One of the longest running series in Motion Pictures is based on the books by J.K. Rowling about a boy wizard. Harry Potter has grown before our eyes into a Juggernaut cash king. In Potter's latest adventure, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", things have gone from bad to worse. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermoine Grainger (Emma Watson), are all back for another year at Hogwarts, this time they find more than just evil wizards to deal with.
Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds with the help of the Death Eaters who are wreaking havoc in the wizard world and the outside world, and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Suspecting that danger may lie within the castle walls, Harry works with Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) to find the key to unlock Voldemort's defenses. The duo attempt to find their solution first through a collection of stored memories in Dumbledore's office and perhaps in the memory of the well-connected and unsuspecting Professor Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), Dumbledore's old friend and colleague who may hold crucial information about the Dark Lord.
Up to this point Harry and his friends have only had to deal with angry wizards and trying to learn spells, now a new light has dawned in their lives and it is as powerful as Voldemort is. This new adversary is their raging teen hormones. This aspect of life seems to take up the majority of this movie, if you are expecting a confrontation between Harry and Voldemort, you will be disappointed. There is a very nice sequence where Professor Dumbledore and Harry try to recover an artifact once belonging to Lord Voldemort, and they are attacked by dead souls, leaving a weakened Professor Dumbledore to save them.
Harry has found a Potions book which used to belong to the very mysterious Half-Blood Prince. Harry finds that the Half-Blood Prince's ancient scribbles are written along the margins of almost every page, giving Harry advice on how to greatly improve on his Potions work, and also teaching him a few helpful albeit dangerous spells along the way. Harry becomes suspicious of the actions of Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), who has been sneaking around the school doing, Voldemort's bidding. Harry quickly becomes determined, and slightly obsessed, to find out exactly what Malfoy has been up to and putting an end to it. The ending has a major character dying, it will have severe consequences on the life of Harry and his friends as they prepare to face Lord Voldemort.
David Yates is a very talented director, but here he seems to have clipped away at this film until the story has no foundation, his work on The Order of the Phoenix proved to be impressive, but in Half-Blood Prince he seems rushed and the lackadaisical handling of the conclusion tended to bring to a halt the action sequences altogether. Not entirely his fault though, the screenplay adaptation by Steve Kloves keeps enough of the novel's darkness and impending danger, but he lessens the story's overall tone by upping the comedic and romantic aspects. A better balance of menace and romance could have really elevated the movie's dramatic tension and payoff quite a bit.
I Give Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince a 2 and on my avoidance scale a 0, I understand that this movie will be huge, and that even if I tell you it adds nothing to what you already know about Harry Potter, the majority of this blogs readers will still go see the movie. This chapter is not as dark or ominous as the previous chapters in this story and I for one found that disappointing.
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince is rated PG for Scary Images, Some Violence, Language and Mild Sensuality
Running time is 2 hrs. 33mins.
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