Sightlines · reception

How Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was received

2009 · David Yates · Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Sightlines

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 canonized as 'the pretty one' — a common pick for best-shot, if not best, Potter film.

Did you know? It's the only Harry Potter film ever nominated for an Academy Award — Best Cinematography for Bruno Delbonnel — and its release was famously pushed back eight months, from November 2008 to July 2009, sparking genuine fan outrage.

A Deleuzian reading of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince →