A Statement before we begin –
tytdreviews.com/2026/01/03/a-word-on-j-k-rowling/

Aaaand we’ve pretty much crossed the ‘Event Horizon’ of this series now. ‘Order of the Phoenix’ was the culmination of 3 films desperately trying to find its vibe and style after the exit of Chris Columbus from the franchise. It was refined, knew what it wanted to be, was lean and understood the characters. Yes; there were a few awkward performances here and there, and yes, in the grand overarching plot sense of things, it was kind of a filler story to slowly drip lore into the series ahead of the big wrapping up. But it was coherent, consistent and for the first time since ‘Philosophers Stone’ the series felt like it had found a new identity that sat comfortably with it, and a tone and vibe that didnt feel *too* forced.

Then, theres ‘Half Blood Prince’ an almost Cannibalisation of the last film into a kind of…self referential sludge for lack of a better descriptive. As the aesthetic and tone of the last film, morphs almost into an attempted impersonation of itself. This entry, to me; feels like they took the last film, ran it through an AI video prompter and asked it to make a natural feeling sequel to just that self contained story.

Narrative wise, we get largely bogged down in half hearted and somewhat awkward character pieces, that purely exist to more firmly insert the kind of ‘lore’ into the series that really should have already been firmly in place 3 movies ago. The characters dont really get a whole lot of personal development in this movie, as the emphasis is on setting up the players and scenarios for the big ‘2 part’ finale. So we as the audience have to make do with a LOT of awkward and slightly cringey romance sequences and ‘feelings’ talk the feels less like it was written with heart, purpose and intention, and more that it was written to give the characters a quick and dirty B-plot because the A-plot alone is a bit repetative.

Yes, the majority of the A-plot here revolves around Harry finding a mysterious potions book belonging to someone known as the ‘Half Blood Prince’ and while that mystery slowly stews on and off in the background, our other A-plot revolves around Harry and Dumbledore doing some espionage on Hogwarts latest (and returning!) potions teacher Professor Slughorn. and when I say these two plot points are a bit repetative, what I mean is that each act of this film can be summed up as follows:

*Harry approaches Slughorn to try and get some information, he’s rebuffed.
*Harry expresses feelings for GIRLS to people for a brief window.
*Harry and the gang ponder who the ‘Half Blood Prince’ might be and debate the morals of using the book in lessons.
* Ron and Hermione HEAVILY imply theyre interested in each other
*Harry Approaches Slughorn again to try and get some information, and gets a tiny bit.

Repeat in 15 minute chunks until the final 20 minutes or so, when the plot suddenly flips into the prologue of the next film, which is a 4.5 hour ‘fetch quest’ with a final few twists thrown in to ensure folks DO actually come back.

Its not inherently unwatchable, but I would say the scenes with Slughorn are pretty much the peak of this movie, and they’re genuinely pretty funny and engaging, but a film cant really survive off of Jim Broadbent alone…equally with the film being laser focussed on these 2.5 plot points, it means we get SIGNIFICANTLY less time with the characters that actually make these films fun, the teachers dip in and out fleetingly, but dont get a whole lot to do, the Death eaters and supporters of Voldemort get the same treatment and the Order barely get 10 minutes before they’re boxed away. It just feels messy, trying to cram everyone into a 2.5 hour film whether they actually feel organically involved in the narrative or not.

As such, the pacings a bit off as well, This doesnt so much feel like a coherent 3 act film, and more like a series of sketches and lore drops stapled together. its consistently toned at least in what its trying to do. But the fact that it feels almost like a tribute act to what came before left me feeling like narratively, the series had kind of hit the wall. it felt derivative of itself at times here, which is never a good sign.

Same goes for the cine and direction. As with all these films, I cant really fault them on a technical level, they’re well made, visually impressive films that still hold up over 15 years on. But the ‘freshness’ of this series here is definitely starting to waver. Like the script, the aesthetics they’ve chosen feels derivative of the previous film. Like the film makers looked at the last film, forgot that THEY made it, and went ‘Aww! thats really good! We should do something like that!’ So they made a film that feels like ‘Order of the Pheonix’ without any of the refreshing ‘new-ness’ that ‘Order’ brought with it.

There are some very impressive set pieces, the edit is nice and tight, the CG still largely works, and the score ties the whole thing together, but its kind of inescapable that this one just…feels like everyones kind of ‘done’ with it, and just want to get this and the next couple of movies out of the way and over with.

Performance wise, well, as mentioned we have Jim Broadbent. He’s probably the saving grace and single fantastic performance in this. Everyone else feels like they’re coasting. I expect that from Gambon at this point, but Daniel Radcliffe is clearly phoning in his scenes here because…through a mixture of battling alcoholism through most of the filming of this and probably feeling like he was basically ‘untouchable’ I suppose he thought he could just…Do whatever he wanted at this point. But when Alan Rickman isnt even really trying, you know things are stale. and the feeling kind of reverbarates across most of the major cast.

Ultimately; ‘The Half Blood Prince’ was built from the ground up to be a prologue to the finale, and thats basically its biggest flaw. A production that feels like its sole existence isnt to tell a story or engage the audience with a meaningful plot. But a film thats sole purpose is to get the audience to a place where the finale is set up and ready to go, while wearing the skin of the last film and trying desperately to convince the audience that its ‘just as good’.

I cant personally say I disliked it, but if it wasnt for the fact theres only the two part finale left at this point, i’d have probably just stopped here…instead. we carry on, and I think thats probably my end thought on this one. If you’ve got this far, you might as well do the last two. but if this had even been 1 or 2 movies earlier in the series. This would have been the film I bailed on…while things were still vaguely kind of enjoyable.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince/