Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Critical Review

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SUMMARY -

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is the sixth part of the Harry Potter series. This is an American-British film, directed by David Yates, which is an adaptation of the very popular J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter book series. As the sixth part of the film begins, it picks off with the Wizarding and the Muggle World in a chaos. We see Voldemort retrieving power in both the worlds. We slowly realise how Hogwarts is no longer a safe place for the students, while also perceiving how all the previous parts have led to this point.  While the Death Eaters enlist Professor Snape to assist Draco Malfoy in carrying out the Dark Lord's evil bidding, we see Harry accompanying Dumbledore to visit a former potions professor, Horace Slughorn, in their attempt to persuade him to return to Hogwarts. Dumbledore shows Harry memories of a young Tom Riddle, unfurling his past, and reveals that Slughorn has a vital memory in defeating Voldemort.   Through all of these visions of Slughorn, we learn about Voldemort's ultimate secret; his Horcruxes. These are objects that hold a part of his soul which is what kept him alive all those years ago. Harry and Dumbledore later learn Voldemort had created Horcruxes by splitting his soul seven times and that two of the Horcruxes have already been destroyed. Meanwhile, Harry gets a new potions book which was formally owned by the half-blood prince and suddenly starts excelling in his potions class. Later, Harry and Dumbledore travel to a seaside cave in an attempt to discover another Horcrux, Slytherin’s locket. After facing many challenges, they take the locket and return to Hogwarts where Draco arrives, disarms Dumbledore, revealing he was chosen to kill Dumbledore. When he is unable to do so, Snape ventures in performing the killing curse, killing Dumbledore. In Harry’s attempt to battle Snape, Snape overpowers him, disclosing that he's actually the Half-Blood Prince. Towards the end, Harry uncovers to Ron and Hermione that the locket they found was a faux. Finally, the movie ends with the trio concluding that they'll skip the final year of school and vow to seek and destroy the remaining Horcruxes.

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Pros: • Tom Felton really steps up and steals the show, he gives a phenomenal performance as we see how vulnerable his character, Draco Malfoy, actually is after all those years of playing a dislikable character. • Michael Gambon, who plays Albus Dumbledore, also gives his best performance in the series, this is especially prevalent in the cave scene. • The intense build up of Snape's character leading to the next movie where we see his true side was done brilliantly. • The very fascinating part was how we get to see young Tom Riddle under a love potion which is the reason he can’t comprehend love. • The flashbacks in the film were very well done. The actor who played the young Tom Riddle did a great job. • It seems as if characters were the prime focus of this film rather than any extraordinary magic battles. A lot of character depth was put into it which gives the audience exactly what they needed and also makes it stand out from the rest of the films. • The graphics in the movie were exceptionally well done.

Cons:

• They cut out a lot of flashbacks of Voldemort’s past, leaving the audience oblivious with the lack of his back-story.

• Daniel Radcliffe's acting throughout the movie was very iffy and all over the place. He was consistent throughout the movies but in this film, due to his downfall, he wasn't able to portray Harry Potter’s character as well as he did in the previous movies. • There's too much focus on relationships and couples overall, it adds little to no importance to the movie. • We see Ron and Hermione's relationship blossom as well as Harry and Ginny's. However, Harry and Ginny's relationship seemed very forced and lacked chemistry at all times and was full of awkwardness.  • Ron and Hermione also had an inconsistent storyline with a few plot holes.  • The scene of the attack of the burrow didn’t add much to the film at all and the audience would have much rather seen another Tom Riddle scene digging a bit more into his past.

• They also could have balanced the humour and the lightheartedness a little bit better with all the intense scenes.

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RATING - 8/10

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Recommendation:

Although the movie didn’t quite match the book and lacked details from it, it still did a great job at blending all the right scenes together to give its audience a feeling of attachment to the characters. It also had an effect on the viewers as they got to experience a world completely different and much darker from the previous films.

The whole story behind how the phrase “The Chosen One” had been given to Harry, because of what happened in the Ministry of Magic at the end of the last film, was a great addition to the whole series as it added so much mystery. Malfoy struggles too as he's also chosen, except he's chosen by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore.

The scene where Dumbledore finds out that Harry is in fact one of the Horcruxes, was very well done and it made the audience feel all sorts of emotions as Harry himself did not know yet. That entire scene was absolutely brilliant and added a dramatic irony just like the intense scene of Dumbledore’s death.

Overall, I would highly recommend this movie given that all the previous parts have been caught up on.

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Word Count: 928

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References:

Harrison, M. [2016, Nov 22] Looking back at Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Retrieved from: https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/harry-potter/17761/looking-back-at-harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince

Schillinger, L. [2005, July 31] 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince': Her Dark Materials. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/books/review/harry-potter-and-the-halfblood-prince-her-dark-materials.html

Errigo, A. [2009, July 7] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Review. Retrieved from: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/harry-potter-half-blood-prince-review/

Marcus, B. [2016, Nov 22] Muggle No More 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.' Retrieved from: https://www.fandom.com/articles/muggle-no-more-harry-potter-half-blood-prince

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REVIEW: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - MOTION GRAPHICS

Here's my review to sum up the whole thing via motion graphics. I tried to make it as intense as possible in order to portray how this film made the audience feel throughout. Hope you enjoy!