Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince DVD Review

As surprising as it must seem, the Harry Potter series has found its savior in director David Yates. It’s surprising for a number of reasons actually, but the two that stand out most are that he seems to have come from more or less nowhere (especially considering the names attached to other film in the franchise), and that his first shot, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was arguably the worst effort the series had seen.

That’s a bit of a hill to climb. Yates, attached to the final four films in a series that jumped directors for a while, does something with Half-Blood Prince that no one else managed to this point, or perhaps more accurately doesn’t do something… he doesn’t resign himself to his fate. Half-Blood Prince is the first film in the series that seemed to rather pointedly suggest, “Look. These books just aren’t that good.”

It isn’t as “magical” as the first movie, and isn’t as visually compelling as the franchise’s (now) second-best work Prisoner of Azkaban, but it is far and away the most movie movie. It screams out, in the somewhat subdued way that is all that is perhaps possible given the shackles, against itself and shoves in its own ideas where it can. These are our constraints, the films says, but let’s go somewhere with this thing. The story is decent enough, I suppose, but the storytelling is not a game worth playing. Potter is growing up, and we’ve been on this road for a decade… let’s grow the whole damn thing up.

Half-Blood Prince finds Harry at the beginning of another year at Hogwart’s. It’s a dark and determined time, and gone are most of the trappings of a magical world for the sake of making things look magical. In the beginning things looked flash, because it was all new to Harry, but the world of magic just looks normal to those inside, and there aren’t moans of wonder whenever you turn around.

Harry sits in a subway greasy spoon fidgeting among the Muggles, and mentions liking riding on trains. We get the impression that, like the Weasley father, he finds the normal world rather interesting at this point. He reads a wizard newspaper that at once reports that Draco Malfoy’s father has been locked up in Azkaban, and poses the question, “Is Harry Potter the chosen one?” We’ve got our tone set.

We roll along pretty quickly through some of the major points that must be brought to the foreground. Severus Snape makes a pact to protect Draco Malfoy, and Malfoy is apparently the chosen instrument of some serious nefariousness. Returning Professor Slughorn holds the key to something we need to know about Voldemort, and Dumbledore wants Harry to get it out of him.

Even in the earliest stages, Yates is changing up the game here. He abandons Snape for one thing. We all know where things are going, and even though Harry is locked into his viewpoint by the source, we don’t need to dance around each other. If you don’t know already, well… we might as well just tell you, because it’s a more interesting story anyway.

Malfoy is similarly stripped of silly nogoodnikness, and thrown into a far more intersting and palatable counter to Harry. Malfoy is also struggling with the idea of being a “chosen one,” and the two are equally, apparently, locked into their roles by bitchy circumstance. I was born here. I was raised thus. These things happened to me. What would you do?

It gets to everyone to some degree. Dumbledore is much less typical father-figure, and a lot more bad ass wizard father-figure. Hermione is a lot less snotty know-it-all, and a lot more “strong by fighting her lineage.” Everyone is significantly different this go around. They are all a lot less caricature, and a lot more character.

Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are making their way through something that is approximately High School’s senior year. Whatever your plots, problems, or status, High School will have its way with you somehow, and you probably won’t be happy about it. When a Dark Lord is afoot and people are nearly killed it might distract you a bit, but probably not for long. As we might expect, much of the movie is spent watching people not kiss each other, or kissing the wrong person, or fidgeting mercilessly, or lost in the depths of despair.

In the end, Yates’ greatest achievement is the simple fact that the movie is in some sense rather boring. The Weasley twins’ store stands out as something of a display, because it actually is new and rather bursting with magic. The rest is just another normal day in magic town.

All that comes before (book or film) is working the viewpoint of talking about magic (WOW!!) with a story that is mostly just an excuse, and characters who are largely just whoever happens to be around. Half-Blood Prince

is an intriguing story, told well, with characters you can hold, that just happens to take place where there’s some magic around. Everyone and everything has grown up, and the film moves solidly into the realm of that which can be appreciated, as opposed to that which is spat out and looks quite shiny in order to milk fans of a craze. It isn’t because that’s what happens in the book.

Rating:

DVD Review

Unfortunately, the single-disc of the film comes with no special features at all.

The 2-disc and Blu-Ray releases come with a lot of great features though, and those who have seen previous Harry Potter DVDs will find them familiar.

2-Disc Special Edition DVD:

- Close-Up with the Cast and Crew of Harry Potter: Hosts Matthew Lewis (“Neville Longbottom”) and Alfred Enoch (“Dean Thomas”) lead us on an entertaining look at the cast of Harry Potter as they explore their interests away from acting and spend a day on set with the production team (28:30)

- J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life: A fascinating and intimate look into the life of J.K. Rowling over the last year of writing “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” (49:32)

- One Minute Drills: The cast has 60 seconds to describe their character’s personality, history, relationships and other traits before time runs out (6:43)

- What’s On Your Mind: Hosted by Tom Felton, the cast is put on the spot when asked a series of rapid-fire questions on their likes and dislikes. (6:41)

- Universal’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Sneak Peek: Get an “inside look” at the amazing world of magic and excitement being created at Universal Orlando® Resort in Florida (11:38)

- Additional Scenes (6:31)

- Digital Copy of the theatrical film

Blu-ray Combo Pack includes all of the content in the 2-Disc Special Edition plus:

- WB Maximum Movie Mode with Director David Yates, Producers David Heyman and David Barron, and cast members Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Tom Felton (1:38:00)

- BD-Live Media Center including My Commentary, Live Community Screening and other interactive features. Also included is an exclusive introduction to the upcoming Harry Potter Ultimate Editions by Daniel Radcliffe.

- SD version of the theatrical film

- Digital Copy of the theatrical film

Own it on Blu-Ray and DVD today!

Also available -

The first two of eight Harry Potter Ultimate Editions (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). Each of the Ultimate Editions will include a new one-hour featurette that highlights a unique aspect of the filmmaking process. Editions include 5 hours of special features, theatrical and extended versions of the film, 48-page collectible photo book and other magical collectibles. ($49.99 SRP on Blu-ray; $39.92 SRP on DVD)

Harry Potter fans can enter into the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry like never before as Warner Home Video releases Harry Potter: Wizarding World, the second DVD game from the popular franchise. The DVD game enables fans to further the movie experience by testing their potion-making, spell-casting, and apparition skills in the magical world of Harry Potter. ($24.98 SRP)

The Harry Potter Spells app transforms your iPhone^TM and iPod touch® into a wand. Begin your training at Hogwarts and learn to cast over thirteen spells. Practice spells on your own and then challenge friends to a real-time duel. Available to buy this November exclusively on the iTunes App Store.