Another Movie Guide

Movie Review – Harry Potter and the Half – Blood Prince 9 Out of 10

REVIEW

9 out of 10

It’ll come as no surprise to the legion of Harry Potter fans that the sixth entry in the popular franchise, The Half-Blood Prince, is a wonderful film. After watching all 6 films of the series over the last 6 days, I believe it is time to declare that Harry Potter is the best film franchise in cinematic history. Believe me I don’t make the above statement lightly, I’m a huge fan of the original Star Wars trilogy, but SW has had its share of bad moments over the course of its life, whereas 8 years and 6 films later, the Harry Potter films have never had one creative misstep. Every time I watch any of the Potter movies, I think to myself this is the best one in the series only to disagree as soon as I watch another one. They are all fabulous movies based on source material that is out of this world and there is no reason to believe that the final films won’t be just as fantastic.

The Half-Blood Prince is less action oriented than the previous films and instead focuses more on character development. Anyone unfamiliar with the books whose looking for special effects driven extravaganza will most likely be disappointed, but those who love the books and the characters will absolutely eat up every second of the movie and come out drooling in anticipation for the last two films of the series. That’s the thing. Half-Blood Prince is really an appetizer for the main course that is the final 2 films, but manages to be just as filling at the same time.

The story revolves around Dumbledore (a terrific as always Michael Gambon) teaching Harry about series baddie, Voldemort’s, past and what they will need to do to stop his current reign of terror. Not much light is shed on what makes Voldemort aka Tom Riddle such an evil SOB (the book of course, goes into much further detail), instead it is insinuated that he is just a bad seed. Through the use of some extremely dark magic, Voldemort has split his soul in to seven pieces and hidden them in various objects. If Harry and Dumbledore are unable to locate all of these items (called horcruxes) and destroy them, it will be impossible to kill you know who. It is this story that may frustrate the non readers in the audience as there is no resolution here. It isn’t until the final novel, The Deathly Hollows (movies 7 and 8), that this storyline will be fully explored. No worries though because there is much more going on in Half-Blood Prince than what I mentioned above, including the central mystery of just who the titular character, the Half-Blood Prince is. Harry’s school age nemesis, Draco Malfoy is also up to something nefarious and Potter is desperate to find out what it is. There is also the matter of extracting a vital memory about Tom Riddle from Hogwarts latest teacher, Horace Slughorn. Perhaps the biggest challenge that our now 16 year old hero and friends Ron and Hermione have to face is all the raging hormones running rampant through Hogwarts. Seriously, it’s almost as if the school of wizardry has moved to a new 90210 zip code. There is quite a bit of snogging going on, especially between the newly popular Ron and his annoying girlfriend, Lavender.

Director David Yates, back for a second time after directing the last film, Order of the Phoenix, again does an amazing job of immersing the audience in this magical world. Yates has crafted a more intimate, personal character driven Potter movie and it works brilliantly. Once again, screenwriter Steve Kloves does an impressive job of adapting J.K. Rowling’s novel, ably keeping some of the more crucial elements of the story. His script is humorous packed with plenty of witty lines that nicely balance the dark underscore of the core story. My only complaint is the decision to excise the epic battle that takes place at Hogwarts at the end of the book although I understand that the reason was to make the death of a beloved character that much more dramatic and saddening.

One of the most magical things about the Harry Potter films from the very beginning has been the casting. It is perhaps the greatest casting for a film series in history and it continues to pay off in dividends. Daniel Radcliffe as Harry continues to surprise me as he matures in to the role and every time I think he can’t be any better he is. His confidence as an actor has grown in perfect proportion with the confidence of the character and in turn his performance is looser and more thrilling than ever. Rupert Grint as Ron has become a tremendously talented comedic actor who can create laughs with the tiniest expression. There is one particular scene where Ron is under the influence of a love potion and the look on Grint’s face is priceless. Emma Watson as Hermione has also grown as an actress and continues to shine. As Hermione comes to terms with her blossoming affection for Ron, Watson pulls us in with a touching, heartfelt performance that will move you to goose bumps.

Among the supporting players, Alan Rickman as the oily Professor Snape has an expanded role here and is as terrifying as always. He has a way of making even the most pedestrian lines drip with venom. Michael Gambon as Professor Dumbledore once again evokes the spirit of the character effortlessly and in my opinion deserves a Best Supporting nod from the Academy. Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn, the newest teacher at Hogwarts, is terrific. His character burdens a dark secret about Voldemort and Broadbent allows this to infect his performance to great effect.

To sum it up, The Half-Blood Prince is too complicated to draw in new viewers, but if you are a fan of the prior installments, you will certainly find yourself enthralled once again as the series builds a bridge to the final 2 films.

Bill Bonfanti is FilmGo.net’s movie critic and Box office analysis. http://www.filmgo.net – Every week you will find new reviews and box office predictions for the current crop of films in the theater.