Professors Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Snape (Alan Rickman) are the only two supporting cast members that have significant screen time in this film. The rest of the colorful characters are largely absent, appearing in just one or two scenes each and uttering only a handful of lines (if any at all).

I have maintained for some time now that Warner Brothers is the only reputable movie studio in Hollywood. Their willingness to continue to do faithful page-to-screen adaptations of the Potter movies is evidence that supports this theory when compared to say… anything that Fox Searchlight has done in the past 20 years?

Despite the extremely dark nature of HBP, the MPAA let the movie slide by with merely a PG rating. This had me on guard before I ever set foot in theater. Having read the books, I feared the studio had finally chickened out and severely watered down the franchise to make sure that it would be viewed by as many people as possible — the previous two films received PG-13 ratings.

Warner Brothers almost certainly had to do a little cajoling to get a ‘PG’ and I have no doubt that money was the motivating factor. I am happy to report, however, that the film does not suffer for this. HBP does not pull any punches, even in two of the darkest scenes from the novel.

Additionally, the studio had been demanding shorter run-times for the films since Chamber of Secrets (the second — and IMO, best — one for you laymen out there) clocked in at over 2.5 hours. This WAS a detriment to the films as the pacing of the third and fourth movies were far too herky-jerky for my taste. Too many elements of the story had to be compromised or scrapped entirely in order for the films to stay around 2 hrs. 15 minutes. Half-Blood Prince has a run-time of 2 hrs. 35 minutes, so it is nice to see that Warner Brothers has finally awoken to the fact that no one cares if the movies run long. It’s far more important for them to be good and above all, faithful to Rowling’s books.

For fans of the Potter series, you will not be disappointed by this installment. If you are not yet a fan, then you’re probably a lost cause as far as Harry Potter is concerned and this movie isn’t going to convert you.

But for even casual fans of the books and/or films, HBP will take on an appropriately dark and ambient journey through the dark side of the wizarding world that, to this point, we have seen all too little of in the previous installments. It’s not all doom and gloom, though; HBP mixes in some of that Potter-trademark clever and light hearted humor throughout.

Maybe I built Voldemort up in my mind too much (anyone else think you shouldn’t type/say his name in real life, even though that thought is ridiculous?) but I expected a slicker interpretation. Dillane perhaps looked the part, but his pauses were just too over the top for me. I pictured Tom Riddle as being outwardly perfect with an unidentifiable menace about him, more subtle than Dillane’s performance. I may be asking too much.

One complaint that I have (and you mentioned) are some of the relationships. I mean, why do Harry and Ginny like each other? More specifically, why does Harry like Ginny (didn’t Ginny have a crush on him in the second book)? That never seemed to be developed to me (or maybe I forgot something that happened in HP5). But was there ever a moment where their relationship really seemed to take off (maybe with Dumbledore’s Army?) that I am forgetting about?