Movie Review 29: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Title: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Director: David Yates

Running time: 2 hours 33 minutes

Genre: Fantasy

Despite being more than two and half hours long, the movie doesn't seem to contain a lot of content... but then again, it might be the result of having read the book two years ago. The thing is, the title of the book/movie is pretty misleading as the 'half blood prince' is more of a side story than the main story and the movie sort of mentioned this name in passing only.

Anyway, this time the movie explores the reason of Voldemort's seemingly immortality... yup, that's it... the whole plot of the story... that's why I said it's pretty thin... of course, there are some side quests here and there and also a shocking finale (for those who hasn't read the book) and since I have have read the whole series, I'm proud to say that I have identified the 'one who is not as evil as he looks' right from the beginning of the story :P. You'll not know what I'm saying unless you've read the Deathly Hallows (final book).

Anyway, one thing that I think is pretty unreasonable is the lack of protection spells these wizards/witches have. I mean, if you are a wizard and there's a Dark Lord running around in rampage with his lackeys, surely you would at least place some protective spells around your shop/house. In the beginning of the movie, you'll see Voldemort's lackeys crashing into a wand shop without meeting any resistance whatsoever... it's like someone breaking into a gun selling shop which has no security whatsoever! That doesn't make any sense... the same thing happened at the Wesley's house too.

Also, I think that this movie placed too little emphasis on other characters such as Hermione and Ron... they did not contribute to the main story at all. The movie, although has dark undertones, is laced with jokes here and there while some are successfully given, some are not so nice... most notably, those delivered by Albus Dumbledore. I have to say that I preferred the first Albus in the movie than the 'new' Albus (the original actor died after the first movie)... this one is too... energetic... too childish I would say.

Also, since the students have all grown up, it's inevitable that there'll be love scenes... and I think they are just yucky... especially the kissing scenes... I supposed it's because I watch them grow up and I just feel uncomfortable seeing them kissing one another... yuck!

Well, despite my rather scathing remarks, I still think that it is a good movie. The final big scene of the movie did manage to squeeze a few of my priceless tears out. Of course, if you don't like the previous instalments of the movie, you'll not be liking this one too... me? well, as I've said again and again, the director/writer/actors/actresses would have to be idiots to make me dislike a fantasy movie.

Observation: Why did Voldemort's lackeys destroy Hagrid's shed instead of the teacher's quarters?

Bottomline: Only for fans

Bamboo Ranking: 3.2 / 5.0