The visual feel of the film looks great. Here's Hogwarts with ominous clouds over it.

The release of the sixth installment of the Harry Potter film franchise, The Half-Blood Prince, is just a week away!

io9 has a set of 59 stills from the film, and everything looks good.

Dark clouds gather over Hogwarts, in a new image from Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. Other stills show teenage lonesomeness and growing pains. It seems like yesterday these young wizards were sneaking polyjuice potion in the bathroom.

Check out Luna Lovegood’s lion headdress! And the young Tom Riddle is properly looking creepy, and seems much more menacing than when I was reading the novel.

I know that a lot of people who are fans of the novels were pretty disappointed with the films, but I tend to separate them in my head when judging them, because frankly, these are two different types of media with their own limitations. I have to admit, it is fun to contrast and compare, but I still judge the merits of the films as stand-alone products.

I especially liked the third film, Prisoner of Azkaban (except I was totally disappointed by how the werewolf looked), and although Order of the Phoenix was a tad bit too long, it was still enjoyable. Director David Yates returns for this sixth film, and I’m glad he is returning to be the director of the adaptation of the last book, The Deathly Hallows, which will be split into two films (to be released 2010 and 2011).

*Image from io9/Gawker Media Network.