Reviews of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince seem quite mixed, although judging by last night’s crowd leaving the cinema, most ordinary Potter watchers seemed quite entranced. I have to say I find myself in two minds. On the one hand I felt engaged throughout and thoroughly entertained, on the other there were some things that left me regretting the film hadn’t hewn a little more closely to the book, and I found the ending lacked punch.
From here on, this review contains spoilers.
Let’s get the niggles out of the way first. I think it’s a shame the film didn’t fill in more of Voldemort’s backstory, and Harry’s discovery of the series of choices from bad to worse to as-far-into-dark-magic-as-anyone-has-ever-gone which form one of the major story-lines of the book. I imagine the attack on the Weasley’s house by Bellatrix, Greyback and others was invented for the film to interject some action into a long and slowly developing narrative. It served that purpose, but failed miserably to spell out for the more casual viewer that what looks like incomprehensible foolishness on Harry’s part, rushing out into the dark swamp, is driven by a desire for revenge on Bellatrix, the killer of his godfather.
This was one of several ways the film demanded a certain level of Potter knowledge. I would rather have seen the special effects budget being spent on a bit more of a battle at the end. In the book the Death Eaters’ escape is a more violent and also an ensemble affair. Here it is just Harry. That’s a shame at the end of a film in which other characters actually develop. We should have had the opportunity to see Ron, Hermione and some of the others in action. I suppose they don’t want to detract from what is yet to come, and run the danger of making the climactic Battle of Hogwarts at the end of Deathly Hallows look like a repeat.
One of the problems with the fifth book (Order of the Phoenix) was that the overarching plot overwhelmed the episode’s narrative, and left it feeling curiously unsatisfactory because not self-contained. I thought the fifth film overcame this, but it seems it only deferred it. In HBP, the book, Dumbledore’s funeral works well as a moment of temporary closure. Here (and again the point could be missed by the casual viewer) the departure of Fawkes (Dumbledore’s phoenix – also his patronus and the emblem of his character) circling the castle before flying off for ever as Harry, Ron and Hermione watch, simply fails to carry the dramatic weight it needs to.
On from the complaints to the strengths. This is a much more character driven and comedic film than any of its predecessors, as various love triangles get sorted out (or not). In that sense this is the first Potter movie that more or less consistently asks you to feel with its characters and not just watch them. It manages the difficult feat of handling the teen relationships in such a way that they are not implausible for an older audience, while still being comprehensible (and permisible!) for a younger audience. In the process there are more laugh out loud moments than in any of the previous films.
All three of the leads put in good performances, as does Tom Felton as Malfoy. Then again they have now had a number of years’ master-classes from some of the cream of British acting talent. In this movie Alan Rickman (again wonderful as Snape) and Jim Broadbent take the honours. Michael Gambon (after some very erratic performances) has finally got Dumbledore more or less right, which is just as well since the relationship between Dumbledore and Harry is a key component of the film.
There are one or two exceptional sequences bookending the film. It opens with a very clever piece of apparently swooping camera-work that truly locates Diagon Alley in everyday London, and conveys the intense glee with which the Death Eaters inflict destruction on the Muggle and magic worlds alike. It comes to a climax with a eerie scene in which Harry is dragged into the lake by the inferi before Dumbledore recovers enough power to rescue him. Although nothing else matches these sequences the film is visually pleasing throughout, and the effects ever more convincing. The Quidditch match in particular conveys some real dynamism.
In the end it is this energy, verve and sense of good-humoured hope and humanity which carries the film and allows it to by and large shake off its weaknesses and be a very enjoyable two-and-a-half hours of entertainment. Even when nothing much is happening, it doesn’t feel particularly slow. You get some sense of why Harry’s world is worth fighting for, and why Voldemort’s world will consume even it’s own followers, however strong and unbeatable it seems. The weaknesses are more noticeable in analysis, but the experience while watching is engaging and enjoyable. HBP is solid family entertainment and a worthy addition to the series.
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