.jpg)
Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. O those raging hormones!
The 6th Harry Potter film, HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE, came in with huge expectations. The film is expected to set box office records, and please fans all over the world. The film production is executed well and will live up to the expectations of movie-goers. The one thing that is noticed when watching the film, is that nothing is really happening until the very end. The film strays away from the magic more often than it's predecessors, and follows the script of a high-school television show. Whether this hurts how the film will be received by audiences and critics, remains to be seen.
Without giving too much away, mainly for the non-readers of the Potter books, the story has Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) teaming up with Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), to figure out what Lord Voldemort is up to next. The key to what will happen in the future, is found in the past. To find out more information, Dumbledore hopes to hire a former professor that was very close to Lord Voldemort, when he was just student at Hogwarts. Professor Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) agrees to come back to the wizard school and is anxious to have Harry Potter as a perspective student. Using his wits and Dumbledore's guidance, Harry attempts to get close to Professor Horace, for he has a memory of Lord Voldemort, that could be the key to destroying the dark lord once and for all.
So while that is the main focus of the HALF-BLOOD PRINCE story, a emerging side-story is how all the young wizards and witches are now grown-up and are starting to have strong feelings for the opposite sex. This film goes back and forth from the terrors of Lord Voldemort and his followers, to love escapades of Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson). For fans of the film, the story begins to show how Ron and Hermione start to reveal their feelings for each other. Meanwhile, Harry and Ron's not-so-little-sister-anymore, Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright) start to have feelings for each other as well. The plot in the paragraph above is barely the focus for half the movie. Most of the 153 minutes are spent exploring how love and first kisses are now in the forefront of the minds of the 6th year students at Hogwarts. The story does give an accurate portrayal of this apparently important theme as it unfolds. This did catch the audience off guard though, as they didn't expect it to be this big of a focal point in this film.
Although a good portion of the film covers this fluff, so to speak...it did give a memorable ending. A great performer's limo driver once said, "The audience will never remember how you started, but it's how you finish that will be stuck in their minds." In that respect, HALF-BLOOD PRINCE accomplished that. The journey to get to that point was a bit different from most of the other Potter films. However, it wasn't a painful ride. A possible solution was perhaps to explore more characters such as the "Death-eaters" of Lord Voldemort, since they have only been glossed over in the story thus far.
As far as performances, Radcliffe and Michael Gambon are given the reins for this film. Both do an excellent job and one should see growth in both characters. Rupert Grint was pretty much in the comic-relief mode for this film. The "Ron" character isn't right by Harry's side this time around. Grint did manage to nail his parts when called upon in his plentiful, but short scenes. Emma Watson's role stayed consistent as "Hermione." The character didn't have a chance to evolve based on the script. The character "Professor Horace Slughorn" was a welcomed piece in this on-going puzzle. Jim Broadbent took the re-occurring role of the "professor that takes a liking to Harry," and did better than others have. The audience will get to see a bit more out of Tom Felton, who plays "Draco Malfoy." Felton was given a larger role from what his typical character has been used for, and does pretty well with it. Clearly, the Draco character could play a bigger role in the final two films and it looks like Felton could handle the beefer parts.
Is this the best Harry Potter film to date? No. The most unique? Without a doubt. The escapism visuals are present for the audience to take in, if they do in fact get bored with the teenage hormone story. The final act should be what's remembered in the end. HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE is more of a filler than a revealer as far as the story goes. Nothing really happens until the end, but the end will leave one wanting more.
RELATED ARTICLES:
FAVORITE HARRY POTTER MOVIE FUTURE OF THE POTTER TRIO
Comments
this review is SPOT on... this is exactly how I received the film.. but I didn't so much care for Jim Broadbent's performance.. Slughorn always seemed more lively to me in the book.
it sucked
I completely agree. The film was a huge letdown. The important character build up of Tom riddle and his hatred for muggle borns was neglected except for the brief orphange scene. The empahasis on the history of the horcruxes and how they needed to be found was blase. The movie was dumbed down for audience viewers ie( the vanishing cupboard was revealed in the first scene of the movie. Teenage angest was potrayed nicely in the movie but the relevance as to why it was called Half blood prince was only shown twice by the caligraphy revealed in the book as to who owned the potions book. The movie lacked action as the first wave of defense by the students against the death eaters and as I an eagerly anticpated movie I found it was a complete letdown. This movie did NOT in my opinion do justice to JK Rowlings book both in plots, in depth character build up or action. In the rolling credits a disclamer is given ( THIS MOVIE IS BASED UPON THE NOVEL - Correct LOOSELY BASED you mean!)
As an avid HP series reader I was completely put out with this "artistic" protrayal of Half-Blood Prince. The focus of this book was to show how Voldermort came to be. The orpanage scene is one part of his distinct characteristics. We learned nothing about his past in this movie. How his mother got with his muggle father. How he learned he was the Heir of Slythern. What he used as Hoxcruxes. What the relevence of his middle name is. Honestly you found out more of his past from Chamber of Secrets. The biggest plot about the Dark Lord is his biggest fear. Dying!!! And had they even added 2 more scences about his past everyone whould have figured it out. But no only did this movie ruin the plot for HBP it also just left huge important holes in Deathly Hollows. How is Harry supposed to find Ravenclaws artifact? How does he even know what Slythern and Hufflepuffs are? With Dumbledore's wand just lying about how is Voldermort supposed to get it by force? The list goes on and on...
Thanks to AdamG and lb for the comments. I can tell that Jed Ryan was a reader of the book, and so is CedricR.
As you can tell, I never read the books, but I did feel something was missing from this film though. I hope since they are spreading DEATHLY HALLOWS over two films, they will go back and cover the important points in Half-Blood Prince.
Thanks for not putting spoilers in your comments fellas!
What I thought was hilarious is how they never even explained why Snape is a "Half-Blood Prince."
it was a good movie but it did lack action and was a little confusing
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!