Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Director: David Yates

In the sixth year at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and in both the wizard and the muggle worlds, Lord Voldemort and his henchmen are increasingly active. With vacancies to fill at Hogwart's, Professor Dumbledore persuades Horace Slughorn, back from retirement, to become the potions teacher, while Professor Snape takes his long awaited role as the defense against the dark arts teacher. Harry Potter, together with Dumbledore, must face treacherous tasks to defeat his evil nemesis.

As with the novel of the same name, this movie is essentially filler in the Harry Potter series. While it doesn't contain the excitement of the other films, it is necessary for the series. If you're going to watch the entire series, you'll need to watch this one as well, but be prepared for it to be a bit on the boring side. It's essentially much needed plot exposition which is being used as the build up for the final movies and the epic wizard battle that will be in them.

Novels and movies like this always need a set up book/movie to make the ending one more interesting, but even though it's needed, it doesn't make it any better.

Also, this movie leaves a lot of things out that were in the novels and, in my opinion, need to be in the movies for those who have not read the novels. This film and the one before it should have explored the relationship between Snape and Harry's parents as in depth as the novels did. Otherwise, the whole point of Snape being the Half Blood Prince falls flat. Not only that, but in the movie they never explain WHY Snape is the Half Blood Prince (he simply tells Harry this at the end of the film). In the book, it goes into the fact that one of his parents was a muggle and his mother's maiden name was Prince.

All in all, this movie falls short, especially when compared to the other ones, but it is needed to set up the final two films.

My rating: Three out of five snails.