Feature: Harry Potter Marathon, Part 6

YEAR SIX
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

We're getting to the business end, and it sure feels like it.

Carrying on from where Order of the Phoenix left off, David Yates crafts Half-Blood Prince into a tightly wound suspense piece. There are not as many wham-bam pyrotechnics as Goblet of Fire but certainly more than Phoenix, which means it strikes a pretty good balance. It's also a bit longer than Phoenix, which I did not mind at all, because I'm well and truly hooked at this point.

Like so many films in this series, though, I was uncertain about the start. However, it's not, this time, because of the Dursleys (they don't appear). One of the opening scenes depicts a bunch of flying Dementors causing the Millennium Bridge in London to collapse, in a scene that could come from a disaster movie. Though the scene itself is fine, it just feels out of place, and seems to have little plot relevance. I keep finding that I'm always uncomfortable when a Harry Potter film turns to the real world, and I can't quite put my finger on why.

Nevertheless, soon Dumbledore whisks Harry off and it's back to a degree of business as usual. I say a degree because Yates pushes his tonal choices further still. Dumbledore's little journey with Harry to meet Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), who becomes the latest new professor, is so darkly lit it's almost funny. Does Yates have something against lightbulbs? Anyway, you can't accuse him of not having a unifying vision. I can't say I'm a complete fan of his colourless styling - well, colourless except shades of brown - but it's distinctive to say the least. The VFX are certainly better here, which is a relief. I notice ILM seemed to have a bigger role this time round, and they continue to be amongst the best in the business.

Discussions about the visuals out of the way, I can get to the important stuff. Prince unfolds with a layer of mystery which is compelling viewing. Although Yates again leans off the accelerator pedal compared to Newell and Cuaron, the slower pace is counteracted by a subtle intensity that really drew me in. I know something big is around the corner, but not really what that will entail, which is enticing. As the early scenes unfolded I found myself glued to the screen, especially when Snape made an appearance. Rickman has his biggest part yet and is captivating with his ambiguous motivations (and signature pauses mid-sentence). Also Draco Malfoy's role is enlarged, actor Tom Felton having been somewhat on the sidelines in recent outings, and his arc goes in a fascinating direction.

Increasingly these films are getting quite grown up. Not only are the actors aging - and a little faster than their on-screen characters, which you can tell (the producers got lucky that Daniel Radcliffe never had a growth spurt) - so is the primary audience, and the filmmakers have adjusted the tone accordingly. It even gets downright scary in a sequence towards the end, where Dumbledore takes Harry to a mysterious coastal cave and they are greeted by some denizens that are not far off the walking dead. The set-piece is superbly handled by Yates, making up for (once again) the slight lack of an ending.

Yates absolutely nails one epochal event, however. I felt he slightly muddled the major death in Phoenix but this time he handles it brilliantly. Even though, having read spoilers in the past, I had a vague idea what was coming, it was still a major hold-your-breath moment for me, and this time Yates lingers on characters' reactions, making it so much more moving.

I felt Prince had a slightly looser structure than previous entries, which I quite enjoyed. Each prior film has had a very clear feel of putting all the building blocks in place for later relevance; you know if some object or creature is introduced in the first act it's going to be made use of come the third. This time there's less of that predictability. There is still, however, a frustrating omission of some important explanations, but I've come to accept now that I would only glean these details from the books. The main one that I still fail to have grasped is Voldemort's motivation.

There's more emphasis on relationship stuff here, which some may scoff at, but I must admit I enjoy that stuff and was pleased to see it make a bit of a return after Phoenix. It makes their story much more relatable than it would otherwise be, despite the soap opera connotations. It's all pleasingly played and with truly likeable characters, so in my book it's time well spent. Rupert Grint is especially entertaining, going from unlikely Quidditch hero to hilarious unwitting victim of a love potion.

My first reaction once the credits rolled was that I'd just seen a damn good film. May it continue for the remaining two-parter, when I finally reach the Deathly Hallows.