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New Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince By Kim Sabshin  |
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If you’ve followed the Harry Potter books and movies since the beginning, you should have a good idea of what to expect from the latest Potter film. You’ve probably also counted down the days until this movie’s release and waited to see if it lives up to the hype, especially since it was supposed to have come out almost a year ago. Luckily, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince should be a hit with most Potter fans, in spite of some minor issues that don’t detract too much.
The movie follows the storyline of the sixth book in J.K. Rowling’s best selling series. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), now sixteen years old, is in more danger than ever: Lord Voldemort is gaining power and his followers are wreaking havoc on the wizarding and Muggle worlds. Even so, Harry must also deal with very different problems within the walls of Hogwarts: teenaged hormones and feelings.
For the most part, the film stays relatively faithful to the book. A few scenes are added and removed now and then, but the parts that I was looking forward to are all there. I was very happy to see that scenes involving Quidditch (the wizarding world’s favorite sport) make a bigger appearance after being absent or nearly absent from the last two movies. The tryout scene in particular will definitely make you laugh.
Speaking of which, there is plenty of humor to be had here, with some good one-liners. Since budding relationships involving Harry, Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) were billed as major parts of this movie, the interactions within the trio don’t disappoint. The adolescent tension and awkwardness is effectively played off as funny, and Grint steals the show in many scenes.
As in the case of the other movies, the special effects are also back in full force. The cave scene involving Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) was particularly impressive. However, the Inferi didn’t look as scary as I expected them to be, even though I could tell that a lot of work must have gone into creating them.
Since this the sixth movie, you will definitely be lost if you walk into Half-Blood Prince without having seen others. However, you might not fare much better without reading the sixth book. It’s obvious that a lot of Voldemort’s history is cut out and the Half-Blood Prince’s identity seems almost insignificant by the time that it’s revealed. The filmmakers (understandably) assume that most people who see Half-Blood Prince have read the book, but this isn’t always the case.
For the most part, any problems with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince are minor and I thoroughly enjoyed it as a fan of both the Potter books and movies. The seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be released in two parts, but it remains to be seen where it will be split. In either case, Half-Blood Prince was worth the wait, so I’m willing to bet that the others will be as well.
Rating: 4.25/5
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