July 16th, 2009 8:23 pm

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

After a six month delay, the latest ‘Harry Potter’ installment is finally here, but was it worth the wait?

After being held back six months due to the writer’s strike leaving a rather large gap in Warner Bros. US summer release schedule, ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ is finally here.

It’s been one of the most anticipated films of the year and early box office sales only seem to confirm this statement. The US midnight opening raked in an estimated $22.2 million, the biggest midnight opening ever. It even beat the studios’ previous record of $18.5 million for ‘The Dark Knight’.

So here we are six films into the series and it appears the magic is still there. The peak of the ‘Harry Potter’ mania has well passed, yet people are still flocking to the cinemas to see the latest instalment and after seeing ‘Half-Blood Prince’ it’s easy to see why.

From the get-go you know you’re in for a much different film than any of Harry’s previous adventures. David Yates who directed 2007’s ‘Order of the Phoenix’ returns as director for what is arguable the darkest ‘Harry Potter’ film yet.

Probably the biggest difference in the latest film and to a lesser degree ‘Order of the Phoenix’, is that the films are now simply pieces to a larger overarching story. Unlike the first four films they can no longer be taken as standalone stories, rather a fair bit of prior knowledge is not only assumed, but required.

Fans of the books will probably find this latest film to be quite a good screen adapation, while newcomers to the series will no doubt find it a littler harder to grasp on to. That being said, there are some truly wonderful things in this film worth non-readers time.

There are great performances from a number of the films cast, including Michael Gabon as the wise and protective Albus Dumbledore, Helena Bonham Carter as the psychotic Bellatrix Lestrange and Jim Broadbent as the new potions master Horace Slughorn.

The junior cast rise to the occasion with some great comedic performances by Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley and newcomer Jessie Cave as Lavender Brown. We also finally get to see Draco Malfoy as more than just the school bully, portrayed brilliantly by Tom Felton.

Romantic comedy takes centre stage in this film, as the characters begin to realise the feelings they have for each other. While some of these relationships lack the subtly they had in the books, they make for some truly entertaining moments.

Visually, this film is in constant darkeness. Some scenes are almost completely pitch black, silhouetted, or simply lit by the moon and/or characters wands. You don’t really get as sense of “magic in the air” like you did in previous films, instead the world seems rather stale. While this goes with the territory of the books becoming darker, as a film, it’s much harder to become engaged when everything is so dark and drab. It feels like they were trying for a more gothic Buton-esque style, though the end result wasn’t nearly fantastical enough.

Steve Kloves who wrote the screenplays for all of the previous films, sans ‘Order of the Phenix’, tries his best to make something fun and enjoyable out of a rather depressing story. Still, we’re able to laugh and become engaged by these characters we’ve grown to love over the last five films. Kloves was able to give the film a constant sense of movement and impending danger, despite the story relying on a fairly expositional reveal towards the end. While this film never really reaches an ultimate showdown for Harry, you do start to see the pieces begin to fall into place for what is to become the final battle between Harry and Voldemort.

The biggest let down in the film series so far is the direction the music has taken since John Williams left. The oscar winning composer, who created the wonderfully magical soundscape of the ‘Harry Potter’ universe, left after ‘Prison of Azkaban’ due to scheduling problems. In came Patrick Doyle who brought a brassy British sensibility to the ‘Goblet of Fire’ score. While many fans were initially outraged with Doyle’s effort, looking back on it now, it’s hard to argue that Doyle did in fact create some really bold and iconic themes.

‘Order of the Phoenix’ and subsequently ‘Half-Blood Prince’ brought in Nicholas Hooper, a long time collaborator of director David Yates. Hooper’s musical take on the series so far has been pretty much unmemorable. While he’s been somewhat more open to translating some of Williams’ original themes, the lack of his own iconic themes has left the series feeling musically bland. There’s nothing thematic to grab onto. Everything feels rather monotonous with the sole purpose of serving the current scene, rather than building its own overall identity. By now there really should be an iconic theme for Voldemort, but it’s nowhere to be found. Even Doyle managed to create a strong brooding theme for Voldemort in the one film he scored.

‘Half-Blood Prince’ really manages to hold up quite well in comparison to its prequels, if not exceeding them. It has its own strong identify which is both entertaining and emotional. Yates has really managed to ground the film in a reality which could otherwise be lost to farce. It has an ease and flow about it, in which some of the previous films have struggled to do so eloquently.

To sum things up, ‘Half-Blood Prince’ probably isn’t the magical adventure previous films were, but its dark and moody and it sets up an excellent launch pad for the final two installments. The ending leaves us begging for answers and we can only begin to anticipate what the final chapters will bring.