First review: “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”

Kenneth Turan leads the charge with this review:

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is being described as an excursion into the dark side for this venerable series, but don’t let the chatter fool you. Now in its sixth episode shot over an eight-year span, with two more features still to come, this one-of-a-kind film cycle has become as comfortable and reliable as an old shoe, providing a degree of dependability that’s becoming increasingly rare.

As directed by David Yates, who did the previous film and is on tap for the final two, “Half-Blood Prince” demonstrates the ways that the Potter pictures have become the modern exemplars of establishment moviemaking. We don’t turn to these films for thrilling or original cinema, we look for a level of craft, consistency and, most of all, fidelity to the originals — all of which we get.

Who’s going to a midnight screening tonight?

P.S.: I think I’ll try and track down an interview with screenwriter Steve Kloves who’s written most of the screenplays in the Harry Potter series.

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