Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

I always look forward to the Harry Potter movies. It's one of those franchises that you actually look forward to seeing (well at least I do). I've been waiting to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince since last year. It was originally scheduled for a Holiday '08 release, but producers and the director held it back until the Summer '09 movie season...so the anticipation has built up.

The sixth book/sixth movie in the series, Harry and his gang find themselves unraveling the latest secret plots. The storyline was pretty interesting and covered such topics as finding out who the Half Blood Prince is, learning more about Tom Riddle/Lord Voltemort's dark past, Draco Malfoy's new alliance, and of course what's going on with Dumbledore. I found it more interesting that the movie covered such topics as teen dynamics, teen angst, sexual tension, coming of age, etc.

Like the Order of the Phoenix, this movie is still very dark as Harry tries to discover more about himself and the man who killed his parents. But there were some not so serious points in the movie that showed a totally different side of Harry Potter and the other wizards. Here's a list of what I mean:
1) Teen Drinking and Partying (I thought they were still in high school, not college - I swear I saw a version of beer pong after the Quidditch match). Maybe a WABB (Wizards against Booze Brooming) or MAWD (Muggles against Wizard Drunkenness) group should be started.
2) Harry getting high for the first time (okay that luck potion must have been laced with marijuana or something because Harry was high...I was just waiting for him to get the munchies).
3) Kissing, infatuations, love potions, and sexual innuendos (Lot's of that in this movie. Too bad they had no gay characters that fell in love. Best sexual innuendo line: Ron to Harry, "So did you and my sister do it?" totally referring to something else, but the look on Harry's face was priceless).

Oh to be young...

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) looked great in the movie, though it was hard at times to see him as Harry after seeing his hairy...in Equus. Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) was awesome and looked gorgeous. Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) was the perfect nerd, totally lovable. Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) looked like a Gucci wearing, slim, and extremely tall vampire...is he really tall or does it just look like that on film? Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright) sure blossomed to be a beautiful young lady. My favorite character though had to be Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) for her quirky style and sense of humor. She reminds me a lot of Bubble from the Absolutely Fabulous TV Series.

Favorite things seen in the movie:
1) George and Fred Weasley's Magic Store - sorta like an FAO Schwartz for wizards.
2) Luna Lovegood's outfits.
3) The decor at Professor Horace Slughorn's holiday party. I loved the use of Chinese lanterns in a Gothic building and the overlaying of sheer fabrics in the party room.
4) Jenny Weasley's new pet, the pink wuzzle thing on the train...cute
5) Love potion bottles...gonna use the idea for a wedding.
6) The Weasley's multi-tiered house.

At any rate, this movie was longer than it should have been and frankly, they could have tightened it up a little bit more. The storyline was good, the acting was good, the cast was excellent, the CGI graphics were great, and the sound was wonderful. Overall, it was just a good movie, not the best Harry Potter Movie out there but definitely worth catching on the big screen.

I give this movie a 1-Pee Movie rating.

MPAA Rating: PG 13 for scary images, some violence, language and mild sensuality.

Run Time: 153 minutes

-Percy
The P-List
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Photo from Wikipedia