Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

Last Thursday after I passed my application requirements at the hospital, I skipped on over to Greenhills since I had the day to myself. Suddenly it hit me.. It was the opening day of Harry Potter 6! I went for the 12:45 showing para walang kalaban. Hehehe

The movie was all that we've grown to expect through the years from a Harry Potter movie, all the while maintaining a distinct flavor which sets each book of the series apart from the rest.

*WARNING TO THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK. SPOILERS AHEAD*

Not surprisingly, this movie takes a much darker tone right from the very beginning. It also shows a bit too much of the hormonally-charged preoccupations of the main characters of the series, but then again, I think they're just being true to the text. :P

J.K. Rowling's storytelling comes alive yet again. The Vanishing cabinet is exactly the way I imagined it when I read the book. The quidditch sequences were both intense and comical (particularly Ron's), but I feel that they were too short and left me wanting for a lot more. More quidditch plz!!! :P They did a really good job on the scenes where Harry and Dumbledore went to retrieve the horcrux, although I think the "trial of Dumbledore" as I'd like to call it, was a bit watered down so as not to scare off the kids.

Special effects were still aplenty in this movie, but It was nowhere near the visual spectacle they put together in the fifth movie where you had the battle scenes in the Ministry of Magic.

I think the way they portrayed Dumbledore's death was brilliant. After he was zapped by Snape, a kind of haunting music could be heard in the background as the Death Eaters made their way out of the castle (unopposed! Was that how they left in the book? Parang hindi ata...oh well), after which they showed the entire studentry, faculty and staff standing around the body of Dumbledore and lifting their glowing wands to displel the Death Eater symbol hanging ominously above the castle grounds.

I'll give it a 4/5 because although I found it really great, it didn't give anything totally unexpected or breathtaking, and I was frustrated with the relative lack of magic.. but then again, maybe that's just me. ;)