Maybe I can find the rest of this movie if somebody will teach me a summoning charm.
Going Rate: Not more than matinee. And the book is still better.
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Alan Rickman
Rated: PG
Red Flags: Some scary magic and teenage "snogging"
I haven't read the sixth book in the Harry Potter series, so for the first time ever, I'm in the position of reviewing the film version without any hints of the accompanying text. But even so, for all this movie's enchantment and intrigue, I still feel like I'm watching the Cliff's Notes version. I know I'm right because J.K. Rowling's books are much more intricate than the films can reasonably duplicate, and that has been the rule all along. Screenwriter Steve Kloves has had the unenviable assignment of boiling these novels down, and I imagine if you asked seven different scribes to do it, you'd get seven different treatments.
The Half-Blood Prince is the darkest Harry Potter film yet, with the evil wizard Voldemort (I know, don't say his name) unleashed. Hogwart's School is under a magical shield to protect it from the dark lord's goon squad known as Death Eaters. Dumbledore (Gambon) has hired a new potions instructor, Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), with the intent of Harry (Radcliffe) becoming his confidant so he can elicit a certain piece of information that will help defeat you-know-who. One problem: Harry isn't taking Potions classes, but Slughorn coaxes him and best friend Ron Weasley (Grint) into it with a charming demeanor. Having a good textbook helps, too. Harry gets his hands on a used potions book with all sorts of helpful handwritten notes in the margin by the "Half-Blood Prince." We don't know who he is, but he must've aced the class. I remember in college when the bookstores tried to talk us out of buying used course materials. There goes that argument.
Potter's nemesis, Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton), is on an evil mission of some kind, and Professor Snape (Rickman) has sworn to protect him and carry out that mission should Draco fail. That mission somehow involves a secret chamber (but not the "Chamber of Secrets") that makes things disappear, although on screen it looks more like a Gothic outhouse. One can sense Malfoy has trouble with the task assigned to him. He is not the swaggering bully of the previous films but a person burdened. Snape is, as always, that brooding creature we know well.
As for our heroes, their hormones are exerting themselves, looking for love without aid of a potion -- most of the time. Hermione (Watson) fancies Ron, but she's a rival to another girl who's impressed with Ron's Quiddich abilities. Harry's itching for one of Ron's sister's, but she's itching for someone else.
Even with that protective shield around Hogwarts, evil is still getting inside. First a girl is cursed by a necklace she was trying to deliver to Dumbledore, and Ron is poisoned by wine Slugworth was intending to give to the wizard-in-chief. Harry and Dumbledore know what's going on, lending urgency to Harry's mission to recover the necessary information from Slugworth.
The Half-Blood Prince delivers a reasonable plot, but not an entirely coherent one, mainly concerning the aforementioned Prince's old textbook. I guess we're supposed to believe it's evil in some way, but only because there's a need for Harry to get rid of it part-way through the film. Much is made of characters "snogging," and one scene between Ron and Harry talking about relationships feels more germane to a British sitcom than a Harry Potter flick. That's not to say that Radcliffe, Grint and Watson underperform. They make the most of what they have, but I wish they had more.
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