Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince [Blu-Ray]

Harry, Ron and Hermione are back for the sixth film in the series. No longer cute little kids playing with magic, they are now teenagers exploring the first signs of adulthood. As such, the story focuses more on the personal lives of the characters and their burgeoning romances, leaving much of the action and humour of the other films in the background, and diminishing the pure entertainment value of the wizarding world. Much of the story from the 600-page book has been cut in order to cram as many important plot points into the allotted two-and-a-half hours, which will make character motivations and narrative logic a little hard to follow for audiences who haven't read the novels. As the kids return to Hogwarts for their second last year of schooling, Voldemort's Death Eaters continue to wreak havoc, threatening Harry and his friends while trying to resurrect the dark lord. Young love emerges in the friend group, a mysterious book of potions helps Harry ace his potions class and Dumbledore keeps disappearing on strange missions, suffering an unexplained hand injury. For further details as to what is happening and why you'll have to read the book, as the filmic Half Blood Prince is very abridged. The Blu-Ray is packed with special features, some of which are actually special. The in-depth look at a year in the life of Author J.K. Rowling is well done, despite the filmmaker's creepy voiceover. The in-depth look at the new Harry Potter theme park at Universal Studios Florida will make fans want to book their trip to Hogsmeade Village. The disc is rounded out with typical cast interviews, commentaries and the Blu-Ray Maximum Movie Mode, which allows viewers to branch off at specific points in the film for additional info and extras. Half Blood Prince is the least action packed of the franchise so far, adding to that is the fact that some of the magic is wearing thin on screen, as we've seen it all before. Without Rowling's fleshed out characters drawing audiences into the story everything falls a little flat this time around. Fans will no doubt enjoy seeing the characters brought to life again, and anyone who has invested the time to watch the previous films will find some amusement, but it is for the best that the final book is being split into two movies to allow for a less truncated adaptation to be brought to the screen.