Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Published on Tuesday 14 July 2009 09:49

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince **** (PG)

THEY say that your schooldays are the best days of your life. Tell that to Harry Potter, who for the last six years has been forced to battle the evil wizard Lord Voldemort and his minions while still trying to keep up his grades and lead a normal life. Grange Hill this is not.

Through seven books (selling somewhere in the region of a staggering 400 million copies worldwide, in 67 languages), Edinburgh-based author JK Rowling has created a world of Muggles, wizards, potions, death, destruction and the odd laugh.

In the six films (there are two more still to come) based on the novels, Rowling has also helped fund the pension schemes of many of Britain's best (and oldest) acting talent, the likes of Richard Harris, Dame Maggie Smith, Robert Hardy and even Eric Sykes each making an appearance to help ensure the films exude as much class as possible.

Whether you've read any of the books – perhaps one of the "adult" versions designed to help reduce your embarrassment on the train – or not, each new movie in the franchise is an event, tickets booked up weeks in advance by parent eager to avoid the wrath of their offspring.

Postponed from its original release date of late 2008, much to the anger of fans around the globe, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is about to begin his sixth term at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Following an attack on the Muggle world by Voldemort's Death Eaters and brief appearances by Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) in an intensely dark opening sequence, we're soon introduced to something far more terrifying to any teenager than black magic or deadly spells: romance.

As the Dementors fly through night sky, devouring their prey, love weaves its way through the halls of Hogwarts and into the lives of Hermione (Emily Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint).

Stumbling across an old potions book amended by the mysterious Half-Blood Prince, Harry is soon excelling in his studies while his friends try to do as well in lessons of the heart, but there's nothing supernatural about the pain caused to Hermione as Ron starts to woo his new girlfriend.

Meanwhile Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) is back, this time up to no good in the attic with an odd cabinet that seems somehow linked to dark magic shop Borgin and Burkes.

Can Harry discover the connection between Malfoy and the worrying new goings on at Hogwarts? Is Lord Voldemort returning once again to ensure the Earth finally falls under his spell? And who exactly is the Half-Blood Prince?

Screenwriter Steve Kloves and Director David Yates have ensured that the original novel has been trimmed of any excess, offering just enough information for the newcomer to understand the complex back story while giving the avid fans reassurance that this really is "their" Harry.

The visual style of earlier films is maintained, a glorious assault on the eyes which viewers from snow covered glens to the Gothic exteriors of Hogwarts by way of an airborne Quidditch match which deserves to be seen on the biggest cinema screen you can find.

Cast-wise, the three young leads once again give impeccable performances, but it's the guest players who steal the show. Jim Broadbent's self-serving Slughorn and Alan Rickman's eternally-ambiguous Snape give the film an added sheen, while Hero Feinnes-Tiffin exudes evil as the young Voldemort.

The romantic interludes ensure the film's first half has enough humour to offset the bleaker themes emerging elsewhere, though younger fans might suffer a few nightmares after watching the cave scene near the climax. Hermione's subplot does feel somewhat short-changed here, perhaps the casualty of so many ideas packed into the script, but that's a minor niggle.

With a pace that barely flags and enough comedy and action to impress even the biggest Muggle in the audience, Half-Blood Prince is definitely top of the class when it comes to summer entertainment: only a dunce would dare miss this one.