Movie Website Reviews for the Weekend of July 17th, 2009
July 19, 2009
What is likely the last monster hit of the summer came out this week, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but its Official Site is only average compared to most saturation level releases and weak compared to most previous sites from the franchise.
(500) Days of Summer - Official Site
Death in Love - Official Site
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Official Site
The Way We Get By - Official Site
A Woman in Berlin - No Official Site
Typical of most Fox Searchlight sites. It has a lot of content, including a 'Explore' section where you can look at what is probably a 100 or so images from the movie with captions. Some of these are lyrics from songs, but a lot are spoilers. After looking at them all, you've seen a lot of the movie. Granted, the journey is still worth it, but those who dislike spoilers should avoid it.
All the usual features are here, but nothing that really qualifies as an extra. Background music comes the closest to being an extra; it's not much, but at least it is not a silent site.
This is the biggest site on this week's list, but that's no surprise. However, it is much smaller than previous Harry Potter sites have been in the past. The usual features are here, there are some extras like clips from the soundtrack, a video from the world premiere, etc. It's less interactive than before and feels smaller lacking a lot of the sound and animation that was present in previous sites. Also, a lot of the features are on other sites, like YouTube, and that lessens its effectiveness.
A lot of information on this site, including the usual features like cast & crew bios and the trailer. There's not a lot of flash here, but that's common for documentary sites. Effective, but doesn't stand out.
There's no site for the North American release, but the original German site is here.
Filed under: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, (500) Days of Summer, The Way We Get By, Death in Love, Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin