Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Rob and I went to see this film on Wednesday evening, no midnight showings for us old guys. We've gone to see most (if not all) of the Harry Potter films together and tend to have the same reaction as time has gone on. The first film was awesome, and a great introduction to the world and characters of Harry. The second film seemed to continue the energy from the first but wasn't quite as good. "The Prisoner of Azkaban" was a great film, a standalone work that would have been a great film independent of any previous or subsequent installments. The other two movies kind of fizzled, and are proof that you can have great sets, good actors, amazing effects etc. but if you director isn't up to the task, all is in vain. I give you this summary in order to set a context for my review of the newest Harry Potter film "Half Blood Prince". This film gets it mostly right, not "Prisoner of Azkaban" right, but pretty good. The Three major threads; memories, couples and encroaching evil all are covered well. The filmmakers do a decent job of establishing a mission for the film and then accomplishing it within the allotted time. Here's my major problem with the majority of this series; movies that are produced by the author and are designed to please the readers are doomed to fail as great films. I can always feel when I've been trapped within the confines of a book. Films should be someone's imagining of what they took away from the reading experience and never an attempt to transpose the page to the screen. I think that in 35 or 40 years when a fan of the books goes on to remake the Harry Potter series into films, then and only then will we get great adaptations. Until then I will admit that I enjoyed the seemingly endless awkward love triangles, the memory smoke in a bowl and the witch that even creeps out Snape. And at the risk of stepping over a line I will pose this final question; Harry Potter has a chance to further his relationship with Hermione, and doesn't take it (now I haven't read the last book, so don't ruin it for me) so does this prove that Harry really is gay?