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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Director: David Yates
Movie review
From Time Out Chicago
At Hogwarts in year six, a young wizard’s thoughts turn to the hot chick in Incantations class, and the potions most of interest are love potions. While Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) skulks around moodily looking strangely like David Bowie in the Thin White Duke era, Harry (Radcliffe), Hermione (Watson) and Ron (Grint) spend an inordinate percentage of Half-Blood Prince obsessing about who’s snogging whom.
Yes, there’s that whole Voldemort problem to deal with, and certainly people are disappearing mysteriously while Dumbledore (Gambon) rumbles darkly but unhelpfully about the dark secrets of Tom Riddle, the boy who would become Ultimate Evil. But the teen leads engage in the rather thin plotting only intermittently, and screenwriter Steve Kloves happily follows their lead.
For Potter-ites, there are plenty of satisfactions to be had, but the fun mostly comes from recognizing plot points from the novel merely suggested onscreen. When Harry finally gets engaged in some action, the climax is suitably exciting and dark, but it feels oddly tacked on after two-plus hours spent mostly in the world of high-school romantic intrigues.
Author: Hank Sartin
Time Out Chicago Issue 229: July 16–22, 2009
User reviews of this film
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- CCC1BBB said...
- Posted on Aug 10 2009 11:08 Spoiler warning - Wow. The Half-Blood Prince movie was a disappointment to me, compared to the book. Obviously, not all story lines can be included in movies, but it didn’t seem like the director (even though I know he apparently did one before), or screenplay writer, or somebody, must not have read the books, or seen the previous movies! Why change it to Luna finding Harry on the train, instead of Tonks? No purpose. And why on earth would you do it making the wrakspurt (?) of Luna’s imagination real?? Also, leaving out conversations Harry had with Dumbledore about the possible identity of most of the horcruxes seems a crucial error for the set-up of the next story! Adding things to the story like burning the Burrow is horrendous. It would better-serve the story by including more of the things that actually happened! Also, yes, Hermione, in the book, is frustrated to tears with Ron’s obtuseness, but she’s not the simpering idiot she had to portray in the movie. I waited through movie for at least the climactic ending but they didn’t show the battle!! Unbelievable! Maybe people who haven’t read the book will think it fine, & others may want to see it for the sake of it. I fervently hope a different crowd makes the movies for the last book. Thank you.
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Cast & crew
Director: David Yates
Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Watson, Alan Rickman, Jessie Cave, Rupert Grint, Bonnie Wright, Jim Broadbent, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Tom Felton, Helen McCrory, David Thewlis, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Evanna Lynch, Natalia Tena, Julie Walters full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure, Drama
Rated: PG
Duration: 153 mins
US Release: Jul 17 2009
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