Review: Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince

Features | July 30th, 2009 by Staggs

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Directed by: David Yates
Written by: J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves
Genre: Fantasy Adventure
Length/Rating: PG, 153 minutes
Leet Factor: Leet Rating

The Half-Blood Prince is the sixth Harry Potter movie in the series that has quickly grown from 3 books, to now 7. Film makers have been keeping up with the release of J.K. Rowling’s books about wizards, and fans are loving every minute of it. Once again the crew starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson grace the movie with familiarity. How does the latest installment do otherwise?

Harry Potter begins his sixth year at Hogwarts, and is increasingly becoming the Head Wizard’s (Albus Dumbledor) extra-hand in fighting off the dark wizards who have been terrorizing the school. Harry feels compelled to help out and make sure that the evil wizard who scarred his forehead, Voldemort, keeps far away. Hogwarts has gone through intense security measures to ensure the safety of its students.

If you’ve read the book, you’ll understand the story right away because filmmakers worked hand-in-hand with the book to ensure that all plot points are covered and that the movie follows it closely. You’ll expect this movie to be just like the book. If you are an avid Harry Potter reader, you’ll understand the movie in even in greater detail.

Coming from more of a passive fan, who hasn’t read the books in a while, the movie was good. I didn’t feel left out or unable to follow along because I have not been keeping up on my reading. They did a great job to make sure that non-readers would be able to understand the movie. However, my only gripe is the movie’s length: 153 minutes. Very long, and I felt that the movie would have done just as good only a half-hour shorter. A lot of things happened in the movie but the slow points just seemed to be placed to stay true to the book and didn’t offer extra entertainment.

While watching, an odd phenomenon occurred to me: even from a non-readers point of view, the plot-moving points were no surprise. I felt as if I had known everything all along from people who have talked to me about Harry Potter, and little tidbits of information that had reached my ears that I seemed to remember. Everything came together to actually prevent me from being surprised during the movie, which was somewhat of a downer. I’m sure this has happened to other people as well, and be aware that there may be a few spoiled surprises. I’d love to elaborate, but I don’t want to spoil anyone’s experience.

Furthermore, the character’s once again play a vital role in the movie’s chemistry. The cast has been wonderful since the very first movie; nine or so years later, now on the sixth movie, the characters still feel like the same group of friends that brought the series to life. If no one originally loved the characters, I don’t think the Harry Potter movies would have felt the same. Anyway, it’s a good thing we don’t have to worry about that because the three wizards have done a superb job on screen, making for a believable and an adventurous journey through a fantasy of wizardry.

Go see the movie, it was exceptional. If you’re a true fan, obviously you wouldn’t care that you already know what is going on in this movie, it is exceptionally fun to watch the book played out in motion picture. For that reason, this movie was fun and entertaining, and I recommend seeing Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince in theaters. We’re waiting for the last movie which will be astonishing.