Review: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (12A)

REVIEW
Snogging, boozing and experimenting with mind altering substances doesn't sound like the kid wizards we have followed for almost a decade.

Steeped in gloom and cloaked in sinister foreboding, the wizarding world of The Half Blood Prince is no longer the idyll it once was.

In their sixth year at Hogwarts, the wise beyond their years teenage sorcerers are a hotbed of hormones, passions fuelled by the impending end of magical life as they know it.

This movie is the darkest yet. Dark in the sense of sinister plots twists and shadowy goings on and literally dark. The sun doesn't shine and a steady stream of rain falls throughout.

Even Christmas can't lift the spirits of the hapless alchemists. The chosen one misses out on locking lips with the object of his desire due to a small matter of the house burning down.

The smug faced protagonist then takes on the mantle of tortured soul as he joins forces with Dumbledore to unravel the chronicle's most deadly secret.

If that is not enough doom and gloom, this is the summer blockbuster that will get its dedicated audience snivelling into their robed sleeves as the casting of the unforgivable "Avada Kadarva" curse fells one of the epic's most loved characters.

But if the film does taketh away, it also does giveth back. Hero Fiennes-Tiffin (nephew of Ralph who plays the adult Riddle/Voldermort) is steely and terrifying as the young "he who must not be named".

Jim Broadbent is a wonderful addition to the cast as potions master with a guilty past Horace Slughorn.

The props, stunts and look of the film are outstanding as ever, but with two more films to go, I'm going to need a little break in the clouds.