Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Year: 2009
Director: David Yates
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Ralph Feinnes, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon, Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe, Alan Rickman & Emma Watson
Runtime: 154 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 17/10/20
Director: David Yates
Starring: Jim Broadbent, Ralph Feinnes, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon, Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe, Alan Rickman & Emma Watson
Runtime: 154 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 17/10/20
After the somewhat disappointing Order of the Phoenix I think it was fair to say that expectations for Half-Blood Prince were somewhat tempered. I mean the book isn’t a whole lot shorter than Order of the Phoenix and it had the same director. But despite some occasionally stiff dialogue and an underwhelming performance from Daniel Radcliffe, Half-Blood Prince is actually a pretty good film.
Now much like Order of the Phoenix I can’t really speak for what’s been cut out of the film in relation to the book because I haven’t read it, but unlike Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince doesn’t feel like it’s actually missing all that much in comparison to Order of the Phoenix’s somewhat hollow plot.
Picking up pretty much straight after Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince sees the Wizarding World adjusting to the realisation that Voldemort is back as he launches various attacks on the wizards and muggles alike. Dumbledore tracks Harry down and introduces him to Horace Slughorn, a former professor of Hogwarts who will be returning as potions master this coming school year. Dumbledore tasks Harry with befriending Slughorn so that he may learn a secret that will inform Dumbledore of something Tom Riddle learned from him many years ago which was a key factor in his transformation into Lord Voldemort. Harry is also suspicious of Draco Malfoy who he believes may have been recruited as a Death Eater to assassinate Dumbledore.
Meanwhile Harry, Ron, and Hermione must all contend with the opposite sex and learn how to navigate the world of dating.
Without beating around the bush Half-Blood Prince is probably the darkest film in the series, both thematically and visually. Harry spends the whole year being Dumbledore’s spy on Slughorn, Draco curses a girl and nearly murders Ron, Bellatrix burns the Weasley’s house to the ground; and Snape kills Dumbledore! Oh, spoilers by the way. The film feels very much like a horror too, the way its shot and edited leaves you feeling tense and on edge for much of the film. The true peak of this horror style comes through during the aforementioned burning of The Burrow where Harry & Ginny are chasing Bellatrix through a field. It’s a dramatic change in presentation from Order of the Phoenix despite having the same director. I love it, it brings out a whole new side to the Harry Potter franchise that we’ve never seen before.
Now much like Order of the Phoenix I can’t really speak for what’s been cut out of the film in relation to the book because I haven’t read it, but unlike Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince doesn’t feel like it’s actually missing all that much in comparison to Order of the Phoenix’s somewhat hollow plot.
Picking up pretty much straight after Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince sees the Wizarding World adjusting to the realisation that Voldemort is back as he launches various attacks on the wizards and muggles alike. Dumbledore tracks Harry down and introduces him to Horace Slughorn, a former professor of Hogwarts who will be returning as potions master this coming school year. Dumbledore tasks Harry with befriending Slughorn so that he may learn a secret that will inform Dumbledore of something Tom Riddle learned from him many years ago which was a key factor in his transformation into Lord Voldemort. Harry is also suspicious of Draco Malfoy who he believes may have been recruited as a Death Eater to assassinate Dumbledore.
Meanwhile Harry, Ron, and Hermione must all contend with the opposite sex and learn how to navigate the world of dating.
Without beating around the bush Half-Blood Prince is probably the darkest film in the series, both thematically and visually. Harry spends the whole year being Dumbledore’s spy on Slughorn, Draco curses a girl and nearly murders Ron, Bellatrix burns the Weasley’s house to the ground; and Snape kills Dumbledore! Oh, spoilers by the way. The film feels very much like a horror too, the way its shot and edited leaves you feeling tense and on edge for much of the film. The true peak of this horror style comes through during the aforementioned burning of The Burrow where Harry & Ginny are chasing Bellatrix through a field. It’s a dramatic change in presentation from Order of the Phoenix despite having the same director. I love it, it brings out a whole new side to the Harry Potter franchise that we’ve never seen before.
Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are also fantastic in this film. They’ve always had great on-screen chemistry but in Half-Blood Prince it is phenomenal. Despite some of the darker sequences feeling like they belong in a horror film, the calmer dialogue scenes involving Ron & Hermione are hilarious and some of the funniest in the entire series. It manages to balance this light-hearted humour very well with the darker, scarier moments. But whilst we’re on the subject of performances, it cannot be understated how awful Bonnie Wright is as Ginny in this film. It feels like she’s just reading from the script for the most part and her chemistry with Daniel is basically non-existent. Speaking of which, as I mentioned earlier, Daniel’s performance is honestly pretty shocking for the most part in this film. In retrospect it’s easy to understand why as this was filmed at the height of his drinking problems, but it’s really visible on camera how spaced out he looks, he’s rarely present in the scene instead it seems as though he’s just staring off into space and delivering his lines in some dreamlike state.
Tom Felton finally gets to have a decent amount of screen time as Draco and despite his lines still sounding like he is reading a passage directly from the book (same problem as the early films had) his facial expressions and physical performance when he isn’t speaking are brilliant. It’s a shame his dialogue sounds so artificial because had it been more natural, I feel Felton would have been the star of the show this time round.
As a whole the Half-Blood Prince is a flawed but very enjoyable film. The things it does well it does fantastically, but there are a number of things that do hold it back from being one of the best films in the series. It manages to set the stage very nicely for the final chapter in the saga.
Tom Felton finally gets to have a decent amount of screen time as Draco and despite his lines still sounding like he is reading a passage directly from the book (same problem as the early films had) his facial expressions and physical performance when he isn’t speaking are brilliant. It’s a shame his dialogue sounds so artificial because had it been more natural, I feel Felton would have been the star of the show this time round.
As a whole the Half-Blood Prince is a flawed but very enjoyable film. The things it does well it does fantastically, but there are a number of things that do hold it back from being one of the best films in the series. It manages to set the stage very nicely for the final chapter in the saga.