audio was unbelievably bad - garbled in many places, muffled in others, too low to hear in other spots - I believe that less than half the voice audio could be understood - incredible, must not have had any test audiences.
AND the movie was so disjointed, and lack of intelligible audio so disturbing that finally the only thing left was to sit back and enjoy the video special effects (exception: try to take a close look at the mid-ground items in the storage room scenes ).
Half Blood Prince was one of my favorite books in the series so I was looking forward to finally watching the film which I just did. Sadly, even the 3 cups of coffee I had today could barely keep me awake for this dreadful, dull and horribly depicted film. How it is possible that a franchise with as much going for it as Harry Potter could allow this to happen?
My own two cents:
1. There was way too much time spent on and with Horace Slugworth. He had no fire and to watch all his onscreen time was an exercise in patience.
2. One of my favorite story lines in the book was Tom Riddle's family. They were so well written and interesting, they could have taken 15 minutes of time from Sluggy and that unfunny running gag of Ron's stalking admirer and invested us in getting to know Tom's people.
3. I understand the books/films get darker as they progress. I get this however one of the things I have always loved was the whimsical and magical objects and beings such as Nearly Headless Nick, Moaning Myrtle, moving staircases, howlers and talking paintings. It's like this was no longer Hogwarts, a school of wizardry but a broken down castle with no element of anything magical.
4. There are always going to be people who complain about what the film didn't cover and what was in the film but not the book but if you're going to tamper with a book such as HP, MAKE IT INTERESTING.
Let's do this one over. Can we please? I'd rather sit through a half hour with Dolores Umbridge, incessently meowing cats while she sips tea from her dainty teacup as her magic pen writes (painfully) on my hand one thousand time, "I must not write unkind reviews" (true as they may be). - Kids - Science Fiction - Fantasy - Adventure'
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