Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 2009
It has been a long time since the last Harry Potter movie came out, so I don’t even remember exactly what happened or hasn’t happened since I am spoiled (as much as I can remember) by having read all the books. While I enjoyed this movie, it has decidedly become more of a serial at this point than strong individual movies. Hardly anything seems to happen other than the Death Eaters causing more trouble, though the filler is still fun to watch.
As the main plot plods along, Harry, Ron, and Hermione seem to be in a romantic comedy while Harry and Dumbledore are investigating a mystery. We find out more about Tom Riddle’s past while he was at Hogwarts and are introduced to a new potions professor, who is played well by Jim Broadbent. I remember being annoyed by the romantic sidelines of the sixth book and that the whole world was falling apart and we’re supposed to care about who is dating who, but in the movie form I actually didn’t mind. It helps that there is almost no accounting for the passage of time here: although it takes place over the course of a school year, it feels more like it might be a week or so.
Despite the very dark ending of this movie, it doesn’t seem like that much has been done. And there is still quite a bit to be explained in the next movie which is why they have broken it into two episodes. This is a solid piece of entertainment if you are interested in the series and even features surprisingly good Quidditch scenes. With so many characters, some really good actors like Helena Bonham Carter are left with little more to do than cackle. Despite the strengths of the movie, it is ultimately still not satisfying so I can only give it a B+.
Written: 17 Aug 2009
Owned on: Digital