Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince

Director: David Yates

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Jim Broadbent , Robbie Coltrane , Michael Gambon , Alan Rickman , Bonnie Wright , Maggie Smith , Timothy Spall , David Thewlis , David Bradley , Warwick Davis , Tom Felton

By now you are either a fan of the Potter series of films, or are not. If not, then don't bother reading any further, as this film will not suddenly convert you as it still suffers from flaky acting and predictable plotting. The only real surprise in the story is already widely known due to the book series, and as the film has to condense quite a large book into one film, much exposition is cut once more to fit it in. Thus the film suffers from the same lack of depth that the rest of the films do. 

That being said, if you are a Potter fan who is accepting of the changes made to the stories for cinematic reasons, and are not hung up on quibbles such as the omission of the relevance of the makers of the map in earlier films, or the dropping of an annoying house-elf named Dobby (the worst creation since a certain Mr Binks in my book), then you will enjoy this film equally to the last one. 

Director David Yates continues his bleak style that he brought to the series in the last part (Order of the Phoenix), with the film having a sombre tone to the cinematography that compliments the darkening of the story. Voldermort is back (apparantly) and so the world of the boy-wizard has become much darker, and it is also starting to spill over into the muggle world. An opening scene of some of Voldermort's Death Eaters causing mayhem in London (a moment created purely for the film) shows us the threat in a simple manner, negating the need for any further exposition on what the dark-lord's re-emergence means to the world. The effects work and the general direction is masterful, with some marvellous images and shots capturing the mood and feelings well. 

It is lucky that the direction (and the complementing soundtrack) convey the suspense, angst, and emotions so well, because the cast don't (with a few exceptions). The exchanges of dialogue do not feel at all sincere in the delivery, and there are often slight pauses between one line and the next, as though the actor is struggling to recall the correct line. Many of the cast, who should be quite used to all this by now, are flat, and struggle to convey any expression. Radcliffe seems to have reverted back to the singular expression he had in the first two films, which is bizarre for someone who recieved such applause for his stage work. It is as though the now-adult cast are struggling to pretend they are still much younger than they really are. This is a major problem when it comes to the building teen-romance aspects of the story, which are so ham-fisted in the approach that you wonder whether any of the cast have ever actually been lovestruck teens, or whether Yates himself can remember his youth. 

Thankfully the love element is really condensed from the book, so it ends up being just a minor quibble, and the general acting is at least complemented by the strong 'adult' cast of British thesps, who far outshine any of the younger members. 

Overall, this was always going to be a filler film, as the book was pretty much the same. Nought more than a set up for the final installment (which will be in two parts), the film sets up what is to come. I only hope that we actually get to see Voldermort in the next film as he was so absent from events here that you start to doubt if he is really back.