The 6th installment of the Harry Potter series is the darkest so far. The return of Voldemort and his Death Eater followers has put the whole wizarding world on edge and the terror begins to spill into the Muggle (non-magical) world.

The movie centers around Harry’s 6th year at Hogwarts and his continuing quest to defeat Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Dumbeldore shows Harry stored memories of Voldemort’s early life in order to discover a way to defeat the immortal Dark Lord. In the meantime, Harry is convinced Draco Malfoy has taken his father’s place as a Death Eater and is now plotting with Professor Severus Snape against Hogwarts.

Fans of the books will be disappointed with the amount of material left out of the movie, details such as the identity of the werewolf Fenrir Greyback, the source of Dumbeldore’s blackened hand and the ending was drastically changed and shortened compared to the book.

The odd duck Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) was great and provided some much needed comic relief. Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) was tortured and angry about the task assigned to him by Voldemort. Bonnie Wright was great as Ginny Weasley, Harry’s love interest. The funniest scene was one in which Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) is under the influence of a love potion meant for Harry and pines for the love of an unknown girl.

Without spoiling the most horrific event in the film (that basically everyone already knows), I have to say that the scene was sadly lacking in the emotional power that I had expected and seemed to fall incredibly flat.

I really thought that scene particularly could have been constructed better and the version in the book was far more powerful. That and the previously mentioned omissions are my only real complaints.

Overall, the movie was great and continues the Harry Potter story well, although fans of the books may be disappointed with some of those omissions.

I give ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ 4 out of 5 Stars