Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
I've never really bought into the whole Harry Potter phenomenon and, after this two-and-a-half-hour opus, I'm still not convinced.
It gets off to a brilliant start - with a dramatic scene of destruction in London - but then nothing else happens for 50 minutes. Ultimately, we're presented with a few spectacular sequences and some charming, light-hearted moments amid long passages of tedium. Considering these films are aimed at a relatively young audience, why do they have to be so long?
Another flaw: it very much feels like the penultimate episode of a series, forming the foundations for the two-part finale, and fails to satisfy as an individual work.
On a positive note, Jim Broadbent is wonderful as Professor Horace Slughorn.
