Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

• Ever since I first watched this, I’ve always known it to be my least favorite Harry Potter film. Which is funny because it’s one of my favorite Harry Potter books, but it feels much more empty than the other ones do. It still delivers several emotional punches, especially a certain character's death at the end, which ALWAYS gets me to tear up. But compared to the other seven films, it usually falls towards the bottom. That being said, I still think it’s a fantastic film, and I will always love it. I don’t know if this will make sense, but it’s kind of the ‘High School Musical’ of this series. No, the characters don’t go around singing songs, but there’s definitely some teen drama and the occasional cringey moment. I’m not sure if the comedic moments are intentional, but they always get me to laugh. The story is obviously condensed compared to the book, which is maybe why this one is at the bottom of the list for me. The book shows so much into Voldemort’s past, whereas this one just hits on it briefly. You still see enough Tom Riddle to deliver the plot, but it just misses out on so much good stuff. It’s still a good adaptation, though. Again, the emotional moments hit hard, and the last 30ish minutes is particularly grueling to sit through (but beautiful filmmaking). All the performances from the stacked cast are pretty decent, but nothing that’s exceptional. Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, and Jim Broadbent are my standouts in this. The VFX are solid as always, the visuals are extremely bleak and gloomy (but in a way that compliments the story/environment) and Nicholas Hooper’s is astoundingly great, especially in the third act. He’s no John Williams, but he still gets the job done in a haunting, tearful, and gorgeous way. Overall, the film, in my humble opinion, is the weakest of the eight, as well as my least favorite, but it’s amazing in my eyes. I would recommend it to all Harry Potter/fantasy fans. This film is officially Berry Approved, so go watch it now!