Review - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. You know the old saying about how a movie isn't quite as good as the book it's based on? Well, the sixth film of the Harry Potter series is proof positive that the opposite is also true. Based on a book that's basically a prologue for the final book that's chock full of filler, the film version is much more entertaining. So, here we go: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. 

          The movie starts off with a group of Death Eaters, including the werewolf Fenrir Greyback, attacking the Millennium Bridge in London, and abducting wandmaker Garrick Ollivander from his shop in Diagon Alley. Meanwhile, Harry Potter is reading the Daily Prophet in a train station cafe, and he starts to flirt with a waitress who takes a curious look at the Daily Prophet newspaper. Harry then notices Dumbledore on the other side of the train tracks, and goes over.to meet him. Harry and Dumbledore then apparate to a small neighborhood, where they go to meet an old acquaintance of Dumbledore's named Horace Slughorn. Slughorn has been moving constantly and hiding out to avoid the Death Eaters, and is also adamant about refusing Dumbledore's request to rejoin the Hogwarts staff. Harry and Slughorn then proceed to chat about Slughorn's past with Harry's mother Lily, who was one of his favorite students. Slughorn also shows Harry a series of photos of past students of his, including Sirius' brother Regulus Black. As Harry and Dumbledore leave, Slughorn agrees to return to his old teaching gig as Hogwarts Potions Master. Dumbledore then drops Harry off at the Burrow, where Hedwig and his belongings are waiting for him. Harry then reunites with Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Mrs. Weasley, all of whom are surprised and happy to see him. 

        The next day, Bellatrix Lestrange and her sister Narcissa Malfoy go to speak with Snape, who is reassigned to teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year at Hogwarts, about what Voldemort had planned for Draco. Narcissa pleads to Snape to look after Draco, and Bellatrix has him make the Unbreakable Vow to do so, and to carry out the deed if Draco fails to. Meanwhile, in Diagon Alley, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny go to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, a wizarding joke shop run by Fred and George. Harry then spots Draco and Narcissa heading to Borgin and Burke's in Knockturn Alley, where Draco is shown a mysterious cabinet by various Death Eaters. 

      On the Hogwarts Express, Luna is passing out copies of her father's publication, the Quibbler, while Ron and Hermione try to debunk Harry's belief that Draco is now a Death Eater. Harry takes his invisibility cloak and spies on Draco, listening in to his conversation with fellow Slytherins Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini. As the train arrives, all but Draco disembark, and Draco casts a spell that puts Harry in a full-body bind, and breaks his nose, leaving him to take the train back to London. Luckily, Harry is spotted by Luna, who walks with him to the gate to Hogwarts, having missed the carriage rides.  At the feast, Dumbledore informs of how years ago, a promising student once walked the halls of Hogwarts, and now could potentially use the students to his advantage, even as his followers attempt to breach the protective charms safeguarding the school. That student's name was Tom Riddle. 

       The next day, McGonagall spots Harry and Ron hanging around, and asks if he's taking Potions, but Harry never signed up under the belief that he needed an Outstanding in his O.W.L, which McGonagall says was true under Snape. Slughorn, however, is willing to accept N.E.W.T. students with an Exceeds Expectations grade. McGonagall also ask Harry to take Ron with him to Potions class. Harry and Ron arrive, and join the class. Slughorn then gives the class the assignment to brew the Draught of the Living Death, and the first to do so successfully with receive a vial of Felix Felicis aka Liquid Luck. Harry, using a book previously used by an individual called the "Half-Blood Prince," is the one to succeed in the task. Later on, Harry and Ginny hold Quidditch tryouts, where Ron goes up for the Keeper position against fellow Gryffindor Cormac McLaggen, who really just wants to impress Hermione. Ron ultimately is the one that makes the team. 

        Meanwhile, Harry also has one-on-one lessons with Dumbledore, as he wants Harry to see a series of collected memories that pertain specifically to Voldemort aka Tom Riddle. Using the Pensieve, Harry sees Dumbledore's memory of his first meeting with Tom Riddle as a child. Dumbledore tells Tom, who is a bit of a troubled child, that at Hogwarts, he will learn how to properly use magic. After witnessing the memory, Dumbledore tells Harry the real reason that he brought Slughorn back: Tom Riddle, as a student, grew quite close to Slughorn, and confided in him about several things. Dumbledore asks Harry to gain the trust of Slughorn and get closer to him in order to get information from him. 

       Harry has been chosen by Slughorn to join a select group of his students in what he calls the Slug Club, which also includes both Ginny and Hermione. The Slug Club has a dinner get together, where Slughorn gets to learn about each of them, and Hermione reveals that her parents are both dentists. During a very snowy Quidditch game, Ron helps Gryffindor win the game, and is furthering his relationship with Lavender Brown, who he's been going out with much to the chagrin of Hermione. Slughorn informs Harry and Hermione of the Slug Club Christmas party, and although Hermione was initially going to ask Ron to go, she invites Cormac after he mentions it. Harry, meanwhile, goes with Luna, who wears a dress that looks like a Christmas tree. The party goes well, but ends quite sadly for Hermione, whom Harry does his best to console. Harry also manages to overhear Draco and Snape discussing the Unbreakable Vow that Snape made with Narcissa. 

          Back at the Burrow, Harry discusses the situation with Tonks, Lupin, and Arthur. And Lupin brushes it off with regard to Harry's rivalry with Draco, and reminds everyone that Dumbledore trusts Snape. Out in the nearby shed, Arthur and Harry discuss the object that Draco was shown at Borgin and Burke's. The object is a Vanishing Cabinet, which was all the rage when Voldemort first rose to power. Apparently, they allow one to disappear for a short while, and it's useful for hiding from Death Eaters. However, the one at Borgin and Burke's is still there. Later that night, Bellatrix and Greyback attack the Burrow, and Harry, Ginny, Arthur, Lupin, and Tonks fight them off. Everyone is safe, but the damage is done. 

       Back at school, Harry sees another memory of Tom Riddle, this time asking Slughorn of a piece of rare magic. Slughorn denies any knowledge of it, and sends Riddle away. Dumbledore reveals that the memory was tampered with by Slughorn himself, and the true memory holds the key to defeating Voldemort. Harry does his best to gain the trust of Slughorn to get the real memory, but to no avail. Ron, meanwhile, consumes a love potion left by Romilda Vane that was intended for Harry, and Harry takes him to Slughorn to cure him. Slughorn gives Harry and Ron a mead, but Ron collapses from the mead, which was poisoned, and Harry quickly saves him with a Bezoar stone. In the hospital wing, Slughorn reveals that the mead was meant for Dumbledore, and Ron whispers Hermione's name, upsetting Lavender, who breaks up with him as a result. Some time later, after a duel that nearly kills Draco, Harry finally agreed to get rid of the Half-Blood Prince's book, and Ginny takes him to the Room of Requirement to hide it away, and while there, the two share a kiss. 

          Harry, some time later, drinks the Liquid Luck in an effort to get the true memory from Slughorn, and ends up seeing Slughorn while on the way to Hagrid's. Harry and Slughorn go to see Hagrid, who is mourning the death of his spider Aragog. That night, Slughorn tells a story of how a student sent him a water bowl with a flower petal, which turned into a goldfish. The flower petal came from a lily, and the fish it turned into vanished into thin air the night that Lily and James Potter were killed, and it was Harry's mother Lily that sent the gift to him. Appealing to him to honor her memory, Harry, accepting that he is the Chosen One, finally convinces Slughorn to hand over the memory of Tom Riddle. Taking it to Dumbledore and the Pensieve, Harry learns just what Tom Riddle asked about all those years ago: a dangerous magical object called a Horcrux. Slughorn reveals that a Horcrux is a magical object that contains the soul of an individual, so that it's kept safe when the individual's physical body is destroyed. In addition, the way to split a soul to create a Horcrux is the most unnatural act in the world: murder. Riddle also asks if one can make seven Horcruxes, which Slughorn asks why one would want to. 

        Harry and Dumbledore then head to the Astronomy Tower, where the two apparate to the location of another Horcrux, and Harry and Dumbledore work together to get it, which includes Harry having to force Dumbledore to drink a powerful, dark liquid. The two return to Hogwarts, where Dumbledore asks Harry to get Snape, and Dumbledore is soon confronted by Draco, who let several Death Eaters, including Bellatrix, into Hogwarts through the second Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement, which has connected with its twin at Borgin and Burke's. It's also revealed that the poisoned mead, as well as a cursed amulet that Gryffindor student Katie Bell was meant to take to Dumbledore, was Draco's handy work, as his task is revealed: kill Dumbledore. Draco hesitates, and Snape steps in and kills Dumbledore instead. Harry goes after him, and Snape reveals himself to be the Half-Blood Prince. The Hogwarts staff and students use their wands to illuminate the sky, ridding it of the Dark Mark overhead, and Ginny consoles a crying Harry. 

           In Dumbledore's office, McGonagall does her best to reassure Harry that everyone is going to be okay, and he meant quite a bit to Dumbledore. In the Astronomy Tower, Harry reveals that the Horcrux was a fake, and contained a letter written to Voldemort by a mysterious individual referred to as R.A.B. Harry, Ron, and Hermione then decide to work together to go after the remaining Horcruxes, ending the movie. 

        Okay, so while the book version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince felt like filler, the movie was really entertaining. Director David Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves, who returns from his absence from writing Order of the Phoenix, definitely did a terrific job of making the source material work well for the cinema. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson are terrific once again, as we're the likes of Tom Felton, Alan Rickman, and Michael Gambon. I also enjoyed the performances of both Bonnie Wright as Ginny, who gets a lot more screentime here than she did in the last three movies of the series, and Evanna Lynch as Luna, whose wild and wacky outfits were just adorably hilarious. New additions like Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy, Scarlett Byrne as Pansy Parkinson, and Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn were definitely welcome additions to the cast. Hell, Jim Broadbent was the absolute perfect choice to portray Slughorn. 

      I also enjoyed the return of Quidditch in this movie, and seeing a Quidditch match played in the snow is really neat. Compared to a lot of the epic feel of the other Harry Potter movies, this one felt quite small, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The fact is that with the massive scale of the previous two movies and the two-part final chapter of the series, to have this one be smaller by comparison gives viewers some breathing room. Overall, I enjoyed this movie, but not as much as Order of the Phoenix. I give Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince a rating of 4/5. 

        This is Chuck signing off. Stay tuned, because this Wednesday, we'll be wrapping up the Harry Potter series with the two-part final chapter: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.