In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince it finally hits home that Warner Bros.' phenomenally successful cash cow is starting to come to its conclusion. The battle between the boy wizard Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his ghostly nemesis Voldermort (Ralph Fiennes) nears its climax during the student's sixth term at Hogwarts, and for all the twists, turns and surprises the revelation that the end is nigh might just be the most startling one of all.
This comes from the point of view of someone who has not always been this series' biggest fan. I wasn't impressed with director Chris Columbus' first two chapters, their sluggish pace and simplistic storytelling drove me nuts. Yet Alfonso Cuarón's magnificent third entry (still the best of the bunch) blew me away, Mike Newell's follow-up felt more like a John Hughes meets J.K Rowling hybrid than it did anything else. As for David Yates' 2007 entry (Order of the Phoenix), it holds up extremely well, it's climactic sequences as thrilling and as, dare I say it, magical as any fantasy effort this side of Peter Jackson or John Boorman.
But as this one came to its cliffhanger of a finale I suddenly realized just how astonishing these flicks have been. Like a long-running hit television show made with nurturing care, the films have cast a hypnotic spell that has only seemed to grow. We have watched stars Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint mature from button-cute children into full-fledged actors with the ability to deftly shade their characters with subtle nuance in virtual real-time. Alongside them seasoned pro Alan Rickman has methodically developed his role, his ability to evolve from one film to the next without deviating from the template he established back in 2001 is extremely impressive.
This is important because finality is the key here in year six. While teenage l'amour blossoms, it is the strum and drag of oblivion that drives our hero onward. Compelled more by trust than reason, Harry learns to embrace his destiny discovering new powers and abilities thanks to a mysterious spell book while at the same time questioning the motivations of fellow student Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton). Returning director Yates paces things as if this were the early steps of a funeral march, and while there is humor and romance, an aching broken heart drives things forward.
As for Warner Bros' new three-disc Blu-ray, it's about as excellent as you would expect. Picture and sound quality are-top-notch, and as I re-watched all six films in the series over the weekend I feel pretty confident saying this is the best representation of a Harry Potter feature for home consumption yet. I also felt like the lineup of special features was more than satisfying, the collection of Q&A interviews with the cast and crew being a somewhat surprising highlight.
I will say I didn't really need the barely one-minute look at part one of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and the featurette on J.K. Rowling was a bit too glossy and superficial for my taste. I did think the collection of deleted scenes was better than usual, a couple of them — especially those revolving around Malfoy — arguably could have remained in the final cut.
But the highlight here is Warner's awesome Maximum Movie Mode, a feature I am quickly falling head over heels in love with. While much of the information is obviously culled from semi-standard featurettes, it's integrated into the film so seamlessly I was constantly impressed. I felt like I was learning everything I ever wanted to know about both the series itself and this particular entry, and I imagine I'm going to be returning to this feature again sometime in the near future. The Blu-ray is also BD-Live enabled but due to technical difficulties I did not go online to view additional special features uploaded there.
Having not read past the first book, and even though there is a slightly annoying cliffhanger making this installment feel incomplete, I am intrigued to see where things go next. I want to know what will become of Harry, Hermione and Ron, want to see how they will defeat Voldermort. Most of all I want to see how this series comes of age, and for that reason Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a movie I'm more than willing to recommend.
As a movie Half Blood Prince is excellent, but as a book adaptation I felt that it failed a bit. People often complain that the sixth book is the slowest of the series, which is rather true, but this is due in large part because J.K. focuses more on exploring Voldemort's past and the development of the character. The movie featured the two most important scenes, the orphanage and slughorn's office, but it still left out other very important aspects of Voldemort's life that were shown in the book like his family. I've talked to many fans of the series about this, and most of them agree with me that the movie should have dedicated less to the teenage romance and more to Voldemort's past. I'm still going to buy the blu-ray though, that Maximum Movie Mode seems rather appealing.
I have a bit disappoint for this Half Blood Prince movie since I have expected too much this is one of the funniest part for Harry's series books. But I feel that in this movie is quite so far from that.