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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6)

2009

David Yates

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon ...

6.4

58,337

Fantasy. Adventure. Drama In the sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, and in both wizard and muggle worlds Lord Voldemort and his henchmen are increasingly active. With vacancies to fill at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore persuades Horace Slughorn, back from retirement to become the potions teacher, while Professor Snape receives long awaited news. Harry Potter, together with Dumbledore, must face treacherous tasks to defeat his evil nemesis.

	Media	Author	Review
		Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"Is merely the sixth chapter in a now eight-part series that, much like its young hero, played by Daniel Radcliffe, has begun to show signs of stress around the edges, a bit of fatigue (...) far more than any of the previous films, feels like an afterthought."
		Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Harry is better than ever, a triumph of visual wonder and emotional storytelling. (...) Getting lost in the hypnotic Half-Blood Prince is what gives the movie its haunting power. (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of four)."
		Sarah Crompton Telegraph	"An elegant addition to the series. (...) Radcliffe in particular, has never been better than here, displaying new maturity and subtlety. (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of four)."
		Todd McCarthy Variety	"Kids' stuff is a thing of the past (...) Dazzlingly well made and perhaps deliberately less fanciful than the previous entries, this one is played in a mode closer to palpable life-or-death drama than any of the others and is quite effective as such."
		Andrew Pulver The Guardian	"David Yates knows how to play all the cards. Although a touch ungainly, his film is solidly constructed, with lots of fine effects (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Kirk Honeycutt The Hollywood Reporter	"A jerky start of exposition and backstory gives way to vigorous storytelling (...) all the visual and digital effects have now blended seamlessly into the package."
		Richard Corliss Time	"Darker, Richer and All Grown Up. (...) With Half-Blood Prince, again we have a stalwart, satisfying visualization of the Rowling cosmos."
		Claudia Puig USA Today	"'Half-Blood Prince is witty, spectacular and one of the best. (...) is spellbinding, even though it is more grounded in reality and less fanciful than previous installments. (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of four)."
		Anthony Lane The New Yorker	"All in all, despite the verve that drives the grander set pieces, it's hard to avoid the sensation of a film toiling overtime to convince itself of its own solemnity"
		Kimberley Jones Austin Chronicle	"It's always a pleasure to be in the company of Potter, and when looking back at the just-competent first outings, well, baby, you've come a long way. But still: Where's the magic, huh? (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Mike McCahill Telegraph	"David Yates feels a safer pair of hands than ever, underlining the Potter world's essential Englishness in a string of atmospheric locations (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Joe Morgenstern The Wall Street Journal	"Potions play a pivotal part in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and I wish I'd been able to find one for patience"
		Giles Hardie Sydney Morning Herald	"If 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' is a roller coaster, it's the tiny train meant for only the very youngest kids, the one that seems to go round and round forever without really ever picking up any pace (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Andrew O'Hagan London Evening Standard	"The present film is a stepping stone, neither classic Potter nor scintillating adventure, but it proves the depth and wholeness of Rowling's imagined world (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Darker, more hormonal, more teenage-angsty and sadly more boring (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Kevin Maher The Times	"The strangest thing about the new Harry Potter movie is not that it's unusually good, which it is, but that it unequivocally illustrates just how poorly we've been served by the previous five instalments in the franchise (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Martin Carr CBR	"With David Thewlis, Natalia Tena, Mark Williams, and Julie Walters adding their own brand of emotional reality to proceedings, 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' feels like a genuine ensemble effort that continues to elevate this franchise"
		Paul Byrnes Sydney Morning Herald	"Who would have thought, after five movies and so much hype, that the sixth Harry Potter movie would be better than most of its predecessors? (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"

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