Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Jim Broadbent, Helena Bonham Carter
Writers: Steve Kloves (screenplay), J.K. Rowling (novel)
Country: UK | US
Company: Warner Bros. Pictures
Plot
IN Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, Harry finds a book marked mysteriously, "This book is the property of the Half Blood Prince," which helps him excel at Potions class. Meanwhile, Harry is taking private lessons with Dumbledore in order to find out about Voldemort's past so that they can discover what might be his only weakness.
Review
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince suffers from what I call "setup syndrome," meaning that much of its plot and energy is devoted not to telling a self-contained story but to establishing threads that will have a payoff in a future installment. As a result, there's little doubt that The Half-Blood Prince will fare better when the entire series is available. At this point, however, it has an incomplete, unfocused feel. It is easily the least structured of the movies. Fortunately, it ends with a bang, both in terms of visual and emotional impact. The final half-hour is good enough to make one forgive the somewhat meandering nature of the two hours that precede it.
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
CAPTIVATING from the first frame, this Potter feels more epic than previous films, which had a less mature, more madcap quality. Yates finds an artful way to meld the teenage romance and inherent humor with a sense of impending doom.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince conveys some of the rich texture and depth of J.K. Rowling's book, but it takes a lackluster turn at the end. In a key scene, Harry is rendered more ineffectual than his literary counterpart as a result of plot revisions. Presumably Yates decided on a less-is-more finale by underplaying the book's climactic tragedy, perhaps because readers already had been rocked by the event. Though this makes sense, it leaves the die-hard fan with a sense of anticlimax.
Claudia Puig, USA Today
HARRY Potter and the Half-Blood Prince isn't the most action-packed Harry Potter film, but what it lacks in thrilling scenes of magical maneuverings, it makes up for in character development and emotional depth. The visual effects, while stunning, do not overwhelm and slip unobtrusively into scenes.
Rebecca Murray, About.com
IN appearance and tone, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is much more stylishly gothic than the earlier films. It oozes doom. Violins shimmer dissonantly; storm clouds gather ominously; Hogwarts, for once, looks like the gray and forbidding castle it always was.
