FROM MTV.COM: "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is one of the darkest of the Potter books, so it's no surprise that the movie version is the darkest of the films to date. What is surprising — and I say this as someone who loves the books and has loved the movies up to this point — is how sluggish the new picture is. It gets underway with a limp scene set in a train-station café — a trivial flirtation between Harry, now 16, and an admiring waitress — and proceeds in surges and sags for the next two and a half hours. There are some marvelous scenes, beautiful images, wonderful moments — it isn't a "bad" movie by any reckoning. But it isn't up to the sweeping dynamic level of some of the pictures that preceded it.
Every fan knows the story: Darkness is descending on Hogwarts and all of the wizarding world. Voldemort's Death Eaters are on the attack, and have even crossed over into the unsuspecting Muggle domain. The Dark Lord has tasked Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton, newly prominent) with an especially evil mission. Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) is in mortal danger, as, of course, is Harry (Daniel Radcliffe). And the deliciously creepy Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) appears to be up to even more in the way of no-good than usual. As if that weren't enough, there's suddenly a Horcrux crisis, too. (Need it be said that this isn't the place for first-timers to attempt to enter the Potter universe?)
Continue reading 'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince': Snogwarts, By Kurt Loder
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