Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince Reviews

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There's really two ways that you can look at this film - either as an adaptation of JK Rowling's novel or as a free-standing family fantasy film that's part of a series. Either way you look at it though, this film scores heavily.

As a reader and lover of the books this film is very much what I've been wanting to see since Dan Radcliff first donned a pair of wire-rimmed specs and had a lightning-bolt scar painted on his forehead. 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' is one of the shorter books in the series and yet the film is one of the longest. Why? Quite simply, because, this is by far and away the most accurate and faithful adaptation of the works of JK Rowling we've seen to date. Certainly it is true that the pruning shears have been wielded and a number of sub-plots, and even entire characters, have been lost but this is the first time that I've left a Harry Potter film not feeling disappointed by the things and amount that had been cut.

So, looking at this as a film, it would be fair to say that there are some real high points to this, most notably the performances given by the cast. This is a film that has strong performances from top to bottom which results in a film with emotional light and shade in a way that none of the previous films in the series have done. Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman and Maggie Smith (as Professors Dumbledore, Snape & McGonagall respectively) are all well established and truly comfortable in their characters and, meaning this as a tribute rather than a criticism, at times come across more as teachers than wizards & witches. Helena Bonham-Carter seems to be having an absolute blast as the evil and deranged Belatrix Lestrange but, for me, the star adult performance comes from Jim Broadbent as Professor Horrace Slughorn. He captures the combination of the oily collector of star pupils with the hollow emptiness of faded glory and the guilt of having set 'He Who Must Not Be Named' on the path to his perceived immortality with such aplomb that it wouldn't surprise me to see a nomination for a best supporting actor Oscar for Mr Broadbent if this weren't a family oriented blockbuster with an almost exclusively British cast. As it is, he'll just have to satisfy himself with the warm feeling of a job well done in that he turned in a performance that stood him above some of the most proficient of his peers alive and working today.

Of the 'child' actors, although they're now young adults rather than children, there has been significant growth from all - not just physically but in terms of their abilities as performers. The central three characters continue to shine although now they have truly been joined by Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. Tom does an excellent job of conveying the emotional pressures and stresses Draco is under as the Death Eaters 'man on the inside' at Hogwarts, desperately trying to bring the Dark Lord's plans to fruition. The fact that he manages to make Draco (to date always the thoroughly un-likeable rotter/bad guy) a character worthy of sympathy is an indication of just what a good job he does. That said, the man of the match has to be Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley. Often criticized in the press as being the ginger one that pulls faces as screams a lot in previous films, here he shines and despite the growth as performers in both Emma Watson and Dan Radcliffe, Rupert steals the show.

As a film this does a fantastic job of capturing the rampage of teenage hormones through the already established relationships of the Hogwarts alumni. I'm sure that there will be criticisms that this is a film that is light on plot and serves only to gather together some of the plot lines from previous films in the series and set the scene for the grand finale and, to a point, those criticisms are not unfounded. That said, that was also very much the case with the book and no blame can be laid at the feet of Steve Kloves (the writer of the screenplay) who, for the most part, has done a spectacular job - both in the work he's done adapting 'Half Blood Prince' and in convincing Warner Bothers that the finale (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) will need to be made as a two part film to do it justice.

If I were to lodge any criticisms they would be that, at times, the pace of this film seems to be a little off in that we spend time on one aspect of the story before rushing headlong into the next making things feel a bit stop-start on occasion. The other criticism would be that the issue of horcruxes was glossed over a little too much. We got a thorough understanding of what they are and even an insight as to how they're created but the significance of the number of them and the importance Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort gave to the objects that he turned into his horcruxes was very much glossed over - something that surprised me bearing in mind the relevance of these points to the finale of the story; even more so given the fact that the last book has been finished and the screenwriters know what's coming up rather than in previous films where, while working from a position of having privileged information, they were, to a greater or lesser extent, as much in the dark as the rest of us as to how it was all going to turn out.

Still, those quibbles aside, this is a film that takes its place in the series with style and grace. It employs special effects which are so good that you simply forget that they're not the result of the magic of Harry Potter's world (the Death Eater's destruction of the Millennium Bridge is particularly good), is crammed with rock solid performances from some of the greatest British actors ever to set foot onto a stage, brings together numerous plot lines left hanging from previous films (not least of which is the question of who will Harry, Ron & Hermione wind up with from a relationship point of view) and leaves us drooling in anticipation for the big Harry Potter vs Lord Voldemort showdown on which the fate of both the wizarding and muggle worlds rests.

With a 12A rating, which is fully deserved, this film may be a bit on the scary side for younger audience members but then they're likely to be with parents/adults when they see this so everything should be fine from that point of view. The only other warning I would make is that this film makes no apologies whatsoever to those who have not read the books or seen the previous films. If you have seen the films or read the books then expect to be thoroughly entertained. If, however, you've got no prior experience with Harry Potter then expect to be completely lost and confused as back stories etc are taken as read and there's little or no preamble to even point you in the right direction. This is not a failing or a criticism, it's just the way it is - one can't expect to walk into a serialized story at part 6 of 7 (or 8 if you count Deathly Hallows Pt 1 & 2 as separate entities) and expect to have everything that's gone before spelled out for you again, after all this isn't a James Bond film where each story very much stands on its own. No, this is the sixth instalment in the story of Harry Potter and, viewed in that light, is one of the best films in the series. My only problem now is that I can't decide what I'm looking forward to more, 'Half Blood Prince' being released on DVD/Blu Ray or 'Deathly Hallows' being released in the cinema.

macsrnotus's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Me and my dad were really looking fowards to seeing this new Harry Potter. When we went to see it we were dissapointed. Through the film i was checking my phone and to me it seemed as though it was going on a bit without a story line. My dad has read the book and says that the producers have missed out soo much. I watched behind the scenes with Ben Sheppards and an interview with Rupert and Emma , Emma said that she kissed Daniel. This didnt happen in the film, i wouldnt reco,mend this film, i w ...

dhayes22's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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Very long, lots of special effects and not much of a story just about sums up what is going in the penultimate movie in the Harry Potter series. Well, not strictly speaking the penultimate since they are splitting the final movie in two to squeeze some extra bucks out of punters, but let's not quibble.

In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price, we rejoin the gang in darker times as the world around them grows more dangerous both inside and outside the magical school where no one seems to do any ...