The kids of Harry Potter have grown up since their first adventure in 2001′s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (The Sorcerer’s Stone, in the US). The school is no longer a bright, optimistic place of wonder, but a cold and dark place where evil lurks in every corner. Must be why there no longer appears to be an owl in sight.

As the story opens, Harry Potter is on his own in a subway diner, having been riding around in trains for kicks. Immediately, we see a big theme of the movie when Harry flirts with a waitress. Fans of the books might be scratching their heads right now as this is not in the book, but I quite like the short moment where Harry starts to ask the cute girl what time she gets off when he is interrupted with an optimistic “11 o’clock” before he can even finish the sentence. Of course, the meeting never happens, as Harry is immediately whisked off by Dumbledore to meet Horace Slughorn, who -as played by Jim Broadbent- is exactly how I imagined him when I reading the book . Slughorn is a key element of the story. Dumbledore wants Harry to get a piece of information from him and Slughorn is persistent that Harry not get it.

Meanwhile, Harry suspects that Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater, the Harry Potter version of a sith, and is plotting something. Having been tossed in the background for the past three movies, Tom Felton is finally able to shine with Draco, playing him as a conflicted teenager caught between a rock and a hard place. He has always been a snobbish weasel, but now he gets to do something truly evil and get the feeling that a big part of him really doesn’t have what it takes to do it.

Perhaps the most amusing element of the story is the playful teenage love romp. It has been brewing in the stories for quite some time and for those with observant eyes should not surprised when they see that Harry’s two friends are actually infatuated with each other, while Ginny- sister to Potter’s best friend, Ron- finally becomes a significant part of Harry’s life, often taking his hand and being very supportive and nurturing to him even before they kiss, or in this case, “flog.”

For the longest time, I have been hearing people, including the director David Yates, make such a big deal about “sex, potions, and rock n’ roll”, and while the film does suggest promiscuity is going on within the halls of Hogwarts, it’s certainly nothing to fuss about. Yes,there are lines like “so did you and Ginny do it?” -not referring to the “it” you’re thinking of- but the film very much deserves it’s PG rating.

Rising above the other Potter films is the visual way this story was told. There are many shots in the film that sweep us off from one character’s story to another. Overall, I was satisfied with the cinematography of the film, but there was one scene in the film, taking place in the Weasley’s cornfield, where the camera work was quite grungy. As a filmgoer, I find it very disappointing that the unnerving quality of the shaky cam and quick paced editing-that makes it hard to see anything that is going on- is allowed to live. Leave that to Cops!

Perhaps the most disappointing part of the film was the finale. I enjoyed most of the movie. I was laughing and smirking and really getting into it until the last 15 minutes, which simply didn’t have the impact it had in the book. I didn’t feel any emotion towards it like I should have had. The staging of the pivotal scene was subpar and lacked suspense. It felt like the filmmakers said “Ok, everyone knows what happens, so lets play it off as ‘haunting and sad’” and it just didn’t work for me. The film, itself, just ended too quickly and I felt like a few somber moments were missing.

As a whole, Half Blood Prince was an improvement over the previous film, Order of the Pheonix, and was a much more satisfying film than the previous summer endeavor, Transformers 2. It got the character moments right, but fell a bit short of epic in the film’s more pivotal moments and if they just improve that for The Deathly Hallows films, then they may very well be the finest entries in the series.

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