FLIX/Harry Potter Part 6 Thrills Darkly at Warp Speed

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures The film stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter series), Rupert Grint (Harry Potter series) and Emma Watson (Harry Potter series). These actors have followed the path blazed by Mark Hamil and hitched their wagons to a widely successful and profitable franchise.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth installment of the series based on J.K. Rowling’s universally successful books.
 
The release date for the film is July 15 and it is rated PG because really why wouldn’t it be?  It’s based on a kid’s book that has sold millions of copies.  Even though it’s somewhat dark and Helena Bonham Carter is in the cast, it’s not like Tim Burton is the director.

The film stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter series), Rupert Grint (Harry Potter series) and Emma Watson (Harry Potter series).  These actors have followed the path blazed by Mark Hamil and hitched their wagons to a widely successful and profitable franchise.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Fortunately for Ron Weasley, he doesn’t seem to have any use for such a potion. Several girls in his class are smitten with him without being cast under any sort of spell.

If they’re smart, they have an economic interest in every pair of plastic glasses and wizard hats sold in conjunction with the Harry Potter film series.  If so, these actors can retire by the time they reach 21 years old…talk about a magic trick.

Speaking of Harry Potter’s glasses, with all the fighting he does, one would think he’d get lasik somewhere along the way.  The kid can fly on a broom, shoot things out of a magic wand, and make water appear, the least he could do is fix his eyes.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince begins with the Death Eaters ripping through town and destroying everything from bridges to small shops.  The Death Eaters are accomplices of Lord Voldemort, the ever present evil adversary in the Harry Potter series.  The special effects of the Death Eaters’ flight of destruction are unreal.  It feels as if the audience is actually flying at warp speed and crashing through windows themselves.   

Alan Rickman reprises his role of Professor Snape.  I have a hard time looking at Alan Rickman and not thinking of him as Hans Gruber leading a group of terrorists in Los Angeles only to be done in by Bruce Willis’s John McClane.  

An entire generation knows of Rickman as Professor Snape, but to me he’ll always be Hans the Terrorist.  It should be noted that Hans’s last scene in Die Hard is eerily mimicked in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  Only this time Rickman’s character is on the giving side of the slow motion fall, but he does refrain from a saying that begins with “Yippee-kai-yay”.
 
Early on, Harry and Dumbledore introduce Professor Horace Slughorn to the mix.  When we first meet him he could be confused for the talking chair from the old Saturday morning show Pee Wee’s Playhouse.  

Dumbledore convinces Professor Slughorn to return to Hogwarts to teach Potions.  He does this in order for Harry to extract a secret memory from Slughorn concerning Voldemort.

It is in Slughorn’s course that Harry discovers a text book that belonged to the original Half-Blood Prince.  It holds the key to many of the formulas Harry needs to succeed in the course.
 
At the end, the Half-Blood Prince’s identity is discovered when Harry tries to use his own spells against him.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Dumbledore and Harry Potter embark on a journey to find a way to erase Voldemort’s immortality. Harry has to go against his instincts and trust his mentor in a way he never did before.

It is also in Slughorn’s course where the students of Hogwarts learn of an infatuation potion and its dangers.  Most of the students are already in the throes of adolescence and all that goes along with it, including the inability to talk to someone they “like-like.”

Like most teenagers, they’d knock their own parents to the ground to get a bottle of that potion.  Fortunately for Ron Weasley, he doesn’t seem to have any use for such a potion.  Several girls in his class are smitten with him without being cast under any sort of spell.  All he needed was a leather jacket and the ability to turn on a jukebox by hitting it and Ron would have been The Fonz of Hogwarts.

Eventually Dumbledore and Harry Potter embark on a journey to find a way to erase Voldemort’s immortality.  Harry has to go against his instincts and trust his mentor in a way he never did before.  Along this voyage Harry shows that he’s actually pretty tough.  Sure it helps he knows magic and is The Chosen One, but he makes the most of his abilities and is a natural leader.  If only Tony Romo was a Hogwarts alum.     
The end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sets the stage for the next installment of this series.  An unexpected tragedy impacts Harry, Ron, and Hermione.  They discover a person with unknown initials that may hold the key to many of the questions left unanswered.
 
The sides are clearly drawn and as good as the series has been, if Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is any indication, it stands to only get better as the cast matures and becomes more formidable opponents for Lord Voldemort and his followers.

To contact the writer, email him at stevedettorre@yahoo.com