After many delays, the new Harry Potter movie is upon us. This was supposed to have come out in November, but was delayed for some strange marketing purpose. I don’t see why this would have mattered. The movie was going to rake in a ton of money, regardless. However, the ploy must have worked. Wednesday we joined the throngs to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The Harry Potter books got longer and longer as the series progressed. The same could almost be said for the movies. This one clocks in at 2 hrs 35 mins. The time passed quickly. Even at that length, there was no way to include everything. Having just re-read most of the novel, it was very obvious where the story had been compressed for the sake of time.
I still haven’t quite worked out where this movie falls in its ranking with the others. I think numbers 1 and 3 are my favorites. I was a bit disappointed with 5, but it was still a good movie. This latest Potter outing ranks better than that, but beyond that I don’t know.
Regardless of these minor differences, the whole series is great, and the young actors are now really starting to come of age, both in physical appearance and acting ability. This movie really plays to the teenage angst, almost to the point of distraction, but it still works.
It will be interesting to see how the last novel is handled. It’s been split into two parts, so we will have even longer to wait for the final resolution.