Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Blu-Ray)

Warner | 153 minutes | 2009 | PG | Directed by: David Yates |
Blu-Ray reviewed by: Matt Brighton

Nearly every year in this decade there's been a "Harry Potter" movie. The only exception being 2003, 2006 and 2008 (ironically enough the year this movie was supposed to come out, more on that later) but the rest have been chock full of witches and wizards. Having read the entire "Harry Potter" book series twice now, I can say that I fully understand the novels and subsequent films and I also fully understand why they're the phenomenon that they are. They're good. They're imaginative and well-written. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is actually the first book of the series that I received and I think Warner sent it when the DVD of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was released. At the time, I'd never read any of the books so it sat on my bookshelf. How little I knew that within the confines of those pages we'd lose a major character and it was leading up to the final chapter in the "Harry Potter" saga. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was actually supposed to come out in Nov. 2008, but Warner bumped the film to July 2009 because, well, they'd already had a great Summer with "The Dark Knight" and why put all your eggs in one basket. Though in a more PC move, they said it was for the fans' benefit so there would be less of a wait until the final chapter arrived and so they could fine tune the movie with effects and so forth. It matters not now, however, the film is on Blu-Ray and let's get into what the sixth installment is really all about.

Love. It's all about love! The students at Hogwarts are at the age when the sexes notice one another and no where is this better illustrated than in this film. But I digress...Voldemort's Death Eaters are gaining power and have even attacked the city of London, bringing down the Millennium Bridge. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and loyal cohorts Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) are all headed back to Hogwarts where they'll be safe from the Death Eaters. Both Harry and Ron are in a potions class taught by new instructor Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), who's been brought to Hogwarts for a little more than his talents as a teacher. Harry discovers his textbook has some rather cryptic messages in it, although they seem to help him with potions. Moreover, what the focus of the movie is really about is that we get to learn a bit more about Voldemort's past. Though Ralph Fiennes, the actor who plays the adult Voldemort, doesn't appear in the movie his real-life nephew Hero Fiennes plays the younger version. It's through a series of flashbacks that we learn how Voldemort was recruited at Hogwarts, how he was different and even at a young age, showed signs of being a great (and evil) wizard. Now don't forget the love! A few of the main characters share a few snogs and a major character says goodbye.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" felt more like a tease to me. Don't get me wrong, I loved both the book and movie and there are certainly some important elements that will play a part in the final two movies. But I think as a fan of the books, I want so much to get to the final two movies that this one might be overlooked. The focus of the book was more on Harry and his obsessive quest to find out who the Half-Blood Prince really is and that was somewhat overlooked in the film. Also, I didn't note the role of Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) who's been tasked by Voldemort himself. Felton has developed into quite an actor and this is him at his best as his conflicted bully character is now the one being bullied. Let's face it, the entire cast is back and if you've watched the previous five movies you're really not going to stop now. And as any fan of the books knows, it only gets better, much better, from here on out. So while there are elements in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" that will play a part in the following two movies, it's more of a reprieve from the previous film. I recommend it with all my heart, but rabid Potter fans will snatch this one up regardless of what I say.

The "Harry Potter" movies have always looked striking when it comes to the visuals and this latest installment is no exception. Seeing the movie in Blu-Ray is almost an absolute must as the crisp and clear picture makes you feel a bit more involved. Warner presents "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" in a 2.40:1 VC-1 HD transfer and it looks as good as I thought it would. As any fan of the books and movies knows, the story line gets more and more dark as they progress. Of course this is reflected in the transfer as the movie is quite dark. Darkness in films often heightens the mood, but can spell disaster as to how the movie looks on screen. In this case, however, it's amazing. I saw no hinting of any artifacts, contrast was perfect (albeit it tweaked a bit) and black levels were right on the money. This is the best-looking "Harry Potter" movie to date and I can't imagine it looking better than it does on Blu-Ray.

Warner has decided to go with a Dolby TrueHD mix here as opposed to using a DTS HD Master Audio on other titles. They sound nearly identical and they're both uncompressed so I'm happy either way. This "Harry Potter" film has some great examples of dynamic audio, notably in the first scene when Harry and Dumbledore do a side-by-side apparation (teleport). I remember seeing or hearing this in the theater and thinking how good this will sound on my home theater and I wasn't disappointed. Another great example is when Dumbledore "cleans" up the room in which he finds Slughorn. Everything works it's way back into place, all the while using every channel to generate some sort of sound. A top notch effort on the audio front as well.

To date "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is the highest-grossing film of the year worldwide and Warner knows this. The bottom line: you get your share of supplements on this three disc set. The first disc contains the film and coupled with it is Warner's "Maximum Movie Mode" in which we get a window with behind the scenes footage, storyboards and comments from the filmmakers. It's becoming quite the standard on some higher profile titles and I liked this a lot. Eight additional or deleted scenes are also included as well. One I wish was in the film only lasted three seconds when Dumbledore told Harry he wasn't afraid because Harry was with him. Oh well.

Moving onto the second disc we find the remainder of the supplementss. We start up with "Close Up with the cast and crew of Harry Potter" in which hosts Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom in the films) and Alfred Enoch (Dean Thomas in the films) give us a rather humorous look at the movie and we get more of a "day in the life of..." from these two. Something I caught on television last Summer is also included on this disc "J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life" a 50 minute documentary that chronicles Rowling as she pens the last chapters of the last book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". We get some interviews with her family, some background on her and a bit of insight into the phenomenon that she created. Admittedly, for a billionaire, she's about the most down to earth woman I've seen. This is a fascinating look at her but be warned (and you are), if you don't want to know anything about the seventh book you might want to tread cautiously. Next up are "One Minute Drills" in which the actors have one minute (duh) to describe their character's personality and other traits before the minute expires. Ironically this runs nearly seven minutes. Along the same lines is "What's on Your Mind" in which actor Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) interviews the cast about their likes and dislikes. I could have done without this one. We also get a look at Universal's theme park "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" that's being constructed in Orlando. I know I'm an adult, but this looks pretty darn cool. The third disc is a digital copy of the film.