Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Director: David Yates
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
Runtime: 153 minutes

Synopsis: In his sixth year at Hogwarts, Harry comes into possession of a mysterious book written previously owned by the Half-Blood Prince.

Performances: 7/10
Screenplay: 7/10
Special Effects: 9/10
Costumes/Makeup: 9/10
Editing: 6/10
Cinematography: 8/10
Score/Soundtrack: 9/10

Verdict: (SPOILERS AHEAD!) "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is David Yates' second film of the franchise and the sixth chapter in the Harry Potter series. Much like in its predecessor, Yates opted for a darker tone that goes wonderfully well with the state of the situation the characters are going through. This movie feels and looks a lot like "Order of the Phoenix", to the point where, if played back to back, you probably wouldn't really notice that they are two different movies. Obviously and as you probably already know, a lot happens in this film. And everything was handled superbly. Dumbledore's death gave the character the send off he deserves, both emotionally and visually, the notion of Horcruxes was introduced smoothly, and Snape's betrayal duped us all into thinking that Dumbledore was wrong about him all along. However, Yates made some calls that a lot of people didn't particularly get on board with, and I find myself agreeing with both parties. First, Yates scratched a whole battle that takes place at Hogwarts because he wanted only one huge epic war to take place in the final installment. I actually think that the director was right to make that call. The other decision Yates made was to not include Ralph Fiennes in any scene whatsoever, which I don't really understand. Sure, one could make the argument that the focus of the film was Voldemort's past and was shown through flashbacks (where, fun fact, Tom Riddle is played by Fiennes' nephew), but still, I would've liked to see him grow as a character, similarly to Snape or Draco. Another thing I thought wasn't handled as well as I wanted to was the romance between both Ron and Hermione and Harry and Ginny. It just felt very sudden and awkward. The chemistry between Ginny and Harry wasn't really there, leading to some laughably bad scenes (the scene where she feeds him sweets is cringeworthy to say the least). The movie also has a runtime of 153 minutes, which is kind of similar to every other entry in the franchise. But this is the only one where I felt that it wasn't entirely justified. Despite these issues, I still love watching "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". It perfectly set up the epic ending that had to be split into 2 parts, much to every Harry Potter fan's enjoyment.   

Final Grade: 7/10