Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The cinematic incarnation of Harry Potter moves one step closer to graduation this summer and he's beginning to show his age. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth instalment in the endlessly popular fantasy series, and what still felt fresh at this point on the page is now feeling a little stale in its celluloid form. The sixth book of the same name is one of my favourite books in J.K. Rowling's engaging series, but the movie version feels far too disjointed and awkwardly conceived to be able to reach the heights of its written counterpart. This isn't to say that the latest Harry Potter picture is not a load of good fun, but rather to point out that the movie fails to do justice to one of the more interesting chapters in Rowling's entire series.

The story of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince involves two opposing narrative threads that are forced to run parallel alongside each other for the duration of the movie. The first thread involves the growing dread and frightening increase in dark villainy that is currently threatening the wizard world. Things are looking bad for Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), as well as everyone else who has aligned themselves with the forces of good.

The second narrative thread is focused on the experience of adolescent romance. The magic-wielding kids who have been attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for over half a decade are now witnessing what happens when their hormones run amok. Love triangles start popping up, love potions are ingested, tears are shed, and many sweet smooches are shared. The romantic subplots have their ups and downs, but while heartbreak is a present theme, it is fair to say that the love stories are much lighter and cheerier than anything the other storyline has to offer. After all, how important is a high school crush when the world is supposedly on the verge of some magical apocalypse?

Juggling these two storylines proves to be quite a challenge for screenwriter Steve Kloves, who has now written all but one of the Harry Potter movies (the last instalment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was written by Michael Goldenberg). Kloves makes a handful of seemingly arbitrary decisions regarding the inclusion and exclusion of various portions of the book. Some of the elements, such as the love stories, are given tons of attention (especially in the movie's second act), while the more fantastically violent action sequences are pared down.

These kinds of decisions are always going to be a part of the adaptation process, so changes to the original text are perfectly acceptable in my book. But I want to feel as though the changes made are for the betterment of the story in cinematic terms and not simply the product of a screenwriter picking and choosing what they think is of personal interest. Kloves certainly gets a lot right with his fifth Harry Potter screenplay, but some of his creative choices are rather baffling and the juxtaposition of romance and life-threatening danger is more clumsy than dramatically engaging.

Helping bring this sixth fantasy adventure to life is returning filmmaker David Yates, the BBC television veteran who previously called the shots on the last Harry Potter movie and will continue to do so with the series' upcoming two-part finale. Like Kloves, Yates has trouble navigating the corridors of the duelling narrative threads, as he fails to completely sell either the romantic chemistry or the significance of the impending wizardly battle. But while he has difficulty with the story's big puzzle pieces, he does deserve great accolades for the visual imagination on display here.

Scenes of the villainous Death Eaters (members of Voldemort's evil army) taking magical flight depict the people as suddenly transforming into swirling plumes of black smoke that zoom through the air. The visual effect is stunning and strangely beautiful, which makes their dastardly intentions seem all the more sinister. There is also the visual interpretation of the Pensieve, an object that allows its user to view magically extracted memories belonging to other witches and wizards. The Pensieve sequences begin with a very similar type of black smoke that quickly forms crystal-clear images of a character's past. The black smoke motif is used very well, evoking a sense of connection between the powers of good and evil that is both visual and thematic.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince routinely stumbles throughout its 153-minute running time, but I must praise the movie's brilliantly accomplished visual work. Daniel Radcliffe may have his character's name featured in the title, but the real star of this movie is cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel. This is his first Harry Potter movie, but he wastes no time making the visual world his own. The movie is shot in hopeful, shining yellows and gloomy, melancholic blues. Much of the striking imagery has an inescapably icy feeling to it, which helps expertly communicate the darker themes of the story. With the script and direction failing to impress in certain places, Delbonnel's exquisite work is the harrowing highlight of the movie. When combined with the fantastic special effects, Delbonnel's photography ensures that the movie is a visual treat.

After six movies and nine years of cinematic interpretation, Harry Potter certainly doesn't feel as fresh as it once did. The young actors certainly seem incredibly comfortable in their characters' skins, but their growth as performers is pretty underwhelming. Newcomer Jessie Cave deserves some praise for her scene-stealing performance as Ron's temporary love interest Lavender Brown, but she is a bright spot in a rather dull group. The seasoned British veterans fare much better, as Michael Gambon gives a wonderfully hearty performance as master wizard and loving mentor Albus Dumbledore. The brilliant Jim Broadbent joins the cast as a returning Hogwarts professor and his presence lights up the screen whenever he is in front of the camera. So the cast is a mixed bag, much like the movie itself. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is wonderful to look at, but the dramatic elements are far less stimulating. The big-screen, big-budget adventure is still worth the ride, but this fantastical franchise is running out of steam.