Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince - Movie Review

Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince was sold out for the Saturday noon show so we had to opt for the next one nearly three hours later and even then by the time we got in we were stuck with seats way up against the right hand wall, something that seldom happens to us. Which is indicative of the movie's appeal; it did boffo box office and I'm glad to see such a good movie get a good response.

I've been unable to read the books so the plotline is almost unknown to me - Emily is a big fan so she's dropped lots of hints along the way so I had a general knowledge of what was to happen and why. But what appeals to me less than the plot, and the characters, is the look of the movie - it's no less imaginative than the first one, and some of the initial ideas have been fleshed out and become familiar so that seeing Hogwarts is like seeing home, in a sense. Much of what happens seems to be comprised of the main characters going from one place to another solely to learn something then going back to Hogwarts - why, again, was it that Dumbledore and Harry had to go to that underground place and back again? Just to have Dumbledore have his big confrontation? Didn't really matter to me - I'm just here for the sets and costumes, thank you - but I'm sure it does for the fans.

How does it rank with the series? Right up there with the best of them, I'd say. There's a sense of setting the stage for the finale so I'd take away some points for that but as part of a wonderful whole, this movie is well worth watching. We've got a classic series unfolding before us. I recommend you catch it while it does.