Introduction
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the second last installment of the Harry Potter
series has finally come onto the big screen. I was thrilled to hear the IMAX 3D version of the movie, unfortunately, there was no 3D showing in my city, so I had to make do with the normal 2D print.
Plot
Harry’s 6th Year in the college marks his darkest to date. Draco Malfoy seems to be up to some plot and Harry is trying to unravel the mystery. Meanwhile,
Dumbledore has brought back veteran Potions Master Horace Slughorn back to Hogwarts and has moved Snape to the Defence against Dark Arts class. Dumbledore sets Harry on a secret mission to get vital information from Professor Slughorn that would help them in the war against Lord
Voldemort.
Would Harry succeed in his mission with Professor Slughorn? Does Harry unravel the mystery of Draco Malfoy? What’s Voldemort and his Death Eaters upto? Check out this 6th installment of the Harry Potter series for the details.
Critic’s Viewpoint Bringing movies based on books to the screen is one of the toughest tasks primarily due to two reasons. Firstly, it is very difficult to bring in the details that go into around 500 odd pages into a 2-3 hour movie and secondly, it is often very difficult to track every plot and sub-plot that shapes a book. After making 5 decently successful adaptations of the HP books till now, the Warner Bros production team now seems to have understood this theme perfectly.
So instead of running behind every plot and sub-plot, the movie just holds true to the central theme of the fight against Lord Voldemort. On top of that, the movie adds a new dimension by using a lot of situations in a very humorous manner.
JK Rowling’s sixth book is one of the darkest of the HP series, but the Warner Bros movie is one of the lightest of the HP series. In fact, I think it was even more humorous than the first one (Philosopher’s Stone) which to me is the lightest book of the whole series. Some of the scenes and dialogs were outrightly humorous and had the theatre in splits. The pick of the joker was Rupert Grint as Ron Weasly, be it his antics in the Quidditch match or be it his simply coming and sitting in between Ginny and Harry during a Christmas party or his antics after the drinking the love potion, he was a complete natural. Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe were not far off. I think the best thing about this lot is that through the five movies their chemistry has improved so much that they complement each other perfectly.
In the past few movies, I have been critical of Michael Gambon’s over exuberance in his portrayal of Albus Dumbledore, but in this movie he has given a more subdued portrayal and that goes very well with the mood of the movie. I must say that this is definitely his best performance in my books in the HP series. But the pick of the performer for me in this movie has to be Jim Broadbent as Professor Horace Slughorn. Right from the moment he enters the screen as a chair in his house till the very end, he has given a serio-comic performance that holds very close to the description given by JK Rowling in her book.
David Yates and his special effects team need a special mention for their special effects which were fantastic. Some of the scenes like the first scene of the Death Eaters zooming around pulling down bridges seemed to be custom made for the 3D IMAX effect, but I could feel my stomach grumbling even in the 2D, so I can only imagine how good it would have been on the 3D. The location of the cave and the whole sequence is just brilliantly potrayed.
Of course, a movie cannot be perfect in all aspects and I found a couple of minor chinks. Firstly, Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall suddenly looked too aged compared to the previous movie and that charm which we saw in the previous movies was definitely missing. At times the humor was put at really dark scenes like immediately after the cursed locket scene, Professor McGonagall asks the trio of HP, Ron, Hermi as to “Why does such things happen around the three of you?” and Ron blurts out “Trust me Professor, I am myself asking the same question for the past 6 years.” Some might find it cute, but somehow I thought that a wee bit too much.
Summary
But all in all I think this is one of the finest of the HP movies if not the finest. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to one and all especially if the 3D version is available.
I would give this movie a 5 star rating.