According to The AP, the Vatican has given Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Two Thumbs Up!
The Vatican newspaperL’Osservatore Romano even gave two thumbs up to the film’s treatment of adolescent love, saying it achieved the “correct balance” and made the stars more credible to the general audience. The newspaper said the film, which opens Wednesday, was the best adaptation yet of the J.K. Rowling series about the adventures of the bespectacled child wizard Harry Potter and his Hogwarts chums as they battle Harry’s nemesis, the evil sorcerer Voldemort.
While criticizing Rowling for omitting any explicit “reference to the transcendent” in her books, L’Osservatore said the latest installment nevertheless makes clear that good should overcome evil “and that sometimes this requires costs and sacrifice.”
CS: And these are all new sets and locations? Because the first six movies have all been at the same Hogwarts sets just redecorated and dressed differently. Yates: Yeah, yeah, and this time we’re out on the road and then we come back to Hogwarts, but the difference is we trash it. We blow it up. It turns into Stalingrad, which will be really haunting.
CS: Are you actually going to blow up Leavesden Studios when you’re done there? Yates: (laughs) I’m not sure they’d be too pleased with us if we did that, but we’ll probably end up blowing up half of Leavesden. I keep saying to the special FX guys (that) these things are going to be big. We have to go out with a bang.
Oprah.com has a new interview with Emma Watson where she discusses a myriad of things!
KF: How are you and Hermione similar? Or do you find yourself pretty different? EW: I think there are differences and similarities. I think I’m probably a bit more fun-loving than she is. She’s a bit more serious than I am. I think I’m a bit more rounded than she is. She’s very, like, focused on her academics, and she doesn’t really do anything else. But then, we have similarities, as well. I’m very loyal like she is, and I’m very hardworking like she is.
KF: So I know you all have already started filming the final installments of the Harry Potter series. How does it feel to be close to the end and wrapping it all up? EW: It feels really strange. It feels really strange. I mean, I still have a lot of work left to do, so I’m being asked all the time, “How do you feel about it coming to an end?” And I’m kind of not quite there yet. I have a lot left to do, and I’m kind of in denial as well. I don’t think I’m really going to realize it’s over until it’s really over, if that makes sense.
