Saga of "White and Black" Magics

CLASSIFICATION     MC Mature Catholics

RATING     Two of 5 Stars

Distributed by Warner Bros. (released on 15 July 2009)

153 minutes

The Film

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth installment of teh fantasy-adventure Harry Potter film series. It is based on the novel by J. K. Rowling, and written for the silver screen by Steve Kloves, the screenwriter of the first four films. David Yates of teh fifth installment directed.

The film gained distinction as an instant commercial success, breaking the records for biggest midnight opening gross of all time as well as biggest single-day worldwide gross of all time. In five days the film made $394 million, breaking teh record for biggest five-day worldwide gross in history. It is also teh highest-grossing film of 2009 at $934 million, making the all-time list of eight highest-grossing films.

It is dedicated to the memory of actor Rob Knox who portrays Marcus Belby in the film and was killed in May 2008 in a knife attack.

 

The Preview

 

The Story

The film opens inside a board room in a high-rise corporate building in the Muggle world with top managers looking askance as they watch the clouds forming into the face of Lord Voldemort and four dark cloudy streaks of teh Death Eaters break away from the face and attack below. Meanwhile, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliff) reads the papers in a terminal cafeteria when he sees Hogwarts headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore (Sir Michael Gambon) waiting in the subway. harry joins him, and Dumbledore transports them both to the Wizarding world and at the front yard of former Potions professor Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent), which Dumbledore enticed to return to Hogwarts and from whom borrowed a wizardry magazine. (Dumbledore announced him later as teh new Potions professor, replacing Severus Snape, at the start fo teh term feast at Hogwarts.)

Dumbledore transports Harry to the place of teh Weasleys where he joins Ginny (Bonnie Wright), Hermione granger (Emma Watson), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Wesley matriarch Molly (Julie Walters). Harry is reluctant to return to school after his experiecne at teh Ministry of Magic and the encounter with Voldemort.

Meanwhile Snape (Alan Rickman), later appointed the new Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, receives in his home at Spinner’s End a visit from Draco’s mother Narcissa Malfoy (Helen McCrory) and Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) where Severus and Narcissa make an Unbreakbale Vow to protect Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) and carry out the assignment if he fails.

While leaving Fred and George’s new shop in Diagon Alley, Harry, Ron and Hermione notice Draco associating with Bellatrix, Fenrir Greyback (Dave Legeno) and Narcissa in Borgin and Burkes, making Harry suspicious. In the Hogwarts Express, Harry attemtps tp eavesdrop on Malfoy, but instead got petrified, and could have died if not with the rescue by Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) and her Spectrespecs.

At Hogwarts, Harry and Ron borrow school textbooks for Slughorn’s Potions class. The previous owner of Harry’s copy, the “Half-Blood Prince,” has annotated the book with additional instructions that allow Harry to excel in class and win a vial of the luck potion, Felix Felicis. Meanwhile, Ron becomes the Keeper on the Quidditch team, which makes him a hero. As he forms relationship with Lavender, Hermione was heartbroken. When Harry finds her sobbing in a corridor, he confesses to having feelings for Ginny Wesley. But knowing Ron’s protectiveness of Ginny and would not allow a relationship betwen her and Harry, Harry hides his feelings except from Hermione.

Harry spends Christmas with the Wesleys, during which he discusses the situation at Hogwarts with memebrs of the Order of the Phoeni–Arthur Weasley (Mark Williams), Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), and Nymphadora Tonks (Natalia Tena). He gets ckiser ti Gubbtm whohas broken up with Lavander. Bellatrix and Fenrir Greyback attack the Burrow that the Death Eaters set fire.

Draco cintunes to elude Harry while perfecting the use of a Vanishing Cabinet inside the Room of Requirement. Harry suspects Draco is behind two attempts on Dembledore’s life, one of which almost kills Ron. In his semi-comatose state, Ron mumbles Hermione’s name, causing his relationship with Lavender to deteriorate. Confrinting Draco, Harry hits him with a curse from the Half-Blood Prince’s book, causing severe wounds. Snape heals Draco as Harry retreats. Fearing teh book may contain more Dark Magic, Ginny convinces Harry to leave the book in the Room of  Requirement so that he won’t use it again. While Harry’s eyes closed, Ginny hides the book and kisses him.

In one meeting, Dumbledore shows Harry memories of a young Tom Riddle and reveals Slughorn retains a memory critical to Voldemort’s defeat. Harry retrieves the memory using Felix Felicis. It reveals that Voldemort had been seeking information for creating as many as seven Horcruxes, devices that safeguard a portion of teh creator’s soul, granting him immortality unless the Horcruxes are destroyed. Two of Voldemort’s Horcruxes have already been destroyed–Tom Riddle’s diary and the ring of Marvolo Gaunt, Tom Riddle’s maternal grandfather.

After locating another Horcrux, Dumbledore requests Harry’s help in retrieving it. Inside a cave, he drinks a mind-altering potion that hides a locket Horcrux. Though gravely weakened from excruciating pain, he defended himself and Harry from a horde of Inferi, and apparates (transports) both of them back to the Astronomy Tower at Hogwarts. 

Dumbledore asks Harry to fetch Snape for help, but asks him to hide when footsteps approach. Draco appears and reveals that Voldemort has chosen him to kill Dumbledore, but fails to follow through. Snape arrives, motions Harry to stay hidden, and joins the Death Eaters that came through the Vahishing Cabinet and surround Draco as he hesitates. Snape casts Avada Kedvra curse, killing Dumbledore, and then escapes from the castle with the Death Eaters. While leaving they cast the Dark Mark, wrech the Great Hall and set fire to Hagrid’s Hut. Harry tries to stop them, but Snape deflects Harry’s spells and Bellatrix stuns him. Before departing, Snape reveals to Harry that he is the Half-Blood Prince. Harry returns to school to find the staff and students mourning Dumbledore.

Harry reveals to Ron and Hermione that the locket Horcruz was fake. It contains though a message from “R.A.B.” that he has taken the real Horcrux with the hope of destroying it and the others. Rather than return for their final year at Hogwarts, Harry and his friends vow to seek out R.A.B. and the remaining Horcruxes.

The film ends with Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix, flying into the horizon.

 

The Review

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is an occult fantasy adventure of a young wizard and his friends in their continued confrontation against the sinister dark magic of teh reborn-wizard Voldemort and his minions. It is as dark as the fifth film. It presents a good, young and likeable wizard with his white magic as teh nemesis of the dark lord of magic. It also provides fascinating sights on the works of magic when casted through the wizards’ magic wands. The current filmmaking technology makes the visual effects expectedly believable. The apparent natural goodness of Potter and the protagonists in the story provides a very deceptive tool in bring the wonders of magic into a very interesting level. A viewer cannot fail to sympathize with an oppressed boy who had to face dark forces as he finds himself an object of their aggression.

Love and friendship are strong bonds against threats to life. This theme runs through the entire film and its previous installments. While Potter lost his parents, his friends and his parents’ friends acted as his surrogate family. This is one good thing that can be learned from this movie.

Some troubling propositions however must be noted.

Sorcery is okay as long as it is fascinating and fictional. The rationale of fascination (pleasing to the senses) and fictional (who said it is true?) makes sorcery confusingly safer to accept as a valid entertainment subject. Once a person accepts sorcery as “valid” for entertainment purposes, the person loses the sense that sorcery, like other occult philosophy and practice, is a demonic art, real and uses the power of darkness, whether it be called “white” or “black” magic. And like any temptation, it has a character that inspires strong curiosity to seek further knowledge about the art.

Getting fascinated with sorcery does not make a person sorcerer. But it does open the vulnerability in the person’s will through the fascination it inspires, which the devil may take advantage in ways the person cannot foresee. Condemnation of sorcery–as “abhorrent to the Lord” (Deuteronomy 18:9-12)–is one Jewish teaching that Jesus and the Roman Catholic Magisterium never lifted.

White magic is good, anyway. Magic is the act of using powers beyond what is natural to man through the aid of evil spirits who makes effective the incantation uttered to summon the power. White or black, magic is magic; and not an instance or a teaching in the Christian Scriptures or tradition that good angels, prophets and holy men ever use magic to show the wonders of God’s power. They pray to God for help, not pronounce an incantation. This deceiving distinction between white and black magics makes sorcery acceptable simply because it is white.

Kissing teens in schook is okay. One Hollywood imprimatur here is the causal way teens are portrayed to kiss around in school for all the others to see. This is definitely a cultural matter, but certainly not of the Christian culture. It is a stamp of Western culture, and like any other cultures in the world, runs opposed to teh Christian culture, which it continuously undermines.

 

The Verdict

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a very likeable story of a world without God as the world of sorcery tries to reflect the goodness of God through ”white magic.” The storyline remains good and interesting to follow. It also shows the positive things about love, friendship and family. Being darker than its first four installments, it is less visually appealing. It also lost the humor that makes these films light-hearted. Its strength comes from its storyline and believable cinematic rendition.

Catholics are not advised to watch this movie for the deceptive values it proposes throughout the film. Those who insist on watching this film are advised to be more self-aware of their affinity to the delights of sorcery that it may inspire. People who are not capable of this level of self-awareness are warned to avoid this movie for the danger it poses to her soul.

Reviewed by Zosimo Literatus.   

 

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