Harry Potter Month - Mini Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

We’re counting down to the end, those of you waiting for a long review of a Harry Potter movie need wait only a little longer, but first we need to look at a lie I might’ve told. Last time I said that the Order of the Phoenix was my least favourite of the Harry Potter movies, that might’ve been true when I was younger but looking at it now, I see this as a contender, for reasons I’ll explain momentarily.

By far this is the movie with the biggest budget, $250m was given, it made $934.4m at the box office, a marginal improvement over the last one. Critically successful, it holds 84% on rotten tomatoes and 78 average on metacritic but let’s dive into my own opinions

Ron, Harry and Hermione return to Hogwarts for their 6^th year, with professor Snape now teaching Defence against the Dark Arts and newcomer Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) teaching Potions, Harry takes private lessons with Dumbledore where he finds out more about the young Tom Riddle and how he has survived all this time. But as mysteries begin to present themselves, including the identity of the Half Blood Prince who had written inside Harry’s potions book and a spat of mysterious incidents. They must act, or it will be too late for Hogwarts.

So, my biggest issue with this film is its action. Not that it doesn’t look good, it looks fantastic, more its placement (and general lack of it). I sort of understand not having a battle at Hogwarts, seeing as that happens in the finale, although that does mean rushing through a sub-plot in the next movie. But the battle at the Weasleys’ at Christmas makes no sense.

1^st off, we get no real mention of what happened to Grimmauld Place but given the appearance of Remus and Tonks, I think it’s safe to assume that it is the new headquarters of the Order, so why on Earth isn’t it better protected? 2^nd we have the fact that 4 death eaters show up, destroy the place, and taunt Harry for a bit. They all survive thanks to the magic of plot convenience and the Death Eaters just leave… Why? Then we have the biggest issue without having the battle of Hogwarts. The same issues that I pretty much just mentioned. I realise that Hogwarts has spells protecting it, but no-one on guard duty noticed them? Bullsh*t! Then we have the fact that they’ve killed Dumbledore, Hogwarts is at their mercy and they smash some sh*t up and leave. SOMEBODY NOT HARRY DO SOMETHING!

Then there are also moments like McGonagall explaining about Harry being able to take potions. We don’t know anything about his OWL results, we also never saw a scene where Harry presented an ambition to become an auror.

The character development for Remus was largely glossed over. His relationship with Tonks is supposed to be at the end of the movie, here it’s just sort of there, out of the blue and it’s not really mentioned how her shape-shifting got her stuck in this new look.

Then we have the exceptional amount of time devoted to the love triangles, anyone else get bored watching that? Yeah…

But I’m not entirely saying the film is rubbish, visually and cinematically they are fantastic. Jim Broadbent is perfectly cast as Slughorn, and despite some cut scenes with him, we totally believe Severus Snape (I don’t know whether I’ve brought him up before, he’s played by Alan Rickman) as a man who has been on both sides and still technically is.

Speaking of actors I haven’t brought up before, the Malfoy Gang. I haven’t mentioned them much in these reviews because the characters are largely inconsequential until this story. That’s not to say anything against their actors (although I will be saying stuff against one of them) this story focuses more on Draco Malfoy (brilliantly played by Tom Felton) than any other, as it is his plans that are coming to motion. It’s wonderful to see the fear in his eyes as he faces up against Dumbledore and they have that speech.

This is the last film we see Jamie Waylett as Crabbe, I’ll explain his absence in my review of the final film, but yes it has a lot to do with his own actions. Joshua Herdman as Goyle will remain and they are equally well played, albeit very minor roles.

And I really have gone far too long without mentioning Bonnie Wright as Ginny Weasley, she has been consistently excellent in her role and her love interests, whilst lacking in prominence over others was one of the moments to watch.

Rating 65/100

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Images used in this review are from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use