*** Official "HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE" Review Thread

Just watched it this morning. It was just 'ok' to me. It has a lot of the same problems as Phoenix did. The two friends I saw it with both came out saying the same thing, they were bored. One almost fell asleep. I didn't have that problem but it was light on the action. I did like a lot of the humor and and the budding romances that played out through most of the middle of the film. It worked much better than the ballroom stuff from film 4.

I haven't read the books so didn't know what was going to happen, but the ending didn't have any sort of punch or emotional connection for me. It just sorta happened and that's that.

It will do like all Potter films and make some good box office but I don't see many going back for repeat viewings in the theater.

I would give it a C+.

Saw this at 4 today.  Possible minor spoilers below.

A very different Potter film than we've peviously seen. This film seems to be doing great with critics, but I think alot of average joes going to see it will be bored to tears with it. Its like Potter on valium. It will be interesting to read what people here think of it over the coming days.

The chud review is right on with Hogwarts. While there are a couple scenes of the place buzzing with people for the most part its, long empty corridors with moving shadows. I rewatched the entire film series this weekend and its funny how different the first few are compared to how the series has progressed. Bright colors, blues and reds and have been replaced with desturated grays, browns, blues. 

I dont remember why Lavender is so so possessed with Ron in the book but here, its basically Rons only purpose. The days of Harry relying on Hermione are over. Take away the Ron, Hermoine, and Lavender triangle and theyd really serve no purpose. I would have liked a bit less of this and gotten some other tidbits from the books, like Dumblodores conversation with the Dursleys for instance.The Hermoine stuff played out better than the Ron/Lavender stuff becuase weve known Ron and Hermoine for so long.

Theres no explaination of "Prince" in HBP, which may confuse people not familiar with the books. Like the previous films, another 10 -15 minutes of background info would make for a better films. LOTR type ext cuts would be great to have one day.

I have to say something about the cinematography and scenery in this film, because its magnificent. A example is Slughorn Hagrid and Harry standing over Aragog, with a mountain in the background covered with clouds. Simply beautiful. The composition and cinematography in Half Blood Prince is genius. Do yourself a favor and see this in a good theater.

The last 30 minutes of this film got alot of people emotional. Alot of sniffling and dead silence. The credits came up and there was about 5 - 10 seconds of silence before a few people clapped.

Its hard to place this film among the others, its so different from the rest of them. But theres some real brilliance in some of this film.One big compaint would be the Death Eaters exit from Hogwarts. The battle with the teachers doesnt happen which bothers me. Bellatrix wrecks the place and they waltz out? Where were the Aurors who were standing guard?

Also what happened to Tonks purple hair?? :(




Edited by JonZ - 7/15/2009 at 09:02 pm GMT

Edited by Robert Crawford - 7/15/2009 at 02:10 am GMT

  Yawn 

I really enjoyed seeing this today with my daughter.  Beautiful cinematography.  A good script, too.  I haven't read the books but I could follow it easily.

****/*****

Like I said in the discussion thread.  I enjoyed it more then my friend who read the books.  While it didn't have some of the action as the others.  I really felt like it set up the finale. 

I found the 6th installment of the Harry Potter film franchise to be too reliant of the quick button-hook laughs as it went from scene to scene in the opening act, while trying to lay the foundation of the ominous plans of the dark prince, moving chess pieces in place, playing with the souls of characters in this battle of light and dark powered by magical machinations.

The film has many problems, as the main 3 characters (Harry, Hermione, and Ron) don't really have much to do beside provide comic relief scenes stemming from teeenage love triangle angst, and even the supporting Hogwarts characters have even less to do, which was too bad.  The insertion of the new teacher at Hogwarts, Professor Slughorn, was too ham-fisted in light of his contribution to the overall plotline.  The last 45 minutes were a chore to sit through because it was just flat-out boring.  At 150+ minutes, the film was just too long given the plot points covered.   The film short-changes the "Half-Blood Prince" angle too.

Daniel Radcliffe hasn't improved all that much in the acting department, which was disappointing, perhaps Director Yates just wasn't interested in getting a better acting performance from him.  To me, it just leads to this meandering lacksadaisical energy to the film.   Plus, he still plays Harry as the accidental wizard without as much confidence or conviction he should have at this point in the series.  Now, not everything was poorly done, there are some nicely composed shots in the film, with some interesting lighting as the dark minions do what they do best, and Hogwarts early colorful palette from the previous film has been transitioned into a more muted color palette to bolster the simmering darkness a-brewing.
I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

8/10

My biggest criticism is that the film just didn't have a thread that carried all the way through. More than any other HP film, this one feels like a loose compilation of highlights from the book.
But there is a lot to like, and the last 40 minutes of the film is very well done. Just not my favorite HP movie...PoA remains my favorite and is still, IMHO, the high water mark of the series.