In July, Screen Rant posted the first trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. That trailer was more of a teaser and I really dug it personally. Today, we have for you the brand new trailer, released internationally for your viewing pleasure.
I should probably let it be known that I am not a Harry Potter fan. The running joke amongst my movie-going friends is that I refuse to see them in theater even when we organize group events to do so. To this day, my record holds and I’ve not seen any Harry Potter film on the big screen. It’s not that I dislike the films (I enjoyed them on DVD), it’s just that I haven’t felt motivated ever to see these. There are many reasons why and you could probably find some of them by reading the comments in previous Screen Rant threads on the topic.
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However, there’s a good chance I’ll see at least one of the next three in theater though (remember, Harry Potter 7 is two movies) since I want to start reviewing movies and these are probably important ones to see.
With each installment in the franchise, the films seem to be turning more and more into a visual spectacle loaded with intense special effects. From the trailer, this film is clearly no exception.
Take a look for yourselves and see what you think:
The film appears action-packed and more mature-themed then ever as we see Harry, Hermione and Ron along with the rest of our familiar residents of Hogwarts growing up into young adults. The trailer shows Ron and some girl (Lavender Brown) making out(!), Harry trying to be a playboy and lots and lots of fire. I guess these are the three key marketing points this time around.
Harry Potter 6 was originally scheduled for release on November 21st but Warner Bros. pushed the date all the way back to next summer for it to act as a summer tentpole event. This caused a big stir amongst the fans because it was very last-minute and even though the film appears to have been completed (or very near completion), we won’t see it in theaters until July 17th, 2009. To me, this makes no sense because this film will make an insane amount of money and everyone who wants to see it, will see it whether it be November or July, but I suppose studios want to vie for the title of “biggest summer box office.”
Interestingly, the trailer ends by stating “this year.” So does that mean it still is coming soon in the U.K.? That’s extremely doubtful since it was announced to come out there on July 17th, 2009 like everywhere else. Unless of course they want this to be the most pirated movie of all time. Maybe this trailer is older and just wasn’t released till now. But even that is strange because the text at the end is the easiest and quickest part to fix.
What do you think of the trailer?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is due out July 17th, 2009.
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80 Comments
Oops nevermind….
i wish they would though…
I thought the girl was Hermine (?) i got excited and didn’t think…
THIS MOVIE LOOKS AMAZING!!! I love all the Harry Potter films and I’m ALWAYS excited to go see them…even though this one doesn’t come out for another 9 months…I’m so EXCITED!!! This movie looks like it’s going to be Brilliant, just like all the others!
Please no one mention Twilight….this has nothing to do with Twilight. It’s about Harry Potter. I’m sure there’s a Twilight section somewhere on this site. Please and Thank You.
For everyone commenting on pushing to the movie back for a summer release- I found an article and The Justice League Alliance (right JLA ?) movie was set to be released for that summer and due to the strike, they had no script and that was one reason they switched HP. Which in the business sense would make sense.
~Vic is right, often I think people forget a studio is a business first and foremost.
~dlmca- AH! Romilda…I knew it had to have been someone mentioned a bit.
Love the trailer!
One reason I heard for pushing the movie’s release to 2009 was because Daniel Radcliffe is staring on Broadway in Equus – in which he appears nude! WB thought it wasn’t appropriate to have their star in both a nude scene in a play and a movie aimed at younger audiences at the same time.
WoW I love this book. It actually made me cry at the end. hehe. But I can’t wait. I was disappointed when I found out it came out in JUlY instead of November 21st as it had been set. and I dont think that because the film is coming out in the summer that it will help with the amount of people going. I believe if a person wants to go see a movie they will no matter what month or the weather. I remember when I believe it was the 4th movie came out and it came out in November and it was sold out I had to wait about 3 days so I could go and see it.Its just a shame that warner brothers are more concerned with a title that providing their customers with satisfaction. WB is still going to get their money.
As to your comment about the amount of fire in the trailer, if you had read the book you would know that there is a lot of fire used. Also Dumbledor has a reason for the insane amount of fire. Read the book first. Then you’ll know what’s going on.
i cannot wait for this movie. more Tom (Malfoy) can never be a bad thing;
and about the opening, isnt it because of Twilight? and the fact that they didnt need two huge opening in one month? i thought thats what i heard, maybe not.
but im excited none the less (:
No, it was because they could get it opened in more IMAX theatres in July. Something like 60% more I think.
@Nadine:
YOU’RE COMPLETELY RIGHT! The MAIN reason WB decided to push back the 6th Harry Potter film is because the writer’s strike affected them just like it affected everyone else. WB has NO SCRIPTS which means they have NO MOVIES for the summer 2009…so they decided to push the Harry Potter film back so that they would have a movie to release during that time. Another reason is obviously MONEY, but I don’t care because I want the the Harry Potter films to make TONS of Money so that they can keep making them better and better…plus Summer movies are more fun anyways because more people go to see them. : D
@mattali, you missed the point entirely, heh.
If I read all the books then I would be a knowledeable veteran and fan of the series… the whole point of me wanting to write this is because I don’t know anything about the series and the angle is that I actually think this next film will be good and that it could draw me in…as a non-fan becoming a fan.
No, I didn’t miss your point but am questioning whether or not your assumption is valid that you are not a fan. You state that you don’t know anything about the series, but you said you have enjoyed watching the previous movies on DVD, i.e. you do know something about the series and you must have been enough of a fan to want to see the DVDs. Are you gauging your fandom on whether or not you’ve seen the movie at the theater?
If you want to be taken seriously as a movie reviewer, you will need to be more knowledgeable about your subject matter than your readers whether you are a fan or not. Otherwise your credibility as a reviewer will come into question.
@mattali
Sorry, a prerequisite for reviewing a movie (or heck, even TALKING about it) does not necessarily include having read the book it is based on.
A movie should work as a standalone piece of storytelling for people who are not familiar with the source material.
Vic
It is true, Vic, that reading the source material is not a prerequisite for discussing/reviewing a movie. However, if a person wants to gain credibility as a reviewer, knowing your subject (at least in movie form) is crucial. Because HP is a series, I think it would be very difficult to have a review of one of the later movies taken seriously if the writer was not familiar with the plots as they have been developed in the earlier movies in the series.
@mattali
First off, Rob is not reviewing a movie – he’s just talking about a movie trailer. And what is the purpose of a movie trailer? To introduce an upcoming film to people who don’t know anything about it.
Rob doesn’t review movies here at Screen Rant, he just covers movie news. I can tell you that when I review a movie (and no doubt most other reviewers do the same) I do not go do “research” before writing a review. I go see the movie, note what I like or dislike about it, how it impacts me, then I go home and write a review. I take it in just as the average person would.
Now if this were a Harry Potter website I would agree with you 100% on the need to be familiar with the books.
Best regards,
Vic
Rob wrote in his review of the trailer “However…since I want to start reviewing movies…”
That quote was what I was speaking to especially since his review of the trailer had erroneous information in it. Because trailers are such a string of isolated snapshots of a story, that is easy to do and one must write a rather open-ended review as well as avoid jumping to conclusions. My point is that it’s easy to make mistakes if you are uninformed. It’s difficult to take movie reviewers seriously if their reviews are loaded with misinformation.
By the way, thank you for your comments, Vic. I appreciate them.
@mattali
Doh! I missed that.
Glad to have you join us here, BTW. Always happy to have another intelligent, well-spoken commenter join the fray.
Vic
Thank you, Vic! You are very kind! I have enjoyed the discussion and reading the views of others. There are some very avid HP fans here with some interesting comments.
@mattali,
Had I seen this movie, would I not then know what happened within it? That review would then have no misinformation.
I still don’t understand your point. It sounds like you think before someone gives an opinion on something, they must have read/seen ALL the prior material on it. As an example, can people who’ve not read the watchmen graphic novel comment on the trailer?…or review the film when it comes out? They don’t know the story…or the characters…or how it plays out…
And again, This isn’t a review and I am not reviewing the books or prior movies. Eventually, I would like to review movies on my own but that has nothing to do with this, other than me pointing out that I should see more of these films (which I mention).
Even more to the point, I don’t know how much more I can clarify the point that I’ve not read the books, I’ve not seen the last film, and I haven’t seen any in theatre. Again, that was the angle.
Your mention of the Watchmen issue is a good one since I’ve only seen the trailer for the movie otherwise I know nothing about the story or characters, so I will use that and myself as an example. I’m not saying that if a person isn’t an expert on something they “can’t” write about it; what I’m saying is that if one is lacking knowledge on a topic but would like to write about it, they must do so carefully. Because of that for example, I don’t feel I’m qualified to make any comments on Watchmen other than that the trailer did not make me want to see the movie. Anything else I’d write concerning it, I fear, would show my ignorance and be a waste of time for true fans to read, and at best would be misleading to anyone who, like me, wasn’t already familiar with the story. I know there are many fans out there who are much more enlightened and capable of writing an accurate reflection on the trailer. And who knows, if they do and I read them, maybe I’ll change my mind about seeing the movie.
Did that help to clarify what I was trying to say, or was it even more confusing?
hey mattali, your comments definately clarify your opinion on that matter.
But that’s just how you would choose or choose not to write about something and there lies the difference.
I really wanted to write about this with the purpose of talking about me being completely new to Harry Potter and knowing barely anything about it.
Basically, I don’t know much about this topic and I didn’t enjoy trailers and the marketing material for the previous films enough to draw me in. These new trailers for this film in particular are changing that and I wanted to write about it and explain my personal background on the matter.
Screen Rant doesn’t just report news, and we don’t just write about things we are knowledgeable about. How many of our writers do you think have read Twilight? None. But we have a pile of articles on that. We write about what we like to write about, what we think people may enjoy reading or knowing about and we give our own opinions on the news rather than just feed readers info ripped off of sources.
The issue is, you’re not into that system or you don’t like my opinions on this specific piece. Either way is cool and our goal is to encourage discussion. However, when you post as you did, almost in an attempt to tell us what we should or should not do (or in this case me), that’s not a great comment to read. And it sounds like you forget that it’s just your opinion on how you would do things differently.
If you would like to write in your way somewhere, that’s awesome, I encourage it. But what you think may be a “waste of time for true fans to read” is just that, what you think. Perhaps true fans may be interested in the gag that I’ve not seen all the prior movies and I need some motivation to see the next, etc. etc. Or that they may be able to turn a non-fan into some who looks forward to see the upcoming films. Or maybe, I want to write an article to make fun of something I know nothing about because it has a terrible poster or a rediculous cast. Why can’t I do that? Maybe it’s a good read for someone and I can relay some info about the movie that some may want to know. The point is, it’s my choice and part of what we do here at Screen Rant. More importantly, It’s my effort being put into the articles, heh.
Check out my other articles though, I love comments and the more the merrier.
-Rob
I don’t mind your opinions, Rob, it was the misinformation that bothered me. Your opinions are yours to make, and you can write as many as you’d like. When you stray outside the realm of opinion; however, it’s wise to check your facts before writing just to make sure you remain a credible author.
By incorrect facts and misinformation, and my “sadly” lacking accurate details…I’m assuming ALL of that from your many posts are referring to the one 1-second scene of Ron kissing Lavender? The one sentence in the article I corrected on the day of?
Or were there many many many other mistakes still in the article? Geeze man.
“I love comments and the more the merrier.”
After reading your last post, I’m afraid you don’t love my comments!
That’s ok; I’ve not taken offense.
But to answer your question, except for the misuse of a word (one that is commonly misused), it looked good to me. I thought originally there were also some misspellings, but if your article was where I saw them, you have corrected them.
lol. The only edit I made was putting Lavender Brown’s name in there.
You take offense? what about me!
Your comments made it sound like I messed every detail and fact and it was full of crazy horrible (and sad) misinformation when all I did was guess the wrong lady from the one-second scene. I’m forgiving myself on that one since I’ve not read the books but know who Ron ends up with.
My fact-checking doesn’t including “Who does Ron kiss in this scene is this movie”, hehe, especially since I *thought* I knew who it was. Me = wrong, but corrected a long time ago
You are free to take offense if you’d like even though I didn’t intend to give it.
“I ‘thought’ I knew who it was.”
Knowledge is power. 
That was my point. Staying in the realm of opinion is safe. You take real chances when you jump to conclusions…especially if the jump is the wrong way!
And knowing is half the battle.
Now on to my newer posts, I would love to see your comments on them. Especially the Superman one.
Hm, Superman…I’m not sure I can give much input there. I’m rather new to the whole comic book genre. I know a little about Batman but only because of the movies.
Wow! I never read the comments on Screen Rant. I just came here to see the HBP trailer. But, I wanted to know what everyone’s opinion was and came across the discussion between Mattali and Rob. I liked reading your posts especially since they are more mature (meaning mainly younger people post). I have to ask then, Rob, are there any openings at Screen Rant? If you don’t need to do any research on anything you see or write, I’d imagine I could do what you do! But, I must add (just as a friendly jab), I read most of the books understand Mattali’s point. (I will be reading HBP before the movie comes out) Heck, he writes extremely well. Maybe he should review for Screen Rant.
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