Went to watch "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" earlier this week, and really enjoyed the movie. I've seen all the Potter movie adaptations and this has to rank up there as one of my favorites, alongside "Prisoner of Azkaban" and "Goblet of Fire". To someone who hasn't read any of the books, "Half-Blood Prince" came across to this non-reader to do a much better job than its immediate predecessor ("Order of the Phoenix") of streamlining JK Rowling's dense tome so that all the major plot points in the book are covered without seeming to rush from one event to the other, while leaving room for the movie to breathe in terms of letting the emotional moments sink in. Maybe part of this is because Steve Kloves, who adapted all of the previous novels to the screen except for "Order of the Phoenix", has returned to writing duties, and also perhaps that director David Yates (who directed "Phoenix"), has become more accustomed to his role.
Whatever the reason, "Half-Blood Prince" was an emotionally-rich movie that canters along at a good pace while having time for a few light humourous moments as well. The latter has been criticised by some critics and fans, but I felt the movie absolutely needed that, given the dark tone of the main plot in which Harry and Dumbledore seek out one of the horcruxes in which Voldemort has hidden part of his soul. The humor is mainly contained in Harry's and Ron's "adventures" in the romance department, and it not only serves to provide some much needed, and effective, light-hearted moments, but the subplot paid its dues in full when at the end, Harry's mourning of Dumbledore's death was made all the more effective because Ginny was there for him to have a shoulder to cry on. That final reel was a real gutwrencher, and made all the more so by all the students and teachers at Hogwarts raising their wands in honor of the fallen headmaster. I teared up all over and it was all I could do to prevent myself from crying out loud. As powerful, if not more, as Cedric's death at the end of "Goblet of Fire".
A minor quibble, and probably more because I haven't read the book, is the seeming throwaway reveal near the end that Snape was the titular Half-Blood Prince. Is this revelation meant to bear more significance?
"Half-Blood Prince" is a movie I thoroughly enjoyed, and this is one happy fan who'll most definitely be looking forward to the next movie in the series.
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