| Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince |
| Written by Vicki Lin |
| Wednesday, 15 July 2009 09:31 |
 I love Harry Potter - but not in a cougar kind of way - and like most Harry Potter fans, having read the books and seen all the movies to date... this one wasn’t to be missed! After all, the last one; ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ came out in 2007... so it’s been a while! 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' is the sixth book in the series. In short, Harry goes back to Hogwarts for... what d’ya know... his sixth year, along with his musketeers – Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. The battle between the good and the evil continues as Lord Voldemort’s followers aka ‘The Death Eaters’, wreck havoc in both the muggle world and the wizardry world. We are introduced to a new character – a newly appointed potions teacher – Professor Horace Slughorn. I was most impressed that he transformed from an arm chair back to a wizard! Slughorn used to teach at Hogwarts back in the day and holds the key to Harry’s arch nemesis Lord Voldemort’s memory, while he was still Tom Riddle. Confused much? Tom Riddle is the boy who became the dark lord, Lord Voldemort. We also learn in the ‘Half Blood Prince’ that ‘he who must not be named’ (even though I’ve already named him time and time again...) has split his soul into seven, safe-keeping them in a number of objects called ‘Horcruxes’. This is FANTASY remember.  So; back to the movie. Things were off to a good start when I took my seat and realized I was sitting next to a Ginny Weasley look-a-like. A look-a-like from the side, but a look-a-like nonetheless. Straight off the bat, the movie is stunning. It’s beautifully shot - the colours, the lighting – the cinematography, the feel - kudos to French director of photography Bruno Delbonnel. Staying with snaps for the HP snap cup, I thought the visual effects were superb – especially when viles of ‘memory’ are poured into what looked like a floating basin and you see a flashback sequence. Top-notch performances were delivered in particular by Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Sir Michael Gambon (Dumbledore), Helena Bonham-Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), Frank Dillane (a young Tom Riddle) and Jim Broadbent (Horace Slughorn). In fact I’d go so far as to say that EVERYONE took their game up a level in this one!  There was a bit of eye-candy too! Playing the part of Cormac McLaggen - who vies for Hermione’s affections – is Freddie Stroma. He ain’t no R Patz however he did remind me of a young Ryan Phillipe... Remember him?! There’s also a bit of comic relief with the ‘love’ theme in the film. Harry falls for Ginny. Ginny’s going out with Dean Thomas. Hermione has a big crush on Ron. Ron has no idea and is being smothered by Lavender Brown. And as if that wasn’t enough, fellow student (who looked a bit like Jordin Sparks) Romilda Vane, puts together a box of love-potion-laced chocolates which were meant to be for Harry however ends up in Ron’s hands instead. This movie is much darker than the others in the series and without giving too much away, a death of a prominent character occurs in this Harry Potter installment. Now I’m no film-maker, but I wished that they had given the funeral a bit more oomph. Where were the phoenixes??!!! Also, I wished that they had given more of a background on Tom Riddle – his childhood – his parents. 10 minutes would have sufficed. If you love the books then no doubt you will notice the differences from book to screen. All in all though, I really enjoyed the film. It’s easy to see why Harry Potter is the most successful movie franchise in the world and whether you’re a longtime fan, or this is your first whiff of the HP phenomena; I think you will too.  |
