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'Half-Blood Prince' scores five-out-of-five
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At long last the latest installment of the Harry Potter film series is released from the clutches of Warner-Brothers amid shouts of excitement from fans heard around the world.
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" flies over the first few chapters of the book and opens on Harry and Dumbledore leaving London to convince an old professor from Hogwarts to return to his post. It is Harry’s job to be “collected” by Professor Slughorn as his newest celebrity student so that he may in turn collect an important memory that will shed some light on the life of a young boy named Tom Riddle, who would later be known as Lord Voldemort.
By learning as much as possible about Voldemort’s past, Harry and Dumbledore hope to better understand how to defeat him in the end.
Throughout the course of the year, Cupid takes a shot at just about every student at Hogwarts. Harry, Ron and Hermione are struck most deeply. Harry develops feelings for Ron’s younger sister, Ginny; Ron finds a rather zealous girlfriend in Lavender Brown, much to the despair of Hermione; she in turn starts seeing pompous Gryffindor Keeper Cormac McLaggen to make Ron jealous.
Fans of the book know how all of these budding relationships develop; fans of the films will have to wait until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II comes out (release date slated for summer 2011).
This sixth part (out of eight films) has certainly lived up to Harry’s reputation as a crowd-pleaser. Half-Blood Prince is far funnier than its predecessors and is chock full of innuendo.
It could hardly be clearer that Harry and his classmates are growing up. All that is left now for them to do is go to war and they will be full-fledged adults. Director David Yates (who took the helm for the last Harry Potter adventure and who is also taking charge of the next two) seems to be more than capable of guiding Harry safely through his final adventures. His films have a look and feel all their own and his style suits the darkening nature of the series.
There is hardly anything negative to say about "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." It is a more-than-satisfying adaptation of a beloved book and a marvelous film besides.
For reaching near perfection, I give this movie five out of five dreaded Love Potions.
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| by Jessica Napier |
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