Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - Film Review

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - Film Review

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Posted 2022-09-12 by PerthKelfollow
Please note this review contains spoilers

Originally released in 2009 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, directed by David Yates, is the sixth movie in the Harry Potter franchise, based on the book of the same name by JK Rowling. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince sees Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) return to Hogwarts for their sixth year of school.

The movie opens with Harry sitting in a train station cafe, reading a magic newspaper - he likes hanging out in train stations rather than being at the house on Privet Drive with the Dursleys (who are not featured or referenced in this film at all). Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) arrives at the station imploring Harry to come with him - not that Harry needs convincing. They travel to a small town in order to convince an old Hogwarts Professor Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) to return to his old teaching position at the school - which he reluctantly agrees to - with some conditions. Harry is then whisked away to The Burrow, to spend the rest of the school holidays with the Weasleys - and Hermione - who is also staying there.

When our trio of heroes head to Diagon Alley before returning to school, they follow Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) and his mum Narcissa (Helen McCrory) down Knockturn Alley to Borgin & Burke's. Watching from the roof of a nearby building until their view is cut off, they see other Deatheaters enter the store - leading Harry to believe that Draco has been made a Deatheater to infiltrate Hogwarts.

Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) convinces Harry to join Slughorn's potions class with Ron, and the two fight over the last two available potions books. Harry ends up with an old beaten up version previously belonging to the Half Blood Prince - according to writing inside the cover. Following the notations in the book for the potions, Harry excels in the class - even beating Hermione - earning high praise from Slughurn and getting invited to join his elite club.

This is what Dumbledore was hoping for - as he needs Harry's help to retrieve a memory from Slughorn pertaining to Voldemort and his time at Hogwarts. Eventually, Slughorn gives Harry the memory he's chasing, and he and Dumbledore learn that Voldemort wanted to learn about horcruxes, magical objects used to contain a part of one's soul in order to extend his life.

With this new information, Dumbledore and Harry travel to a far off coastal cave in search of one of these horcruxes. After retrieving the item they are looking for, they return to Hogwarts. But Dumbledore is very weak and in their absence, Draco has used a vanishing cabinet in the room of requirement - paired with another in Borgin & Burke's to help a small group of Deatheaters infiltrate Hogwarts.

In a confrontation with the Deatheaters and Professor Snape (Alan Rickman), Dumbledore is killed. Harry pursues the group, trying to stop them but ends up being stopped by Snape - whom Harry discovers is actually the self named Half Blood Prince. The following day, as all the staff and students mourn Dumbledore, Harry reveals to Hermione and Ron what they found in the cave - turns out to be a fake copy of the original horcrux, which was apparently taken by someone calling themselves RAB. The three agree to not return to Hogwarts the following year, instead going to finish what Harry and Dumbledore started - finding and destroying all the horcruxes.

This movie is a little darker and scarier than the last. I watched this with my eight-year-old and there were times when he both jumped and got scared but overall we were both quite enthralled with the movie. The movie does keep most of the main points from the book, but as you would expect, there are minor changes and things that had to be left out. A great movie and well worth watching if you like the books or even just the movies alone.

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83259 - 2023-06-11 06:39:53

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