Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (Movie)

Okay, since Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the 6th installment of the Harry Potter series, came out yesterday, I thought I'd review that this week. I'm a HUGE hardcore Harry Potter fan, and have been since the first book came out. Granted, I love the books a million times more, the movies are still pretty good.

With the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie, we watch as young Harry has to learn to live as The Chosen One in the public eye. But it is obvious within the first few moments that Harry is also growing up, and with that, he is focusing on more than just Hogwarts and death and Voldemort. He's thinking about life and girls. He's showing his youthful side, the side of him that is occasionally overshadowed by his duty to protect himself and those he loves.

And Harry isn't the only one -- Ron and Hermione return in this movie, too. This time, we see more of the romantic side from the characters. There's snogging (making out) and love potions involved. Not to mention, the occasional broken heart.

Ron is trying out for Keeper on the Quidditch team, all the while being obsessed over by a girl, which stirs up jealousy, and also provides some of the much needed comic relief in the movie. And while we start to see the more confident side of Ron, we begin to see just how close Hermione and Harry are. When one is hurting, the other is right there for them.

Another important piece of both the movie and the book is Draco Malfoy. Personally, I am a huge fan of Draco, and everything he brings to the table in the Harry Potter books. So, of course, Half Blood Prince is one of my favorites because Draco is such a key character in it.

We start to see just what Draco is made of, and just how dedicated he is to Voldemort and the Death Eaters. While Harry is the Chosen one for the good guys, Draco is the Chosen one for the dark wizards. He is given a specific task to accomplish, which worries his mother. So, to ensure her son's safety, she requests a professor to protect Draco while he is away at Hogwarts: Snape.

This is one of the darkest and more heartbreaking of the installments. Though the movie was very good, and I did enjoy it, I was also somewhat disappointed. Several important things to the final story were replaced with romance. Though I understand it's place in the movie, I still wish they would have given more to the idea of the Half Blood Prince. But the acting was phenomenal -- each actor provided their best performances yet. Daniel Radcliffe showed just how much he has grown as an actor, providing the amazing range Harry needed to go through during the movie.

Though I wish some more of the story could have been in it, I understand you can only fit in SO much. So, all in all, I really loved it, and highly suggest you go see it, especially if you are a fan. =]

~Angel