By: Eric D. Snider

The release of a new Harry Potter film always means a deluge of complaints about how it failed to exactly duplicate every single word of J.K. Rowling's sacred text, and Half-Blood Prince is no different. (Adam Quigley from Always Watching tweeted this amusing screenshot of the IMDb message boards Wednesday morning that sums it up pretty well.) Not having read the book since it came out four years ago, I didn't remember it in great enough detail to notice any major changes in the movie -- until the climactic scene in the tower, when something did stand out. And it stands out as an improvement over the book.

Spoilers for the book and the movie follow!

As readers well remember, that scene has Draco Malfoy confronting Dumbledore with the intention of killing him, as ordered by Voldemort. In the book, Harry is under the invisibility cloak at this point, so no one knows he's there, and Dumbledore has stupefied him so he can't act. Then the Death Eaters and Snape come along, and Snape finishes the job that Draco can't muster the courage to perform. Harry is powerless to do anything until Dumbledore is dead, which cancels the stupefying spell.

The movie plays out essentially the same way but with one key difference. Instead of being stupefied and invisible, Harry is hiding silently below the floor where the action is happening. Why? Because Dumbledore told him to, having already extracted from Harry a promise that he would obey whatever directions Dumbledore gave him.
I didn't see anything wrong with the way the book had it, but I instantly felt this change was an improvement. It means that instead of being powerless to save Dumbledore, Harry instead makes a conscious choice to obey his mentor's instructions. Heroes who choose to act (or not act) are always more interesting than heroes whose actions are determined for them.

Of course, even in the film Harry doesn't stand idly by while Dumbledore is killed. He bides his time down below, as instructed, while Draco and the Death Eaters make their threats, and when Snape arrives and does the deed, it happens too quickly for Harry to react anyway. The point is, the whole reason Harry isn't involved in the scene is that he chooses not to be, not because he had his free will taken away from him by magic. It's a deviation from the book, but I think it's an improvement. What do you think?