Director: David Yates
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson & Rupert Grint
Whilst frequently engaging and enjoyable, the sixth instalment of the Harry Potter franchise is a little too uneven in tone and slow in its build up to be as gripping as more recent instalments have been.
As the Harry Potter film franchise continues with each instalment getting progressively darker and more mature and with its child actors slowly overtaking the ages of the characters they are performing, each instalment has more expectation put upon it to succeed previous instalments in both quality and in Box Office performance. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth instalment and penultimate chapter in the series, arrives with even more of a challenge as it deals not only with the death of a major character but also with the purpose to set up the characters and events of the franchise in preparation for the final instalment whilst possessing a less action driven script than previous films.
With the forces of Voldemort gaining strength and making open attacks within the magic and non-magic worlds, Harry Potter and his friends return to Hogwarts under greater threat to their lives than before as Harry is openly recognised as the chosen one prophesised to be the only person capable of defeating Voldemort in the future. Struggling with the weight of his responsibility and with ever-increasing feelings of teenage romance towards his friend Ron’s sister Ginny and a mission from his headmaster Dumbledore to befriend a returning teacher who possesses a secret about Voldemort’s past, Harry has much to contend with. Meanwhile Harry’s friends Ron and Hermione are struggling with romantic feelings for one another and Harry’s rival Draco has been entrusted with a dark mission by Voldemort.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is an interesting film, one which, while frequently engaging, is also frequently uneven in its tone. Unlike several previous instalments in the series, this film lacks a clear direction with its plot. Without a prison break, a magic tournament or even a Quidditch final with which to hinge its storyline upon with an idea of where/how a final confrontation might take place, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince seems driven by a series of sub-plots and mysteries. The mysteries themselves are actually quite intriguing and frequently gripping. One deals with a secret mission with a sinister purpose involving Draco Malfoy, a rival of Harry’s, while the other involves the secret surrounding Voldemort’s past encounter with a teacher at Hogwarts from when he was a student and which Harry must uncover. The former plotline is suitably tense and ominous while the latter is frequently engaging with its teases and slow reveal helped by the welcome addition of Jim Broadbent to the franchise as Professor Slughorn. However, as intriguing as these plotlines are, particularly for older audiences, the addition of romantic sub-plots between its characters with frequent approaches to them that are intentionally comical means that the tone of the film frequently switches from the dark to near slapstick. These sub-plots, in addition to extending the films already ample running time, and far less action set-pieces with which to really thrill audiences means this instalment whilst very mature, also stands out as less of a complete film in its own right and more of an extended prologue to the franchise’s final films.
Fortunately Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince benefits from many enjoyable performances that help make the slowly intertwining plotlines that more enjoyable. Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson show further progression in their growth as actors as the mature with their characters Harry and Hermione though Rupert Grint as Ron is relegated too frequently to comic relief. Bonnie Wright and Tom Felton also get to show more maturity as their characters Ginny Weasley and Draco Malfoy get more time to grow and more drama to work with while Michael Gambon continues to be enjoyable as Professor Dumbledore. Alan Rickman impresses as the he gets to handle more complexities with his character Professor Snape while Jim Broadbent is a highly enjoyable addition to the cast as the returning Professor Slughorn whose ambitions to teach the very best students puts Harry Potter in his sights whilst also reveals his history with his former students including Harry’s mother and the boy who would become Voldemort.
Overall, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is enjoyable, a good addition to the franchise and handles several of its plotlines quite impressively, however the romantic elements of the story are less well-handled undermining the overall tone on occasion and its story performing well enough as a prologue for the next instalment in the franchise but not standing as satisfactorily on its own as a film.
Rating: 3/5
