Reviews & Ratings for
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a film directed by David Yates. I was quite excited to watch this chapter of the film as it was the one that was closer to the final 2 chapters. And I can say it was an entertaining venture.

Plot: Harry Potter stumbles upon an old potions textbook belonging to the Half Blood Prince.

Story and direction: This film marked the return of Steve Kloves as screenwriter after Goblet of Fire. And he had again a daunting task of matching with David Yates’ vision. But I can say they really did it. The film on a story basis has nothing much to offer. But the character work is so awesome that you can even forget the story part for some time. The characters progress has been shown over the years and that is one aspect this film is to be noted for. We see the characters having realized what love is and also whether or not they are on the good side or bad side. The conflicts are very well written and portrayed by the actors. Also very much noticeable is the photography used. I was just instantly attracted to it. The dull kind of palette suited the environment in which the film is set in. No wonder it was nominated for an Academy Award. Also the VFX are commendable especially in the Quidditch Sequence. That was just wonderful. Even Nicholas Hooper’s score does wonders. My other problem with the film was the main title itself. The Half-Blood Prince as the title suggests has very little importance in the film. As the film progresses I did feel the makers just forgot the title they kept.

Performances: The cast of the film is just awesome and pin-pointing out their performance would be equal to a sin. I would although like to mention Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. He was a character that was quite much different in tone to the other films. And I commend Tom for justifying Draco’s character beautifully. This film introduces Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn. His character was very nicely portrayed by Broadbent. Also introduced is Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy. Although the role was small but it was emoted perfectly.

Favorite Scene: It would be the one where Ron is lying in the hospital and Lavender Brown comes to see him. Standing beside Ron is Hermione. And Ron utter Hermione’s name to Lavender’s disappointment. The smile on Hermione’s face was very evident and it showed the future that lies ahead of these two characters. In addition to that, I felt happy for these two characters.

Verdict: Although a bit weaker in terms of plot in comparison to the previous instalments, I cannot deny from the fact that I had a good time while watching the film. Never for a moment I felt I was watching a bad movie.

I am going with an 8.5/10.

I've enjoyed watching the Harry Potter films (I've not read the books), but this is the first one that began to try my patience.
"Half-Blood Prince" doesn't make sense if you've not read the book it's based on, a crime for which I cannot forgive movie adaptations. The first half of the film deals with the adolescent romances of the Hogwarts students, treated as an aside by the entire film series but somewhat of a welcome relief from the dark brooding of Harry and his battle with Voldemort. However, the last half of the film lurches into action and seems completely disconnected with everything that came before it. By the time Dumbledore and Harry were off to find another piece of Voldemort's soul, I was lost and didn't much care about being found.

The movie based on J.K.Rowling novel of the same name is turning from a child based novel to a much more adult oriented movie. The movie starts in continuation of the fifth movie of the series. Sirius black has died in the battle of the ministry of magic . Voldemort has started raising his army again. The dark times are back again. As harry enters into the sixth year of his schooling a new professor has been inducted into the school named Professor Horace slughorn. And headmaster Dumbledore is exploring the past of Voldemort to know the reason that why he keeps rising again and again. He through Horace discovers that Voldemort has hidden his soul by tearing it into pieces in 7 different objects known as horcruxes out of which harry and he has destroyed 2 but 5 still remain. When dumbledore finds the place where the 3rd horcrux is he takes harry with him to destroy but is unable to find the real one and finds a fake one. As they reach back school death eaters(followers of Voldemort) have rampaged into school with the help of Malfoy. And in the end they manage to kill Dumbledore. And Snape is the one who kills him. They fled away and the movie ends with a question mark i.e. whose side was snape on. I guess we will have to wait for the next movie to find it out.
Brilliant acting, great background score and mystery and thrills ride this movie to a great extent.
A good watch