Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) follows Harry as he learns more about Voldemort's dark past in order to finally defeat him. This film really sets up the final films well and has a high level of tension, the atmosphere is incredibly moody!

The film has some really impressive visual effects and some subtle yet impactful cinematography. The quidditch scenes look genuinely realistic! The cinematography reflects the gritty feel of the film, and the lighting is as impressive as always! I like the use of long shots to build up tension and there is also some really good framing. The use of colour is a stand-out in this film, the green tint in the flashbacks was extremely effective, and the black-and-white grading gave the film a depressing and dark feel.

At first I wasn't really a fan of the score for this one, however it gets better as the film goes on! It helps to build up the tension and set quite an ominous and immersive atmosphere. In addition, the sound design is equally as great and you can tell a lot of effort went into it!

The film really takes the time to focus on the characters and their development, which I REALLY like. It adds a lot of interesting lore to Tom Riddle's backstory, and develops the romance between Ron and Hermione well. Ron has a lot of funny lines too, and is highly under-appreciated in this film! By far my favourite character in this film is Draco, Tom Felton's performance is flawless! The mystery surrounding his character is so effective and I love the dark turn the filmmakers take for his character. Draco is highly manipulated by the death eaters and it's heartbreaking to see, but just proves how great the writing is.

This film is fairly slow, but very engaging and still a fun watch! I feel like it balances a lot of sub-plots VERY well and this is impressive! It adds to the lore of horcruxes which is great exposition for the next films! Also, this film is incredibly emotional, Dumbledore's death is so unexpected and the whole scene is shot so well!

This movie focuses on the relationships too much and not the actual story. There was more of Tom Riddle's backstory in the book and in the film, they could've focused on that instead of the relationships