Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 257
Fresh: 215 | Rotten: 42
Dark, thrilling, and occasionally quite funny, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is also visually stunning and emotionally satisfying.
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 47
Fresh: 41 | Rotten: 6
Dark, thrilling, and occasionally quite funny, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is also visually stunning and emotionally satisfying.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 1,379,460
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Movie Info
Adolescent wizard-in-training Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts for another year of schooling and learns more about the dark past of the boy who grew up to become Lord Voldemort in this, the sixth installment of the film series that originated from the writings of author J.K. Rowling. There was a time when Hogwarts was thought of as a safe haven, but thanks to Voldemort's tightening grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds, that simply isn't the case anymore. Suspecting that the castle may
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Cast
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Daniel Radcliffe
Harry Potter -
Rupert Grint
Ron Weasley -
Emma Watson
Hermione Granger -
Helena Bonham Carter
Bellatrix Lestrange -
Jim Broadbent
Horace Slughorn -
Robbie Coltrane
Rubeus Hagrid -
Michael Gambon
Professor Albus Dumbled... -
Alan Rickman
Professor Severus Snape -
Bonnie Wright
Ginny Weasley -
Maggie Smith
Professor Minerva McGon... -
Timothy Spall
Wormtail -
David Thewlis
Remus Lupin -
David Bradley
Argus Filch -
Warwick Davis
Professor Filius Flitwi... -
Tom Felton
Draco Malfoy -
William Melling
Nigel -
Evanna Lynch
Luna Lovegood -
Jessie Cave
Lavender Brown -
Frank Dillane
Tom Riddle (Teenager) -
Hero Fiennes Tiffin
Tom Riddle (Age 11) -
Natalia Tena
Nymphadora Tonks -
Julie Walters
Molly Weasley -
Rob Knox
Marcus Belby -
Matthew Lewis
Neville Longbottom -
Helen McCrory
Narcissa Malfoy -
Freddie Stroma
Cormac McLaggen -
Alfred Enoch
Dean Thomas -
Afshan Azad
Padma Patil -
Shefali Chowdhury
Parvati Patil -
Mark Williams
Arthur Weasley -
Jamie Waylett
Vincent Crabbe -
Amelda Brown
Mrs. Cole -
James Phelps
Fred Weasley -
Oliver Phelps
George Weasley -
Katie Leung
Cho Chang -
Georgina Leonidas
Katie Bell -
Devon Murray
Seamus Finnigan -
Geraldine Somerville
Lily Potter -
Joshua Herdman
Gregory Goyle -
Ralph Ineson
Amycus -
Paul Ritter
Eldred Worple -
Gemma Jones
Madam Pomfrey -
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All Critics (257) | Top Critics (47) | Fresh (220) | Rotten (42) | DVD (11)
I think it's the best of the series, fairly easily, and a testament to why occasionally throwing a massive budget at an endeavor of this scope can be considered a reasonable decision.
All in all, despite the verve that drives the grander set pieces, it's hard to avoid the sensation of a film toiling overtime to convince itself of its own solemnity.
Director David Yates presides over some gorgeous CGI set pieces, but all the real magic comes from the scrum of ace British character actors.
With its deft handling of teen yearning and affection, Half-Blood Prince maneuvers mysteries of heart and hankering that resound in worlds magic and Muggle.
It's a more mature magic. ... Now subject to the same raging hormones as any other 16-year-olds, our spell-casting heroes are learning to brew love potions this year, with results mostly played for laughs.
Potions play a pivotal part in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and I wish I'd been able to find one for patience.
If you're a fan, you're sure to find something to grumble about; ditto if you're a critic; but for the dwindling amount of people who just want to go to the movies to watch a fun and interesting movie, you could do a lot worse.
For Potter-ites, there are plenty of satisfactions to be had, but the fun mostly comes from recognizing plot points from the novel merely suggested onscreen.
Okay, so it's a placeholder. But it's a really good placeholder.
Half-Blood Prince only really shines when the film's darker and lighter sides manage to meet together, usually when Slughorn is around.
Yates & his technical team ... are the film's true magicians, taking the viewer's breath away ... with their cinematic craft, illusionistic skill and ... spellbinding wizardry
[Harry Potter] is now the lone beacon of despair for children in an increasingly pandering and brainless cinematic landscape; a Grimm tale that should satisfy the darker whims of imaginative children.
Running an obscene 2 1/2 hours, presenting a story which could have made a halfway decent half-hour episode of a half-assed TV series, this Potter has no focus, a comprehensive plot, any semblance of cohesion, purpose, meaning.
A pesar de su extensa duración, 153 minutos, la cinta mantiene un buen ritmo a pesar de su falta de acción. Brillante fotografía.
Those previously in the dark about the story from books or films will remain so, for the 153 minutes make little clear aside from a Be-Sure-To-See-The-Sequel conclusion.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is an icily grave and somber affair, with few moments of relief amid the mounting turmoil and a finale that blackens an already charcoal gray sky.
For all its focus on teen romantic entanglements, it sure has very little to do with the Half-Blood Prince.
While previous entries in the franchise spun their wheels a bit, The Half-Blood Prince has much clearer priorities.
...a deliberately paced, measured view of the characters, their motivations, and their relationships. (Blu-ray Ultimate Edition)
Vagabonding through time, Potter joins up again with his telepathic posse in this coming of agelessness new adventure, while dark forces penetrate the premises and the students experiment with various vials of wishful thinking pharmaceuticals.
Potter hits puberty!
Visually appetizing sixth installment in the Harry Potter series.
...one of the longest yet most-delightfully entertaining installments in the series.
Radcliffe, Grint and Watson are great as always, but director David Yates' adherence to realism stifles J.K. Rowling's trickster-storytelling wiles. Yates' horrifically bad botching of big-ticket moments bodes poorly for the "Deathly Hallows" films.
Audience Reviews for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Horace Slughorn: The student who gave me Francis... A spring afternoon I discovered a bowl on my desk, just a few inches of clear water in it. Floating on the surface was a flower petal... as I watched, it sank... just before it reached the bottom, it was transformed, into a wee fish. It was beautiful magic, wondrous to behold. The flower petal had come from a lily... your mother. The day I came downstairs, the day the bowl was empty, was the day your mother... I know why you're here. But I can't help you. It will ruin me.
- Harry Potter: Do you know why I survived, Professor, the night I got this? Because of her. Because she sacrificed herself. Because she refused to step aside. Because her love was more powerful than Voldemort.
- Horace Slughorn: Don't say his name.
- Harry Potter: I'm not afraid of the name, Professor. I'm going to tell you something, something others have only guessed at. It's true. I am the Chosen One. Only I can destroy him. But in order to do so, I need to know what Tom Riddle asked you that night in your office all those years ago. And I need to know what you told him. Be brave, Professor, be brave like my mother. Otherwise, you disgrace her. Otherwise, she died for nothing. Otherwise, the bowl will remain empty forever.
- Horace Slughorn: Please... don't think badly of me when you see it. You've no idea how he was like, even then...
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- Professor Minerva McGonagall: Potter, take Weasley with you. He looks far too happy over there.
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- Hermione Granger: My parents are Dentists...They tend to peoples teeth.
- Horace Slughorn: Fascinating, and is that considered a dangerous profession?
- Hermione Granger: No. Although, one boy, Robbie Fenwick, did bite my father once. He needed 10 stitches.
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- Professor Albus Dumbledore: Draco, years ago, I knew a boy who made all the wrong choices... please, let me help you.
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- Draco Malfoy: Hogwarts! What a pathetic excuse for a school...
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- Draco Malfoy: Don't you understand? I have to do this. I have to kill you... or he's gonna kill me.
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Foreign Titles
- Harry Potter und der Halbblutprinz (DE)
- Harry Potter et le prince de sang-mêlé (FR)










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