11:59 Cinema : Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

So.. I went to the late showing tonight of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince. Right off the bat, let me say.. that I really dug it. From the way the story was told all the way to the direction, filming and special effects.. everything seemed alot more genuine, and less 'Blockbuster-Hollywood' like previous films in the this series. It actually felt like a film. It was, and will remain one of my favorites in the series, since Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Here is the thing... I have not read the books, and I will for sure read them someday soon. No problem there. The thing is.. until The Prisoner of Azkaban came along, I did not see anything remarkable about the telling of the stories that were written by J.K. Rowling.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the story was told so cleverly and with such care - that you wanted more of the World that was portrayed in that film. It was in large part due to the director - Alfonso Cuaron. He is an amazingly clever man. He directed such films as Y Tu Mama Tambien, and the box-office failure that was Children of Men .. (and I had such high-hopes for that one.) He was asked to do another Potter film.. but declined to make Children of Men.. that is another story.

Here in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, there is a definite story-telling going on. There has been a clear directive made to show more of the World that is Harry Potter. With the final installment already filmed, I think they really did a great job fleshing out the storyline. I was really very impressed and I look forward to the next film. It ended strangely though.. and that is the only issue I had with the film.. I won't spoil it.. but in the long and short of it - I really enjoyed it! Go check it out and let me know what you think!