REVIEW: HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (12A)

HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (12A)
Warner Bros
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Tom Felton, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, David Thewlis, Robbie Coltrane, Timothy Spall, Julie Walters, Dave Legeno, Helen McCrory, Bonnie Wright
Director: David Yates
Running Time: 2hr 30mins
Out Now

IF ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ is the calm before the storm – then the finale should be something magical.
Brit director David Yates does an admirable job of piecing together J K Rowling’s sixth installment – and throws a curveball by providing as much teenage angst and romance as he does action. Harry Potter: The Love Story if you will.
That fortunately isn’t a bad thing as he provides more of a human element to the ‘Half-Blood Prince’ which makes it an intriguing, if sometimes muddled, stand-alone movie in its own right – and a worthy addition to the Harry Potter canon.
With Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) still mourning the death of Sirius Black, Voldemort tightens his grip on the Muggles – seen by an opening attack by Death Eaters on the London’s Millennium Bridge – and Wizarding worlds.
Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Harry enlist the help of new Potions professor Horace Slughorn (played by Jim Broadbent with his usual brilliance) to help unlock some of Voldemort’s secrets as the inevitable final battle looms ever closer.
Even the largely redundant Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) gets a chance to spread his wings as he’s tempted to the dark side, inspired by the likes of the returning Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter), and the debuting – but woefully underused – werewolf Fenrir Greyback.
But all death-eatery pales in comparison to the raging hormones of Harry and a blossoming Ginny Weasley, and Hermione (Emma Watson) slowly coming to terms with her feelings towards dozy unsuspecting Ron (Rupert Grint) – who gets his rare moment of glory in a Quidditch match.
Due to the difficult source material at hand, ‘Half-Blood Prince’ was going to struggle to be the best so far, that status still reigns with the action-packed ‘Goblet of Fire’, closely followed by the inaugural Potter outing the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’.
This sits in the middle ground just about on a par with the equally-dark ‘Prisoner of Azkaban’, a shade better than ‘Order of the Phoenix’ – and million miles ahead of the awful ‘Chamber of Secrets’.
The romantic sub-plots – which eats up a lot of the surprisingly brisk two and a half hours run-time – adds a welcomed deeper character insight that empathising teenage fans will undoubtedly embrace, but may prove tedious for casual cinema-goers looking for more action.
Fortunately Yates puts sentimentality on the backburner by making the final third of the film one of the best in the series, leaving this prince with his glass half full instead of half empty – and adding an extra mark to the rating.
More importantly, after six films Harry still has the magical touch and will surely leave fans with their appetites truly whetted for the ‘Deathly Hallows’ double-header.

ESP Rating: 4/5

Gavin Miller