“I never realized how beautiful this place is,” Harry Potter says at one point as he suddenly notices the pastoral vista from a balcony of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It’s a rare moment of repose in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which pits the boy wizard against an array of Death Eaters deployed by that trouble-making Dark Lord Voldemort.
Potter land is indeed lovely to look at in this handsome cinematic chapter from author J.K. Rowling’s sprawling saga. Credit French cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel (Amélie) for rendering Half-Blood Prince moments both spooky and whimsical with an elegant, painterly eye.
See also:
3 Half-Blood Prince Bits Fans Will Love (and 3 They Might Not)
Quest for Fire: Look for Searing FX on the Next Harry Potter
While the scenery is a knockout, the familiar characters take the foreground in the hands of director David Yates, who’s pretty much taken over the Potter franchise. He shot 2006’s Order of the Phoenix and is currently working on the two-film finale, Deathly Hallows, so Yates brings an assured understanding of how to balance familiar “old friends” references with fresh twists.
The big development in the PG-rated Half-Blood Prince, which opens Wednesday: Harry Potter (played by Daniel Radcliffe) and classmates Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) have hit puberty.
When they’re not “snogging,” the teen wizards suffer unrequited crushes, snipe at romantic rivals and start realizing that the girls they’ve always thought of as friends actually “have nice skin.” It’s a little corny but a sweet tip of the hat to longtime fans who’ve watched the young actors mature into semi-grown-up magicians.
Intertwined with Hogwarts-as-romantic comedy is a deftly unspooled mystery in which Harry and his Moses-like mentor Dumbledore (played masterfully by Michael Gambon) attempt to pry secrets about wicked former Hogwarts student Tom Riddle from potions professor Horace Slughorn (Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent).
Their quest leads to nicely imagined bits of psycho-mystical hocus pocus, as when Harry gets hold of memory vials allowing him to access past events.
Radcliffe continues his winning ways as a worthy teen hero. Sincere, funny at times and modest even now that he’s been feted as the “chosen one,” Harry tests his mettle against impressive villains including returning Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, played by Helena Bonham Carter — who looks like she’s having a blast setting things on fire, destroying bridges and scaring the hell out of Muggles with her nasty sidekick.
Alan Rickman, reprising professor Severus Snape, excels as a sour lurker of the first order, while longtime Potter rival Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) skulks through the hallways of Hogwarts dressed in black and burdened with a dark mission of his own.
Harry’s quest peaks during a visit to a mysterious underwater cave The signature set piece melds action, imagery and character with impressive effects. Filmed on coastal cliffs in Ireland, storm clouds turn gray, waves crash — and then it gets worse as Harry and his teleporting guide Dumbledore enter into the fiery bowels of the Dark Lord’s secret hideaway.
Half-Blood Prince‘s dark conclusion is not particularly satisfying: The movie essentially sets the table for the final two Harry Potter movies and, true to the book, leaves audiences hanging. But as a handsomely staged holding action, the film works well: the kids are all right.
WIRED Potter land never looked so gorgeous and grim.
TIRED Hogwarts romance not particularly magical.
Rating: 
Read Underwire’s movie ratings guide.
See also:
