Harry Potter: The Half Blood Prince Review

Based on the internationally popular Harry Potter boy wizard series of novels, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is the latest in what is already one of the most successful franchises in movie history. The film is arguably the darkest of the pack and an excellent lead in to the final book: Deathly Hallows which will be split into two movies.

The Half Blood Prince begins with the search for Voldemort, the Dark Lord, and his secret cache of fiercely guarded Horcruxes stashed about Great Britain. The sub plot, a dark and devious machination by the evil one to use Draco Malfoy, Potter’s erstwhile nemesis, to destroy one of the precious institutions at Hogwart’s school adds a bit of a puzzle to the film. Is the film really about the search or about the slimy subplot? I will leave it there for anything else would be a horrible spoiler. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince must be seen in the theater, the effects are intense if not as all pervasive; anything less would leave you wanting.

In order to facilitate the new film's success director David Yates enlisted Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge, et al.), one of the finest characters ever, as the pompous but put upon Professor Horace Slughorn: teacher to Tom Riddle and now the wizard chosen to defeat him, Harry Potter. But Slughorn has a dark secret caused by a loose lip and dangerous slip that nearly cost him his sanity and later his life. He knows the truth about Riddle and it is Potter’s assignment to pry the secret from him. the hardest thing he’s ever done; only with a little luck and a lot of help does Harry succeed but at a horrible cost. That cost my friends must wait till you see The Half Blood Prince for yourselves.

The film has all the regulars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and the incomparable Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman and of course Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid. The youngsters, and of course Michael Gambon as the powerful wizard Albus Dumbledore, dominate the film and rightly so. Half Blood Prince is about them and by now the young actors are so much their characters that little need be said about them, they do a suberb job being "themselves." Only Emma Watson transcends the character and her powerful performance as the now mature Hermione is inspiring. No longer does little Hermione Granger seem the emotionally confused little girl but a mature young woman capable of the entire range of feeling and the knowledge and pain that comes with it. This is either an excellent performance by the young woman or a very personal role for her; either way it works.

I want to warn you about Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Half Blood Prince is not a light hearted fantasy and there is little to recommend it to the very young. The movie is a dark and dreary, coining a phrase, fantasy noir with little humor and much horror. Only the love story between Ron Weasley even begins to lighten the film and then only for a few minutes. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’s only real message: children (and the rest of us) should never suffer like this.

I recommend the film highly and, at least for the first viewing, in the theater. The direction is the best in the series, the story deep and engaging and the acting easily the best yet. The young actors, particularly Miss Watson, have come into their own at least in these characters. The film is disturbingly dark, but more real than any other in the Harry Potter series.

Rating 4 stars out of 5.

See you front and center, at the movies.