Quick Movie Reviews: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Bottomline: A weak entry into the Harry Potter film lexicon.

Pros: Lots of intrigue. An extremely important moment at the end of the film. When something does happen, it happens well. Set up for the finale of the movie series -- The Deathly Hallows.

Cons: It is slow and boring. The trailer (see above) is infinitely more exciting and well crafted than the movie. Lots of indiscernable whispering punctuated by the occasional burst of action. The pacing was off, which points to an editor who let the movie run long but without thought to how it should run long.

What To Do Instead: Read the book. It is excellent and does a good job of pulling Harry and his friends to a much darker place and giving context to what is occurring around them.

Caveat: The Potter series grew darker with each book and it grows darker with each movie. While the Half-Blood Prince is a pale interpretation of the book, there are nonetheless dark themes that may not be appropriate for young children.

QMR Opinion: My kids got back from camp and after unpacking the dirty and wet clothes, we went to see Harry Potter. However our excitement soon turned to abject boredom. What an incredibly disappointing movie. The teen-drama sequences were funny at first but soon lost their lustre. The action sequences -- what few ones there are -- were lackluster and poorly executed. The dialog was delivered in hushed tones and at a quick pace thus making it extremely difficult to keep up with what was going on. And, again, it is just too long. This entire movie was merely produced to set the stage for the finale of the Harry Potter series -- The Deathly Hallows, which will be produced and delivered in two parts (2010 and 2011). Given that, this movie could have been about an hour to an hour and a half long. Two things I would recommend: read the book because it is much better than the movie and then go back and watch Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Then hope the last two segments of this movie series are better than Half-Blood Prince.

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