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The sixth instalment of the Harry Potter franchise, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, hits our theatres. Director David Yates, who has also signed on to direct the final two installments (Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2) introduces us to our favourite wizard’s sixth year at Hogwart’s school. The question is: how does it hold up?
The trailers have painted this film as being very dark and serious and, compared to the light-heartedness of the first book and film, it is. For Harry Potter fans, it’s relatively common knowledge that both the books and films get progressively darker as they go on. This film does not disappoint in that department, however it doesn’t lack the humour and teenage awkwardness that made the previous films enjoyable. The first half of the film had me in stitches on occasion, and the good news is that the humorous sections are well-played, well-timed, and lack the cheesiness that can quite often make one cringe and of which some earlier films in the franchise have been guilty.
What I found most striking about this film was the direction. Visually, this is a beautiful film. Some of the transitions are extremely well-done, and although they often go un-noticed, some of the subtle visuals that reflect the heart and message of the film really stood out to me. One scene shows a tiny beam of light from a wizard’s wand piercing Voldemort’s “dark mark”, and this tiny speck of light associated with the most evil and darkest things in the wizarding world communicates a severe message of hope in what, at times, is a world where everything seems hopeless.
The comedy scenes, which mostly focused around relationships and teenage hormones, were very amusing. The casting of Lavender Brown (Ron’s love interest) was brilliant. She is so gushy and sickening that you love to be irritated by her. Luna Lovegood, although only in the film briefly, is fantastically odd, and Bonnie Wright who plays Ginny Weasley has grown into her role as a love interest, becoming more believable as an object of desire, just as Emma Watson’s Hermione emerged in the third and fourth films.
All that being said, however, the film lacks something. It is highly entertaining and touching in places, but for some reason it failed to dazzle me. I think the exclusion of one very important scene (those who are familiar with the books will know which one I mean, but I will not name it as to remain spoiler free) hurt the film quite a bit. One can only hope it was excluded because they were saving this particular scene for installment seven. I think the film did a good job of building tension throughout, and even the places where the film differed from the book made sense when you think about it, apart from one very important thing: the film did not delve as deeply into Lord Voldemort’s back story as I would have liked.
The sixth Harry Potter book is the one in which you learn things about Voldemort that will help Harry learn to defeat him. You learn how he became the Dark Lord, the history behind the murders he committed, an insight into the kind of objects he might have used to create his horcruxes (those unfamiliar with the term will understand once they see the film) etc etc. I understand that all of these things could not be included due to time constraints (the film is already two and a half hours long), but I would have liked to see a little more from Dumbledore’s collection of memories concerning Voldemort. They could have cut out some of the romantic and comedy scenes to move into the main plot a little bit sooner, but at the end of the day this is still a family film, so I understand them wanting to avoid a serious tone all the way through.
All in all, it is a very good movie. I would gladly sit through it again, and as a Harry Potter fan it didn’t disappoint me. But it didn’t “wow” me either. I often wonder how I would feel about these films had I not read the books. As I have said earlier, some important information about Voldemort and his history has been overlooked in this film, and I wonder if casual fans who have not read the books truly understand all the finer details of J.K. Rowling’s plot. I know some people have told me that they didn’t understand Order of The Phoenix because too much was cut out, but as a Harry Potter fan I fill in the gaps as I go. I can only hope that the reason for some of Voldemort’s history being overlooked is because they are now going to use that in the final two movies – Deathly Hallows Parts One and Two. I enjoyed this movie, but I will wait until the franchise has been completed before judging it based on elements which have been removed. I would recommend it, but would warn serious Harry Potter fans to try and view it with an open mind – a lot of detail has been removed, some due to time constraints and some due to trying to keep the films under the 12A rating, while some elements of the plot have been changed. Try to view it as a separate entity to the books, and I have a feeling you’ll enjoy it.
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