Jackassalope

Pass the Popcorn: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

The sixth installment of the of Harry Potter series hit theaters in July, which means I actually got to see a movie before it came to the Red Box. Yeah for me! The Half Blood Prince has David Yates (director of Order of the Phoenix and the next two Potter films) lead us one step closer to the inevitable confrontation between Harry and Voldemort, who was noticably absent during this film.

The Half Blood Prince was well shot, all of the actors added another level of depth to their characters, and there was a lot of well timed humor throughout. That being said, I was slightly let down by this Potter film. Don't get me wrong, it's worth seeing, but it definitely had a more methodical pace than the last two.

The movie does a decent job at describing the main plot points but comes up short at creating some of the obvious torment some of the main characters go through in the book. This could be overlooked if it was replaced with another platform to hold my interest.

I know the book focused more on self discovery (if my memory serves me), but I would have liked a little more tempo in the theatrical version. And the fact that all of the critics seemed to embrace the film also raised my expectations, which probably contributed to my mild let down. And since this installment was pushed back over 6 months due to the writer's strike, we now have to wait a year and a half to see how Yates will interpret the first half of the last book (just long enough for me to lose interest).

Despite my negative ramblings, The Half Blood Prince was well done and will probably be much better upon a second viewing.