Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Movie Review July 15, 2009

This was definitely one of the better movies in the series. With the dark atmosphere, as Voldemort and his Death Eaters are out in full force and the stronger focus on the romantic relationships of the characters, the movie matches the way the books get more mature as Harry gets older. How they managed to get a PG rating on this movie is beyond me, since there are as just as many violent and frightening images as past movies, if not more. Watching the movie at midnight added to the atmosphere, and if you didn’t do it this year, I recommend doing it for one of the next movies. Not only are there the fun costumes that people put on (some highlights include a girl dressed as the golden snitch and two boys dressed as Gryffindor that got up in front of the screen before the movie and had a duel) but there is a theater full of people reacting to the movie along with you; the gasps, the cheers, and the scandalized whispering when something is changed. The movie manages to balance light and dark very nicely. There are the intense memories of Voldemort and Harry’s quest with Dumbledore and Draco Malfoy struggling to complete his task to keep his life. But there are also some intensely funny scenes. Some of the comedic highlights were when Harry and Ron discuss girls, when Ron takes a love potion, and when Harry takes the luck potion. All the characters that we have all come to love in the books really shine in this movie. Helena Bonham Carter is joyously evil as Bellatrix Lestrange and Allan Rickman plays the duplicitous Snape very well. Even though many parts from the book are skimmed over and some things are added, all the changes make sense and they really captured the main ideas and the heart of the book. (Loft Zoe)