A friend told me a few days before I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the 6th feature film of the juggernaut franchise, that I might want to watch the previous film to bone up on all things Hogwarts-ian. I can see what he meant, as this film, by far the darkest of the bunch, relies heavily on your ability to remember prior events. I'm willing to bet that any noob who makes this their first foray into Potterland has been left hexed and dumbfounded, as there is virtually no attempt to explain much of....well, anything. Heck, I still don't know what a Half-Blood Prince is.
Unlike the previous films, Prince takes a headlong leap into the well-worn territory of young love. If anything is going to be the undoing of poor Harry and his crew, it ain't gonna be an evil wizard with a nose like an aardvark. It's gonna be the sly machinations of the opposite sex. In fact, this is probably the thing that is best portrayed, the relationships developing and furthering amongst all these very lovable characters. Harry has begun to explore dating while on the outside world, and when he returns to Hogwarts for the new semester, he finds that he has feelings for Ginny Weasley have increased. As for the rest of his little Scooby Gang, Ron and Hermione's long simmering romance hits a bit of a skid when he begins dating a ditzy and somewhat stalkerish blonde.
By a stroke of luck, Harry comes into posession of a text book belonging to someone named the Half-Blood Prince. The text contains vasts amounts of information that Harry uses to help breeze through his classes, but also appear to be opening him up to some of the darker arts. Harry also begins to suspect that his old nemesis, Draco Malfoy, is up to something sinister after spotting him performing some sort of ritual with a group of Death-eaters. You'd think by now, after six films, that Harry would know that the book he's carrying around is bad news. Was he not paying attention all these years? And again, you'd think everyone would listen when Harry says Draco is up to something. It's like he's Jack Bauer on 24 surrounded by people constantly questioning his thought process. All you need to do is watch the previous season, people. Ofcourse something terrible's going on!
There's a disturbing lack of focus to be found here, and no real narrative to speak of. The revelation of Malfoy's plot is haphazard and uninteresting, even if it's goal is the most devastating of all that we've seen so far. There's so little time spent on screen given to the particulars of the plan that it was hard for me to care when it finally started to play out. Considering the scope of the plan, that can't have been their intention. And since I never read the book, I have no idea if the source material is similarly structured.
To me this is the story that is clearly meant to be the "Empire Strikes Back" of the series. This is the story where things reach their lowest point. This is when things are the most bleak; the darkness before the dawn, etc. etc. But it's almost as if director David Yates couldn't bring himself to make this as dark as perhaps it needed to be. More focus should've been placed on the Death Eaters and their plot, because clearly it is the central issue of this story. I think they could've accomplished all that they wanted to in regards to the relationship building storylines in much fewer scenes. Do I really need to see Ron Weasley with Lavender Brown a dozen times? No. Don't get me wrong, the film's biggest jokes come from these kids' awkward attempts at finding love for the first time, but this was the wrong movie for it. It would have fit better during the last film. This film needed to be harder, blacker, and meaner. I wanted more of Helena Bonham Carter's wonderfully bazarre Bellatrix Lestrange and her ragtag group, including a new member named Fenrir who they teased in the beginning then we barely saw again for the rest of the film.
Director David Yates did a masterful job with Order of the Phoenix, but I got the sense that he scaled things back here. It's another instance where I think they just completely got the tone of this film wrong. This just didn't feel as magical as the previous movies. Not that I wanted it to go back to the awful Mr. Magorium-type atmosphere perpetuated by Chris Columbus in the first two movies, but I felt that they had struck the right balance subsequently. Here, there's practially none of the wonder that permeates the previous movies. Gone is the sense of wonder and amazement as pictures talk and ghosts wander the halls and stairs rotate on their own schedules. Hogwarts feels painfully bland and sterile like an old boarding school. What fun is that? I get that they are trying to get across how tough the times are at Hogwarts, but that wasn't the way to make the point. In the process we got the most boring film of the series, with the exception of first two ofcourse.
I know it sounds like I'm bashing, but I found this film more disappointing than actually bad. As with all the Potter films, it's the actors and the strength of these characters that make this enjoyable. I'm simply in love with everybody involved, no matter how minor a character he or she may be. The three main stars have grown into remarkably strong actors, and it's been a pleasure watching them melt into these roles every year. In particular I think this is Emma Watson's strongest turn as Hermione, as we get a bit further away from the snobbish teacher's pet and more into a flowering woman. I think her angle with Rupert Grint's Ron Weasley is what interested me most. I would've liked to have seen more of those two together, and less of Harry and Ginny. And Helena Bonham Carter deserves a supporting nod for her sinful portrayal of Bellatrix. I simply couldn't take my eyes off her every second she was on screen. I wanted to run alongside her as she screamed "I killed Sirius Black"! with an angry Harry in hot pursuit.
With the Potter franchise nearing it's conclusion, the last book will be split into two films, Half Blood Prince takes a step back in terms of story but it does manage to up the ante for the next chapter. In that I guess it succeeded. My only hope is that the finale brings us something a bit less disjointed, and something a bit more magical.
7/10
