Film Review: ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ – 8.5/10

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Written by Joé McKen on Sunday, July 26, 2009

Harry finds a rather interesting book which leads him into a bit of trouble in David Yates’ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Coming back from the theater, I asked my father what he thought of the film. He said it was “a lot more psychological” than previous Harry Potter films. I agree completely – and this change in format, focusing more on thought-provoking and emotionality over mere narrative, is what empowers Half-Blood Prince to become the best Harry Potter film yet, and by a fair margin at that.

8.5/10 Harry Potter: Daniel Radcliffe Ron Weasley: Rupert Grint Hermione Granger: Emma Watson Albus Dumbledore: Michael Gambon Severus Snape: Alan Rickman Directed by David Yates. Written by Steve Kloves; based on the original novel by J.K. Rowling. Original score by Nicholas Hooper. Running time: 153 mins. Rated PG.

In this sixth installment, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is fresh out of the carnage that was his little escapade at the Ministry of Magic with his friends, Ron (Rupert Grint), Hermione (Emma Watson) and others, at the end of his fifth year (Order of the Phoenix), and as a result he’s doing anything he can to try and keep his mind from dwelling on how badly his life sucks. That is, until Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) arrives and whisks him back into the Wizarding World. After a brief visit to encourage an old colleague back into a teaching spot at Hogwarts, Harry and co. then return to wizarding school, though not before witnessing some strange scenes with Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), who suddenly seems even more full of arrogant cockiness than usual. Has something happened? Harry rapidly becomes obsessed with finding out – something that nearly results in him missing his stop at Hogwarts altogether.

Life at school, except for the continuous attempts by dark forces to penetrate the old castle, is relatively smooth and “business as usual” for students. Harry attends his classes, including Potions (mercifully no longer taught by Snape (Alan Rickman), where he becomes the proud owner of a secondhand book that’s been extensively scribbled-in (don’t you just hate when that happens?) by a certain “Half-Blood Prince”. He also learns some new curses from this “Prince”, though he also later learns that using curses labeled “for enemies” scribbled into textbooks can also lead to disastrous consequences.

Oh, and meanwhile, Dumbledore is taking on the job of teaching Harry more about Lord Voldemort's past – “know your enemy”, as they say. But this plotline takes up a surprisingly small amount of screentime in between Quidditch and snogging and suspicion and generalized malaise. You almost wouldn’t know it was the crux of the story if these scenes weren’t so gloomy – not that they don’t have plenty of other gloomy scenes to contrast against, though.

There is a far more emotional twist in this film than we've seen in the previous HP installments, with dialog and shots focusing on the characters themselves and how they cope with the constant menace around them than merely showing us what's happening. But don’t mistake this for meaning that there’s less action or, well, magic, for that would be a grave misunderstanding. The fantasy and imagination is still a very strong force in this film (something to be expected, coming from a story about wizards), and there are more than enough fireballs, explosions and moments of generalized chaos to keep viewers with a taste for movement interested.

Don’t be fooled by the film's PG rating: this entry in the series is far darker than the previous films, what with the seriously evil Lord Voldemort taking over the world and killing people and all that. The grand and majestic Hogwarts has become a lair of secrets, lies and hidden dangers, where suspicion falls upon conveniently suspicious-looking students and the threat of You-Know-Who seems to permeate through the very walls.

However, for all its darkness, the film has its fair share of comedy and light-heartedness as well (come on, it can’t be all sob and terror, can it?). Many criticized the film for including too much romance; I personally didn’t see an overwhelming amount of it, no more than the copious amounts that are already present in the book itself. (And besides, isn’t it about time Harry got some kissing under his belt?)

(… That sounded unintentionally dirty. Sorry ’bout that.)

The film’s accuracy towards the novel is on a level I’m quite comfortable with. Of course there are many great changes – there kinda has to be, what with cramming a year’s worth of narrative into a mere 2-hour-or-so format feature film. There is also the ton of obligatory “visual enhancements”, events and sequences not featured in the novel but that just look so good in a movie, such as a scene where a beloved household is attacked out of the blue. I'm not complaining however; they do their job well.

All the key scenes from the novel are present as far as I could tell, and they’ve also kept much more of the original dialog than I noticed in previous films. Anyone who knows the novel's sequencing of events will be able to predict the film’s pacing with great ease (what a surprise, considering it’s the same story).

However, the film ends the previous films’ practice of explaining everything to the audience; anyone who watches Half-Blood Prince without having read or seen the five previous years in young Harry’s life will be quite confused and find themselves often left in the dark as to who’s who and what’s going on. But then – seriously, anyone who hasn’t seen the previous films or even read the books has no business watching this film, especially if they are to complain that they don’t understand what they're seeing. I believe it’s a minimal effort to watch previous movies in a film series before jumping in and expecting to be able to follow the narrative. You can't just pop in The Return of the Jedi and expect the film to tell you who everyone is and everything, right?

Technically, Half-Blood Prince is above reproach. The effects are convincing whilst not drawing unneeded attention to themselves, and the photography is appropriately darker and more sinister than it’s been up ’til now, whilst still being bright and cheerful when need be (such as in a certain magical jokes shop). I would also note I loved the score from Nicholas Hooper, who’s adept at using melancholic flutes in a way that truly carries the films emotional weight. I particularly liked the introductory title scene, wherein he replaced the traditional ‘Hedwig’s Theme’ with a somber, tragic piece that, without giving anything away, accurately gives away the general feel of the increasingly tragic narrative.

It’s funny, but the films and their styles seem to be maturing at the same time as the characters whose lives and stories they convey. Compare the innocence and wonder of the first few films (those scored by John Williams, for one thing) to this one and you might as well be comparing … well, an 11-year-old boy dragged into a wonderful new world, to an older teen who by now has seen more death, destruction and fear than is customary for people to see during the whole course of their lives. And to think, the two worst movies (the two halves of Deathly Hallows are years away … *sigh*

This is by far the best Harry Potter film to date; the other movies serve to amuse, entertain and enthrall us, but only this one truly brings out the magic of Harry's world – and I don’t mean the actual wizarding magic, but the currents of emotion and depth and substance that flow so easily through the books and which were so critically lacking from the films … until now.

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