 I know you're going for some artistic flair, but would it have killed you to put some color in it? Ooh, that's a hot mug, guys! Hey guys, this is my review for a Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Essentially, the Empire strikes back of the Harry Potter films, more so with how it ends. This film follows Harry working with Dumbledore to try and figure out a secret piece of Voldemort's past through this old professor of potions, Slughorn. Slughorn has a past with both Dumbledore and Tom Riddle, and it is a key essential part in the battle against Voldemort. All the while there is this Half-Blood Prince storyline that honestly doesn't even matter to this film. The Half-Blood Prince connection in this film is both completely unnecessary, as well as a necessary tidbit, more so in the fact that a book that Snape used helps Harry get in with a professor. And that's actually the only bad part I would say about this film, aside from sometimes the color choices. The director of the film David Yates said that when they were putting this film together they were trying to go off of the same color palette as a Dutch painter at Rembrandt, and it does look great sometimes, particularly wide shots, especially the end when Harry is confronting Snape. Looks beautiful. However, with corridors or rooms or very basic shooting styles and settings, it looks like it's just on the verge of a black and white film and it is disparaging sometimes. Obviously the film is trying to go for that very much more darker, mature setting, which it does, especially with the characterization of Draco. At this point in the books, I didn't give a crap about Draco because he'd literally just been this one-note asshole for five previous books. However, in this film they do do a better job at establishing who he is, but also because we are seeing what Draco's up to. We see that he is trying to mend a vanishing cabinet. He's also going through his own battles with the moral choice that he has been given by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore. We see it through the very, very small little tidbits here and there, but particularly it starts when he sends the bird and the bird comes back dead and we see that he is struggling. We see that Draco actually has more than a one-note asshole character to him. That's what is one of the better parts of this film. It helps establish a connection with this villain character. It helps establish a human factor that makes us care about him, that makes us relate to him, because he's not doing it out of evil, he's not doing it out of pride or glory. He's doing it so he can save his own life, save his mom's life. Everyone else in this movie is actually pretty good too, except for Daniels. Some scenes Daniels okay, some scenes he's not. He actually did talk about this in an interview back in 2014. He says that this is his least favorite performance in the series because he says that he was really struggling with alcoholism and there's certain scenes where he says he can see that he's clearly drunk. Particularly every single scene that Harry has the liquid luck and most notably the first time he talks to Slughorn because he's got this kind of look like this and I know that he's drunk here because I've done the exact same posture in the exact same setting. So that's a little bit unfortunate that Harry's kind of throughout this film and it also kind of drags a little bit away from probably my favorite part of the book which was where they go and they find what they think is one of Voldemort's Horcruxes in the Cavern in Ireland. This scene in the book terrified me. Seeing Dumbledore who is this character of solid posture of wisdom and never fleeting fear like he always had courage in him. He was a strong character. To see him be stripped away of all of those elements to a raw unflinching terror of his own self was so scary to see in the book and to read it. The film does a pretty decent job of it if more so fast forwards it because in the book it feels like it goes on forever. It's agonizing and that's what made it so memorable to me. It's the most memorable part of the book and that's even including when Dumbledore gets whacked out of the tower. I thought this scene was pure horror. Everything from the cavern to the lighting to watching Dumbledore be stripped away to the weird mermaid zombie thingies that came out of the water and then it goes again to a beautiful palette when Dumbledore has the fire all around him. It was just beautiful to see. Just certain scenes work with this color style with the shooting style and some just don't. However I remember people really not liking Half-Blood Prince and thinking that it was really rushed and admittedly the first time I watched it when I saw it for the first time I thought the same thing. Rewatching it though everything actually has a pretty good pace to it. Aside from the Half-Blood Prince thing that is literally crammed in. Like aggressively crammed in for the final like for 30 seconds. Like hey you know the title of this movie? Here it is. Gotcha. That's it. That's almost what I would say is the entire amalgamation of everything that has to do with the Half-Blood Prince. I also have to say actually something else that I forgot to mention in the Order of the Phoenix. Ron went back to being an actual useful character. Especially in the last one he was always backing Harry up and this one he actually is kind of a useful character. There is the Quidditch game. Oh yes Quidditch yeah. While I'm kind of shooting on the shooting style this is the best Quidditch. This is if I'm correct this is the last time we ever see Quidditch again in the entire series and this is the best it's ever looked from the visual effects to the cropping to everything. I think that if they were to try and do Quidditch now it obviously would look better than this but this was the best. It didn't look corny. It looks smooth. It looks solid. Everything about it just worked really well. I really wish we could have had more Quidditch. I know it doesn't really mean anything to the story but I love the Quidditch games. I even own that Harry Potter Quidditch game which actually isn't even really that good of a game. It's very broken. Aside from that though I think this film is solid. It has a good pace. When it looks great it does. It has some really good moments. There are parts again that are very quickly glossed over being Half-Blood Prince. The Weasley house being burned down to the ground. Otherwise though I don't think Half-Blood Prince is as bad as people thought it was. It's not as great as it could have been but it still does a great setup for the Deathly Hallows. So in the end I'm going to give the Half-Blood Prince a 5 out of 7. I'm actually kind of surprised because the first time I saw it I didn't think it was that great but I think it's literally just because of how poorly the Half-Blood Prince part is pushed in but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't even that important more so in the books because there are some things that are not going to be explained that they just didn't put in because it's Snape's past with his parents. With Harry's parents that is so fundamental in the battle against Voldemort and his connection with Harry which they are going to kind of talk about in the latter movies and the next two movies. It's not as well done as it was in the books obviously. Anyways guys that's all from me. I hope you enjoyed this review. Deathly Hallows part one is coming up next so I hope you guys stay tuned for that review. If you like this leave a like and if you're interested in more subscribe otherwise I'll see you guys next time. Thanks for watching the video. My name is Nitz and you might remember me from the animated cult classic TV show Undergrads. It's been a while but I'm happy to say the click is finally getting back together in an all new movie thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign but we are still asking for your support. To see any and all updates about the upcoming Undergrads movie be sure to check out and like the Bring Back Undergrads Facebook page and with any luck we'll see you guys soon.