Movie Review - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry and the Hormones: Spells, spells, snog, snog, fly around, see you next time!

The latest Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a visual treat and injects new humor, sexual urges and a imminent sense of doom to the ongoing story. The cast has matured along with the story, taking on a teenage angst over the opposite sex which makes the teacher's lesson on love potions a standing-room-only class. All three principal characters, Harry, Ron and Hermione have love interests, both true and casual and the antics to separate the two add much-needed humor to the dreary previous effort, HP and the Order of the Phoenix.............

We start off with dark dreams as Harry rides the London subway and chats up waitresses. At least we are spared the irritating Muggle relatives and their rude ways. However, the wise Dumbledore arrives just in time to whisk Harry away from the waitress and on to seduce a former teacher of potions into re-joining the Hogwarts staff. This new character, played by Jim Broadbent has the secret knowledge told to the dark Lord way back in the old school days which will prove critical if the forces of good have any chance of victory.

Of course, it takes the whole fall school year to figure this out as Hogwarts is sealed up in a protective spell to ward off death-eaters. The kids goes about their normal studies while outside, people keep disappearing. The dark Lord Voldemort gathers his minions (as most evil dark lords tend to do) and Dumbledore does the same, expecting a repeat of those fateful days when the Potters were murdered and only Harry, their only child, saved the world by somehow destroying Voldemort from his crib.

So, like all the other movies, we have plots to uncover, schoolmasters to challenge, alliances to make, spells to learn and courage to find. In the end, although a major character dies and Hogwarts becomes an empty shell, Harry and his helpers stand together, prepared to take the battle to the enemy for two more movies. The good thing now is that they have a quest to undermine Voldemort's power and then a final battle to defeat the army of evil. No more school, just getting on with battling the bad guys and girls.

The Half-Blood Prince is full of great acting and a sure hand at the wheel. The camera angles are much higher, giving a spectator's view of the action. There are witty remarks, inside jokes meant for the audience (Why are you three always around when something happens?) and moments of absurdity (the funeral scene for Hagrid's spider). The humor has a light touch and a honesty true to the characters. The filmmakers resisted the trap of many franchises (say James Bond) to get campy or too obvious with the characters. They remain true to the books and restrained in tone and violence. This movie also returns to the PG rating, from PG-13 of the previous two movies. Even so, there are scary moments and desperate predicaments galore.

Overall, a great time with old friends maturing before our eyes.