After the near-travesty of the fourth film and the "business-as-usual" tone of film #5, I went into Half-Blood Prince decidedly apprehensive-and I left it pleasantly surprised.
For those who have been following the movies, a short synopsis: Voldemort has come into the open and Harry is being heralded as The Chosen One. Harry, Hermione, and Ron return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry amid the chaos of Death Eaters in the open, and Hogwarts is quickly becoming their last oasis. But while hormones are running rampant, Dumbledore has a special mission for Harry: to delve into the past of Tom Riddle a.k.a Lord Voldemort and unravel the secret to defeating him.
I'll first comment on how beautiful the cinematography was. Even book purists shouldn't mind the burrow-burning scene just because of the wheat field film. The arrangment of objects within the frame, the lighting, and the transitions were all spectacular.
On top of that, it helps that the sixth book isn't action-packed until the end. Yates shines as a director when given the time for character development and exploration. Sure, a few key scenes are cut from the plot (most noticeably the Marvolo Gaunt ring backstory, which I expect will be worked into one of the two next films) but the film moves at a much more comfortable pace than its predecessor. It even manages to tackle teenage heart break in a realistic and touching fashion; the Harry Potter movies haven't been this good since The Prisoner of Azkaban. On the other hand the film could have spent less time on Draco Malfoy, and developed the Harry-Ginny relationship past the staring-and-drooling-intensely-at-each-other part. Lastly, I have to say that I miss Richard Harris sorely. Michael Gambon doesn't do it for me.
-elln
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