If you’ve already watched the film, be sure to check out our discussion post.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince teaser poster

The sixth installment in the popular Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes viewers on a journey with Harry (Radcliffe) and Albus Dumbledore (Gambon), as they try to uncover more about Lord Voldemort’s dark past, and pursue a memory held by the newly re-recruited Potions teacher, Professor Horace Slughorn (Broadbent), and thereby uncover what might be the only way of defeating the most powerful Dark Wizard of all time.

In the meantime, Harry, dubbed “The Chosen One” by the Wizarding media, discovers an old book that was previously owned by someone called the Half-Blood Prince. The information in the book causes Harry to excel at Potions, but there is something more sinister hiding in the pages. Harry’s rival, Draco Malfoy (Felton), also lurks in the shadows, having been tasked by Voldemort to complete a mission…

Adolescence hits the students of Hogwarts, and Harry and his friends Ron (Grint) and Hermione (Watson) are not spared from the teen drama (and comedy).

*****

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince boasts of excellent cinematography and lovely visuals. Those stills from the film didn’t disappoint. Quite simply, this film was a feast for the eyes.

Story-wise, the film was solid, but not spectacular. In terms of storytelling, Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire still are more solid, in my opinion. But I can hardly blame the filmmakers - the source material of this one has them working on a story with little action, and a lot of exposition.

And expose, this film does. Half-Blood Prince is basically a set-up for the final two films in the series (for those who don’t know yet, the film adaptations of the final book, Deathly Hallows, will be released in two parts). However, that also makes it suffer a bit - the flow makes sense, but it doesn’t feel too fluid. Instead, it’s basically set piece after set piece of events. Again, I don’t blame the filmmakers for that. Overall, it was still another enjoyable journey in the world of Harry Potter. Even though it also clocks in at around 2 and a half hours, it definitely didn’t feel as long as Order of the Phoenix.

Before watching this, I had my concerns about it turning into a romantic comedy mushfest, what with all the growing up the characters did. Director David Yates, however, is able to balance the humor (and a lot of good stuff here too) with the seriousness of the war against Voldemort (which is ongoing offscreen).

What the film excelled in was the character development. Dumbledore and Harry’s mentor-student relationship is better explored in this film, especially when they went on the mission out in the cave by the sea. In the older films, Dumbledore was mostly just that great teacher that the gang looked up to, but weren’t really close with. This film establishes Dumbledore’s role as a sort-of-father-figure to Harry, and shows how Harry has grown from being a headstrong (and pretty reckless) teenager, into a more careful but nonetheless brave hero.

And thankfully, the rest of the main guys improved too - while Radcliffe had the most opportunities to show his range (he is the title character after all), and the dynamic (read: romantic tension) between Ron and Hermione was great, and the friendship between the three leads is made even stronger.

Of special note is Tom Felton’s portrayal of Harry’s rival, Draco Malfoy. The parallel plot lines of them being both “Chosen Ones,” albeit of different factions, played out excellently in the movie. The movie’s Draco was able to evoke more pity than the book’s Draco ever could for me, with the burden of his mission weighing heavily on his shoulders very evident in Felton’s portrayal.

Of course, it goes without saying in any Potter film, the veteran British cast were bloody amazing. As I mentioned earlier, Gambon’s portrayal of Dumbledore made me like his character more, something that he wasn’t able to achieve in previous films. Jim Broadbent, portraying Professor Slughorn, was a perfect blend of doting-professor-who’s-pretty-nice AND annoying-professor-who-has-too-many-favorites, and nailed his “reluctant accomplice” scene. Alan Rickman returns with his snark and clipped speech as Professor Snape, Maggie Smith has her moments as Professor McGonagall, and Helena Bonham-Carter is just insane (in a good way) as Bellatrix LeStrange.

The supporting cast was decent enough, with the actors portraying Cormac McLaggen and Lavender Brown all making their characters come to life. Evanna Lynch as Luna Lovegood should also get some more screen time, as her spot-on portrayal is delightful. Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and Frank Dillane also presented a suitably creepy young Tom Riddle (at ages 11 and as a teen, respectively).

In conclusion, I believe Half-Blood Prince has proven itself to be a great sequel, improving on the quality of the last one, and is an excellent set-up for the final chapters of the series. Boasting of humor that was actually funny *coughTransformers2cough* and a couple of kick-ass action scenes (there were only like 3 or 4 of them here, but they were all excellent), Half-Blood Prince is an excellent lesson in how to make a great adaptation; or, in other words, how to make a movie-about-a-book not suck.

*****

Again, if you’ve already watched the film, be sure to give our discussion post a look!