Half-Blood Prince Review Roundup

Jul 14, 2009

Posted by: SueTLC

HBP Film

Earlier this morning Joe from UK Rottentomatoes.com emailed about the collection of reviews they have on their website for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Hours later and a slew of reviews are still pouring in, with the movie “98% Fresh on the Tomatometer which makes it the freshest film of the franchise to date! Azkaban is in second place with 89%.” The consensus: “Dark, thrilling, and occasionally quite funny, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is also visually stunning and emotionally satisfying.”

While many are preparing to head off to a special midnight showing here in the States others have just seen the film, we do have a collection of recent reviews to pass along.

Entertainment Weekly:” Half-Blood Prince encompasses important plot developments
involving both love and death. But the story is, still and all, only a
pause, deferring an intensely anticipated conclusion. And it’s in that
exquisite place of action and waiting that this elegantly balanced
production emerges as a model adaptation. By now, as played with utmost
loyalty to the cause by some of Britain’s most illustrious actors, the
supporting characters are as familiar as the population of Homer
Simpson’s neighborhood (and that’s a great compliment). Yet with a big
assist from cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel ” a Potter newbie who
memorably shot Amélie and Across the Universe ” the filmmakers have found a way to refresh our eyes and enhance our appreciation for this rich, amazing creation. A-
Salon: “By the series’ completion, Yates will have directed half of the “Harry
Potter” movies, and that mutes the surprise element a bit. But “Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” at least ensures that the franchise’s
remaining movies are in good hands. Yates understands the bond, and the
continuity, that’s so essential between the old and the young. In one
of the movie’s loveliest scenes, Broadbent’s professor Slughorn,
slightly sozzled, describes to Harry a piece of magic worked by one of
his former students. He describes this wonderful, delicate feat so
vividly that his words are more effective than visuals would be. And,
as it turns out, this bit of magic had been worked by Harry’s long-dead
mother, Lily. It was, Slughorn tells Harry, peering at him as if
through mist, “the most beautiful magic.” That’s a measure of how
subtle a spectacle Yates has given us with “Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince.” The most beautiful magic in it is left unseen. And
still, it emerges with absolute clarity.”
New York Times
“[Voldemort]in his early embodied form as Tom Riddle, by the excellent young actors Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Frank Dillane. There must be a factory where the British mint their acting
royalty: Hero, who plays the dark lord as a spectrally pale, creepy
child of 11, is Ralph Fiennes’s nephew, and Frank is the son of the
terrific actor Stephen Dillane.
The younger Mr. Dillane, who plays Voldemort at 16, conveys the
seductiveness of evil with small, silky smiles he bestows like
dangerous gifts on Jim Broadbent’s
Horace Slughorn, a professor whose trembling jowls suggest a deeper
tremulousness. When Slughorn, the fear almost visibly leaking from his
body, shares the secret of immortality with Voldemort, you feel, much
as when Ralph Fiennes raged through “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” in 2005, that something vital is at stake.”
USA Today “Captivating from the first frame, this Potter feels more epic
than previous films, which had a less mature, more madcap quality.
Yates finds an artful way to meld the teenage romance and inherent
humor with a sense of impending doom.”
Roger Ebert “I admired this Harry Potter. It opens and closes well, and has wondrous
art design and cinematography as always, only more so. “I’m just
beginning to realize how beautiful this place is,” Harry sighs from a
high turret. The middle passages spin their wheels somewhat, hurrying
about to establish events and places not absolutely essential. But
those scenes may be especially valued by devoted students of the Potter
saga. They may also be the only ones who fully understand them;
ordinary viewers may be excused for feeling baffled some of the time.”
LA Times:“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is being described as an
excursion into the dark side for this venerable series, but don’t let
the chatter fool you. Now in its sixth episode shot over an eight-year
span, with two more features still to come, this one-of-a-kind film
cycle has become as comfortable and reliable as an old shoe, providing
a degree of dependability that’s becoming increasingly rare.”
CBC : “As always, the terrific adult cast is relegated to the background. But
even in small parts, they shine, particularly Carter as the unhinged
Bellatrix, Broadbent as the shallow but ultimately sympathetic Slughorn
and Alan Rickman, who speaks volumes with his pauses as the brooding
Severus Snape. It’s Gambon’s Dumbledore, though, who steals the movie.”
CNN: “A trio of evenly spaced set-pieces do generate enough excitement to
make this an iffy proposition for parents with younger kids; in
particular Dumbledore and Harry’s climactic cave expedition is an
intense, nightmarish standout.”
Associated Press: “Previous installments played out in a supernatural bubble bearing little connection to our ordinary little Muggle world. Half-Blood Prince
brims with authentic people and honest interaction — hormonal teens
bonding with great humor, heartache that will resonate with anyone who
remembers the pangs of first love.”
Rolling Stone: “I’ll never tell why, except to say that it’s a pleasure to
watch the mesmerizing Felton take the role to the next level, discovering a vulnerable humanity in Draco. And Rickman is a dynamo, lacing the Severus
sneer with glimmers of conscience and moral doubt.

The Age: “Diehard Potter fans may be willing to forgive and endure a
boring film for the sake of a legacy they love ” as did
Star Wars fans with Phantom Menace ” but those
eager for entertainment will find Half-Blood Prince only
marginally more watchable than that.”





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.