Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince · reception & legacy
2009 · David Yates
How Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
In 2009 critics were kinder than book fans, who fumed over the cut climax and an invented action scene at the Burrow; today it's widely reappraised as the series' visual high point, with Bruno Delbonnel's murky, painterly photography doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
What's debated
The forever-debate: is this the franchise's most boring entry ('the one where nothing happens') or its best-directed and funniest — a teen hangout movie hiding inside a blockbuster?
Its footprint
Harry blissed-out on Felix Felicis is one of the most gif'd moments in the whole franchise — Daniel Radcliffe's giddy 'lucky Harry' performance lives on as a perennial reaction meme.
Where it stands
The middle child of the series that Letterboxd has quietly canonised as 'the pretty one' — a common pick for best-shot, if not best, Potter film.