Director: David Yates
Actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, Dame Maggie Smith, Tom Felton, Bonnie Wright
Classification: PG
Length: 153 minutes
In Theatres: July 15, 2009
My Rating: Must See It In Theatres: Get Advance Tickets (4.5/5 stars)

I finally got around to writing this review...I did go see HP6 on opening day. I had passes to exchange for tickets, which had to be done at the box office and not online. But you can still check online to see which showtimes were sold out. The day before (7/14), only the eight o’clock evening showtime was sold out. The next morning I checked, all the evening showtimes were booked. And the theatre had multiple showtimes and auditoriums showing the movie. Needless to say, my friends and I just decided to go in the afternoon (since we were able to). We made it for the 4:20 showtime just in the nick of time. The commercials were starting to play, but not yet the trailers. The seats weren’t bad, it was in the middle; although the auditorium was pretty full with people scattered everywhere.

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, the sixth instalment of Harry Potter is the best adaption yet of all the films adapted from JKR’s popular fantasy novels following a boy wizard orphan. Harry returns to Hogwarts School of Witch Craft and Wizardry for his sixth year and centres around finding out Voldemort’s past and his trust in a potions text that was once owned by the “Half-Blood Prince”.

Not once did I look to check if the movie was over yet. (That’s a good thing since last time I saw a movie where I kept checking the time, “The Soloist”—I think I checked my phone for the time at least seven times.)

The translation of HBP from book to screen was perfect. It was able to touch on all the right tones and leave the spirit and all of the most important parts intact. Obviously, filmmakers can’t translate every single detail and some things will have to be cut out. As long as they capture the arc of the story, then it is fine. In this case, HBP choose to explain Voldemort’s past, which is the key ingredient towards explaining his survival and rise again. It also holds the key towards defeating him.

( SPOILERS: Movie Review Continued... )