New Harry Potter Photos

[Adam Lubitow]

Nine new stills from the penultimate Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," have made it online; seven over at USA Today and two more courtesy of Moviefone and they look... well, like stills from a Potter movie.

Half-Blood Prince is (in my opinion at least) the most underrated of the Potter books and one of my favorites. The final chapters contain arguably the darkest moments of the entire series as well as some of the most poignant; it'd be a shame if they were botched in the adaptation process.  I've really been enjoying the dark turn the movies have taken since Prisoner of Azkaban (which is as expected, but you can never underestimate the need of some producers to dumb things down, especially when it comes to "family" films), so hopefully director David Yates, only the second director to agree to a repeat performance on the series after original helmer Chris Columbus, delivers the goods.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2008-07-02-potter-first-look_N.htm

http://www.moviefone.com/insidemovies/2008/07/03/exclusive-photos-from-harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince/

[Sheridan Passell]

It's a fascinating and extremely well made film series. Luna Lovegood was a terrific character in that last one, so it's a benefit that she features more heavily this time. The only drawback to the franchise is that it does feel like it is dragging out the story - it could have been two books shorter frankly.

[hanchan]

i absolutely agree. i'm not a massive potter fan, but i really enjoy these movies. they're always festive, easy on the eye and seamlessly put together, even if the raw material is sometimes lacking. the development of the cast has been pretty amazing, too; something that will always mark their lives. makes you wonder how many of their parents are now regretting making their offspring into potter-children.

i'll be there on opening night for this, as ever, with my little sister and a big bag of sweets.