'Half-Blood Prince' the darkest Potter film yet
Of the six Harry Potter films so far, David Yates' "The Half-Blood Prince" comes the closest to a classic horror tale, not in terms of monsters, violence or bloodletting (although there is considerable blood in a restroom "shootout" scene), but in the intense foreboding that haunts the now bleaker-than-bleak hallways at Hogwarts.
There's even a startling sequence that incorporates the ending of "Carrie" with a scary assault reminiscent of "The Night of the Living Dead." (Parents, prepare the kiddies!)
Weirdly enough, "The Half-Blood Prince" also comes the closest to a classic John Hughes high school comic romance, with Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) falling for excitable classmate Lavender Brown (Jessie Cave), and Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) falling for Ron's adorable sister Ginny (Bonnie Wright), and poor Hermione (Emma Watson) developing a smoldering affection for the preoccupied Ron.
These romantic entanglements, handled with marvelous restraint, provide some character-driven comedy relief from the ominous terror constantly lurking off-camera, waiting for the chance to strike. And it does.
As "Half-Blood Prince" opens, Harry's aging mentor Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) recruits the lad for a clandestine operation: to spy on returning Hogwarts professor Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent). Dumbledore wants Harry to find out what really transpired between Slughorn and his young student, Tom Riddle (Frank Dillane), during a conversation that took place long before he evolved into the evil Lord Voldemort, the killer of Harry's parents.
As Harry's school nemesis Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) lurks sinisterly about Hogwarts, three Deatheaters (among them Helena Bonham Carter's merrily destructive Bellatrix Lestrange) rip through the sky, houses and landscapes in anticipation of something happening. Something we know can't be good.
Teen wizards Ron, Harry and Hermione are definitely on the cusp of adulthood here. Watson and Grint are losing their adolescent cuteness to more lithe and leaner figures. Radcliffe once more plays Harry as a well-meaning blank slate that allows male viewers to project their feelings - and even themselves - on to his nebulous Mickey Mouse-like hero.
During the sober closing scene, one ripe with anticipation for what happens next, we no longer see a trio of anxious students, but the Three Musketeers of Hogwarts, each looking at the future with a nervous juxtaposition of resolve and apprehension.
Captured in Bruno Delbonnel's retina-arresting, color-bled cinematography, "The Half-Blood Prince" is a bold, densely layered movie, almost too densely layered. Adapted from J.K, Rowling's book by the brilliant and brave Steve Kloves, Yates' second Potter picture feels crammed with a loads of minutia and unnecessary details that, I'm guessing, stem from the filmmakers' attempts to be too faithful to the novel.
(I haven't read the book, but someone who did told me that "Half-Blood Prince" veers more from its source material than the previous movies.)
"The Half-Blood Prince" marks the darkest Potter picture of all, much darker than Alfonso Cuaron's magnificently executed "The Prisoner of Azkaban," still the undisputed best title in the series.
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"
Rating: 3½ stars
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman
Directed by: David Yates
Other: A Warner Bros. release. Rated PG. 153 minutes