BOTTOM LINE: The sixth film in the series continues on a darker narrative path, with a very even and mysterious tone with glorious visuals. However, as with the other films in this franchise, this is very light stuff indeed story-wise, making it hard to recommend to any one looking for a story with a bit of meat on the bone or a genuine cinematic experience.

THE GOOD: The Harry Potter films have become just as big a gold mine as the novels they are based upon and “The Half Blood Prince” continues this tradition with a much richer visual texture, darker overtones, and a somewhat quieter and subdued tone that is both welcome and unexpected. This time out Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is entrusted by Dumbledore to find out more information about his nemesis Lord Voldemort and his connection to new wizard teacher Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), all with the unexpected help of a text book formerly owned by the “Half-Blood Prince”. As with the other films, the twenty odd minutes specifically devoted to the Harry-Voldemort story line are quite fascinating, and subsequently set up a rather interesting climax to come in subsequent films. All round, the recurring cast are becoming rather good in their roles. Radcliffe looks quite comfortable as Harry, much more assured and confident as he has ever been in the role. Grint and Watson are likewise as strong, as are the entire supporting cast. The film is quieter, taking on a more sombre tone and has a moment or two that could be classified as scary; the cursed female student frozen in mid-air by an evil force certainly sends tingles down your spine. The film looks absolutely glorious visually, and is perhaps the first of the films to not look overly CG-ish and more natural. The appeal of these films is certainly for kids, although adults do enjoy them as well and on this front, this new Harry Potter film works.

THE BAD: The story is very light for a feature film. Not having read the books I cannot say if scenes have been omitted or not, but my general impression of this film, and the others before it, is that they have about a 20-30 minute section which holds the meat of the story (which is actually quite interesting), and the rest of it is devoted to the uninteresting teenage games played between the characters and the requisite and boring Quidditch match. As a result, unless you are really in to this stuff, there is hardly any meat on the story-bone. Despite the immaculate attention to visual detail and the overall good execution of performance, direction and editing, the base material barely qualifies as a cinematic experience. Harry Potter fans will probably be up in arms over this analysis, particularly given its appeal, but not every one is a fan.