DVDs in Review

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Title:  Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009)

Release date: December 7 2009

Certificate: 12

Format: Reviewed on DVD, available on Blu-ray

DVD RRP: £24.99

Rating: 2.5/5

This ‘Harry Potter’ instalment opens with scenes of a dark, fast moving gassy spectre rampaging through the real world, upturning bridges and exploding shops.

It’s a memorable opening that gets the gets the film off to a running start but one of the major problems is that this opening dilemma is never resolved or mentioned later on. It feels like one of those ‘Previously on ER...’ moments to set the scene, only this one doesn’t set the scene as much as does confuse the proceeding ones.

However, the primary fault with ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ is that it doesn’t have a decent story arc. Plenty of plotting and action crammed into lots of scenes (totalling two and a half hours) doesn’t make up for it.  

Nor does this film’s theme of teenage lust and bewilderment towards the opposite sex, which when handled as unevenly as this comes off more like a big budget fancy dress episode of ‘Hollyoaks’.  Amid these mixed emotions at Hogwarts, Harry (the mind-numbingly wooden Daniel Radcliffe) finds a mysterious book of scary magic which once belonged to someone called the Half Blood Prince.

The film feels like filler, and it isn’t inviting for someone who hasn’t seen the previous films or the read the books. Instead, it affords plenty of time to set up a plot, but in its favour the film does feel darkly beautiful.The brooding cinematography is so dark that at times it’s almost like ‘The Godfather’ whereby you can’t even make out the characters when all they’re doing is talking in a room.

This, and the lush set design, rewards ‘Half Blood Prince’ with a more adult feel than its predecessors. Another plus is a new addition to the cast – the ever-likable Jim Broadbent as a potions professor who offers a glimpse into Voldemort’s genesis.

The other adult actors like Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Maggie Smith and Helena Bonham Carter add plenty of magical flourishes but it’s Michael Gambon’s Dumbledore who gets a real chance to shine in this one, hogging most of the film and rightly so.Naturally, the fans will lap this film up.

It’s well made, steadily directed and it takes a refreshingly direction which unfortunately is more of a long, winding detour than a fully fledged journey. Warner Brothers have once again come up with the goods when it comes to extra features. A second DVD is loaded with spellbinding extra features – sure to be a Potter follower’s treasure chest.