Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is the sixth installment in the popular series following a young wizard as he tries to defeat the dark wizard, Voldemort, who killed his parents. Being an avid Harry Potter fan, there were a few things that bothered me by about the movie initially. There were many scenes that were taken out of the movie to cut down on the length and a few scenes that were added to further explain some key plot points. I understand that director David Yates couldn't put everything in the movie because of time, Half Blood Prince is the longest of the Harry Potter films at 2 hours and 40 minutes, but I do feel that some of the scenes that were cut out could have made the movie a little bit more enjoyable to the fans that have read the novels. For example, Yates cut out many of Dumbledore's memories about Tom Riddle. While not completely necessary, the memories are very interesting and would have let viewers learn more about Riddle's past. However, Yates did pick the most important of the memories to put into the movie and this will help viewers understand more about Voldemort.
The movie has several strong points, notably, the actors' performances. Choosing actors and actresses as young as the film makers did when the first movie was made is a tough proposition. One has to choose the ones that look like they will still be good actors and still fit the roles years down the line when later movies are made. I think they made the perfect choices for all of the actors. Everyone was excellent in their roles, not overplaying or underplaying anything. Jim Broadbent especially is a welcome addition to the series. An exceptional actor, but criminally-unknown in the states, Broadbent shone in his role as Professor Slughorn, giving a low-key performance that fit his role perfectly. Another standout actor was Helena Bonham Carter. Her role as Bellatrix suits her acting style perfectly and allows for her to act completely crazy and evil.
The cinematography was the best that the series has seen so far. New-to-the-series Bruno Delbonnel was the cinematographer for such movies as Across the Universe, Amelie, and A Very Long Engagement. The one shot in the movie that struck me especially was in the very end, with the death of a beloved character (I'm sure everyone already knows who it is, but I won't say anyway), the camera work came across as somber and respectful, never showing the character's face, instead focusing on the other character's grief and the dead character's hair. I hope he continues in the series through the last two movies.
Not only was this the longest of the Harry Potter series but it was by far the funniest. For being such a dark and disturbing book, the movie seemed almost light-hearted. There was a great amount of subtle humor and some scenes that were just obviously hilarious.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince may possibly be the best Harry Potter film to date. Fans of the books will truly love Yates' interpretation of the story, but the movie would be very difficult to understand with no knowledge of the books or previous films.

-J and H