The Kidd Vs. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
I guess it’s safe to say that there probably will be some spoilers lurking ahead here in my review of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” However, am I really spoiling anything here in the 6th movie that you haven’t already covered time and time again in following the journey of Harry Potter on the written page? Probably not. By now, we all know what happens and where we end up from this point forward, so I think it’s pretty safe to say The Kidd won’t be ruining much for you in terms of what happens in the movie. And, if I am, then that means you haven’t gotten through the books, in which case I have no mercy for you at this point. The opportunity has been out there for you to get some good reading 
in, and you refuse, so there’s not much I can do for you, my friend. Long story short… beware the spoilers.
Suffice to say, The Kidd is a fan of the Harry Potter franchise. I have seen each movie on numerous occasion. I have read through all seven books, and I wish I picked up that bad-ass shirt of Sirius Black’s Wanted poster when I still had the chance. I am not one of those die-hards who believe that every movie is ruined if it doesn’t follow the book it’s based on in the strictest sense. I get it. There is only so much a movie can show in 2-and-a-half-hours time while adapting a 700+ page book. There are going to be things that get left out, moments that you may have loved, but that ultimately didn’t further the plot. I get that, and I’m okay with that, because it is what it is. There is no way to stay absolutely true to the books without an end product that runs about 6 hours long. However, “The Half-Blood Prince” is the first Harry Potter movie where I actually read the book first. All the others were movies first, and then the books, so I had nothing to compare it back to when I sat and watched. As a result, it was a bit of a difference watching the movie, in that I had a point of reference with which to compare the flick. I was able to see how things were originally meant to happen, and how those same events played out and either were changed or not for the screen. I was able to see if the movie held up to the book. I was guilty of being one of “those people.” Needless to say, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is a fun and enjoyable movie. You will be entertained as you already have been 5 times over previously in diving right back into the wizarding world. You will welcome the sights of Hogwarts once again, while also 
enjoying your first visit to Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes. You will love entertaining that familiar territory with familiar characters, and the movie should not disappoint you, for the most part. That doesn’t mean the movie is perfect by any stretch. In fact, it’s got some pretty major problems that The Kidd will get to. However, throughout the movie, I found myself engaged in Harry and Ron and Hermione and Dumbledore and Snape and… well, you get the idea. These are characters that have been carefully crafted, and it was nice to return to following them.
Do I really need to get into the plot of “The Half-Blood Prince”? For those of you who know this entire storyline backwards and forwards, there’s probably no simple way for me to do it justice. However, for those of you who’ve never picked 
up one of these books and have only casually followed the movies, I’ll do my best. Lord Voldemort is back, and it is imperative for Harry Potter and Dumbledore to figure out everything they can from Voldemort’s past, as it may help them devise a plan for stopping him in the future. As a result, they recruit Professor Slughorn to return to teaching at Hogwarts, so they can retrieve a memory from him that will ultimately lead them to know the conditions of Voldemort’s immortality. So, with that laid out about as simply as I possible, what is there to like?
Well, you have to continue to enjoy the friendship and camaraderie of our beloved trio: Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The chemistry between our three leads continues to grow, and we enjoy seeming them interact at every instance. We have grown with these characters over the years, so the way they behave around each other seems incredibly natural. But then again, was there ever a question that there would be some type of wrench thrown into the mix?
In addition, the movie plays up the raging hormones the students of Hogwarts are suddenly starting to realize. Boys are starting to get more and more 
attracted to the girls they go to school with. Girls are developing crushes on the guys of their choosing. And yet it all seems very relatable. You’ve got the kids sneaking off to every corner to make-out, because it’s all so fresh and different and new. You’ve got cocky bastard athlete trying his best to impress the girl he’s attracted to, all the while she wants nothing to do with him, because of that same arrogant attitude. Jessie Cave’ portrayal of Lavender Brown, who has a huge thing for Ron, hits perfectly. This is that crazy bitch we all hoped our friends would stay away from, as she seems to track him down everywhere he goes, showering him with public displays of affection, as she never refers to him by name, instead choosing to call him by some disgustingly cute pet name. While a minor character, the role stands out, as some added comedy relief, but also as someone we all wish we didn’t know but sadly do.
Jim Broadbent is great as Professor Slughorn, the Potions teacher who returns back to Hogwarts, because he just can’t bear to stay away from the who’s who of society for much longer. He likes to be in the know, to have connections, to 
rub shoulders with the students whose parents have done great things. He plays the character about as goofy as thought, as a jolly man, who just wants to have a good time in mingling with his best students who might one day benefit him in some regards. The performance brings back memories of his role as Harold Zidler in “Moulin Rouge.” He wants to drink and have a good time and appear to be a bit of a free spirit, but, when you get down to his core, he’s much smarter than he’d ever lead you to believe and is fully aware of what is going on in the world around him.
Some previously smaller characters get a much bigger piece of the pie in “The Half-Blood prince.” Bonnie Wright is giving a lot more to do here as Ginny Weasley, the other side of a budding romance with Harry Potter. She is much more bold and active from the passive little girl that needed rescuing in “The Chamber of Secrets.” We got hints that her role was about to expand in “Order of the Phoenix,” but here she is a full-blown part of the inevitable fight against 
Voldemort. “Half-Blood Prince” is also the coming-out party for Tom Felton’s Draco Malfoy. With his father imprisoned and serving now as an embarrassment on Voldemort, Malfoy goes from Harry Potter’s rival to his arch-enemy as the stakes get higher. He’s been set forth by the Dark Lord with the task of killing Dumbledore, in order to wipe away the disgrace left by his father. The character moves forward with his assassination plot, and is ultimately torn with emotions concerning whether or not he has it in him to go through with what he has been assigned. The Kidd thinks some of the conflict as to if he can actually pull the trigger when the opportunity presents itself is missing, but it was nice to see Malfoy emerge from being the unsuccessful foil to Harry into a potential weapon against him when empowered by Voldemort.
Michael Gambon’s Dumbledore gives his usual heartfelt and steady performance, while there are never enough great things that can be said about Alan Rickman. To me, he’ll always been Hans Gruber, but in the world of Harry Potter, he has done a magnificent job in developing from a teacher that seems to have it in for Potter for no apparent reason to an integral part of the battle that rages on 
here between good and evil. In “Half-Blood Prince,” you start to get your first taste of the complex nature of Severus Snape. Can he be trusted? Is he loyal to Dumbeldore? Or is he loyal to Voldemort having been one of his followers back in the day? We get to see just how important he is in the grand scheme of things, and this is the perfect set-up for his major role in the finale of the Harry Potter saga.
And, of course, there are plenty of nods along the way to the overall Harry Potter universe, with appearances by such characters as Wormtail, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan, Luna Lovegood, Hagrid, Professor Flitwick, Filch, Neville Longbottom, Professor McGonagall, and Lupin. Oh, and I guess I forgot to mention that we get some Quidditch action as well.
However, where the movie really goes wrong for me is in the worst place – the ending. With a running time of 2 hours and 33 minutes, the movie doesn’t seem long at all and seems to be paced perfectly with a nice, slow, careful build 
towards the climax of the movies. But seems and is are two totally different things. Upon finally getting their much-needed memory from Slughorn concerning a conversation he had with a young Voldemort about splitting your soul and hiding the pieces in horcruxes, the movie seems to rush through its end. It was almost as if director David Yates suddenly realized that they still had a bunch of shit to squeeze in before the credits rolled and only about 15-20 minutes left to do them, and he had to pick up the pace. Once we briefly learn about the key to Voldemort’s continued survival, it’s off to find some horcruxes, without much explanation really given as to how to find them or what they are. For as little that is explained there about what will turn out to be the main component in Harry’s battle with Voldemort, we are basically blown off with the idea that a horcrux could be just about anything. It actually could be this review you’re reading right now, or the chair you’re sitting in while you’re reading this review right now. So, all details are stripped away, because the time is ticking. That sends off to a cave where Dumbledore believes he has located another piece of Voldemort’s soul that needs destroying. That leads to some heavy potion drinking by Dumbledore and an attack on Harry and Dumbledore by the inferi, 
who you would never know what the fuck those zombie-like creatures actually are, because it never gets explained to you.
Harry and Dumbledore fight them off and make it back to Hogwarts, at which time Malfoy has managed to let Voldemort’s Death Eaters onto the school grounds. It is here that Malfoy will attempt to off Dumbledore, but, as we all know, he isn’t able to do it, and Snape is the one who gets it done, killing Dumbledore (oh yeah… like you didn’t know that by now). From there, Snape instructs everyone to split and they do. It is only when they are able to leave the campus before Harry is able to track them down and confront Snape on his actions with a small duel. What…? that’s it…? Yep, that’s it. All the fighting, all the action, all the fighting with magic between the Death Eaters and the Hogwarts staff and the members of the Order of the Phoenix never ever happens. Snape and company just walk right out of the school, unconfronted and without problem. The Headmaster of the school has just been murdered, falling a great height from the tower to the ground below after getting hit with the killing curse, and no one seems to notice this 
strange group that are clearly not students or teachers making their way through the halls.
Even the confrontation between Potter and Snape comes across as very lackluster, with a few blocks by Snape of Potter’s attempted offense and then casting him aside. Where’s the real anger? Where’s the accusations, the shock, the desire for revenge? It’s there as minimally as possible, but all the weight this interaction needs is missing, as Snape is able to escape with ease.
Plus, a big omission here is the funeral for Dumbledore. All we are left with is what amounts to the wizarding equivalent of a candlelight vigil as his body lay dead in front of everyone. However, what should be the tear-inducing moment of the saga to this point is completely lacking of any emotion, with Dumbledore’s death almost treated as an afterthought. Here is the father figure Harry Potter has known over the course of these stories, the one steady influence that has always been there to offer explanation to Harry Potter, and he is not given the proper respect in paying him farewell. It’s almost as if he dies and… well, there’s no time to waste. Carry on, everyone. To this point in the story, Dumbledore’s death at the hands of Snape is the most major plot point to have taken place. However, rather than treating it as such, it is seen more like business as usual, and the story continues, which reeked of being a wasted opportunity to show just how powerful Voldemort had become and how the odds of defeating him just 
got a whole lot greater with the loss of this great wizard.
And that is another major problem of “The Half-Blood Prince.” It is missing attention to detail, small things that would have just enhanced this movie as a set-up for the finale of the Harry Potter story. We never get a sense of the danger and chaos that is taking part in both the wizard and muggle worlds outside of a few isolated incidents. A bridge is destroyed in the opening in what should have set the tone that a lot of bad shit is happening as Voldemort continues to rise, but we never get that feeling. Instead it seems like one event, as opposed to a steady course of events where people are constantly disappearing or turning up dead. In the wizarding world, we get the destruction of one building in Diagon Alley, but, unless you pay close enough attention, you won’t be able to figure out that it is actually Ollivander’s Wand Shop with its founder being taken prisoner on your own. And, considering where 
that leads down the line, it is that missing attention to detail that fails to properly explain what will now need further explanation later.
We get an appearance of Fenrir Greyback, who is never explained or introduced, leading those of you who might not know his identity to guess that he’s just a big dude who happens to be a bad guy. And you can also throw in a newly created scene where Bellatrix LeStrange and Greyback attack the Weasley’s home and do battle with Harry and Ginny among others, only to decide to leave before anything actually happens. You’d think a new scene would help further the plot or at least explain something new. And if you thought that, you’d be wrong. The scene serves no purpose whatsoever, and is eerily reminiscent of the famous burly brawl scene in “The Matrix Reloaded” where Neo fights a number of Agent Smiths only to fly off on his own, rendering the events we’ve just seen pretty pointless. What was the point of the attack? Why did they just choose to give up fighting and leave on their own? I’d have preferred this few minutes wasted on such action been applied somewhere else, like… oh, I don’t know… the end of the movie which really could have used some action that was actually called for.
Overally, The Kidd can solidly recommend “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” At times, it comes up as nothing more than a set-up for “The Deathly Hallows,” but there are worse things it could be. You’ll have a fun time reconnecting with the familiarity of the Harry Potter universe, and unlike many of the pieces of shit I have had the unfortunate job of having to endure, “the Half-Blood Prince” doesn’t feel like a chore to watch. I’m sure the Harry Potter bookworms will have bigger problems than I, with things that were altered or changed or left out entirely, screaming bloody murder that the film sucks and ruins the story that the book told. However, even with its flaws, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is what it is… and that is a fun enjoyable entertaining addition to the Harry Potter film series.
