Harry Potter has the worst luck with nicknames. When he was just a lad, folks dubbed Harry the Boy Who Lived—which, quite frankly, probably reminded him of the fact that his parents didn't. Now that he can no longer be called, fairly, a boy, some have taken to calling Harry the Chosen One.
 But here's the thing: When you're called the Chosen One, it implies you've been chosen for something big—and in Harry's case, his destiny is filled with peril, pain and a do-or-die clash with Voldemort, a wizard so evil he makes the Wicked Witch of the West look like a Care Bear. For now, Harry plies his studies at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. He hangs out with his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. And he dutifully listens to what Prof. Albus Dumbledore tells him to do. Evil, though, seems to be steadily encroaching on even the walls of Hogwarts.
One student falls victim to a horrible curse. Another nearly dies from drinking poisoned mead. Draco Malfoy—Harry's arch-nemesis—has graduated from mere bully status to full-fledged Voldemort disciple, tasked with an malevolent mission. Oily Prof. Snape seems, more than ever, to be in cahoots with darkness—a double agent who's taken an "unbreakable vow" to help Draco do his diabolical duty. Dumbledore himself seems distinctly older; one of his hands has taken on a withered, mummy-like appearance.
And it's not like Harry doesn't have other things on his mind, either. Dumbledore wants him to get close to a new professor (Slughorn) who holds an important secret locked in his noggin. Worse—at least for concentration's sake—Harry's falling for Ginny, Ron's little sister. The only thing is, Ron hates all of Ginny's boyfriends "on principle."
Ah, such a puzzling, perplexing life Harry leads. Maybe folks should start calling him the Confused One.
:: Review
Six times now we've been down this cinematic road with Harry Potter. And while installment No. 6 reverts to a PG rating (the last two were rated PG-13), the storyline is still getting darker with blood, zombies, pain and loss taking the fore.
In terms of the story's chronology, this darkening palate makes narrative sense. Harry Potter and his friends, after all, are growing up. And their world is growing more complex and harrowing. When the 11-year-old Harry and his cute round spectacles first arrived at Hogwarts, his life was already filled with peril and pain. But the path set before him was relatively simple, and he had a cadre of wise and powerful friends and professors who had his back.
These days, Harry's not just contending with the likes of Voldemort. He's feeling his way through the sometimes muddled realities of relationships. These days, the right choice isn't just hard to make: Sometimes the right choice feels like it's the wrong one. Harry forces Dumbledore to choke down a vile liquid—a torture for both of them that, at the end of the film, seems to have been for naught. When a professor is confronted and murdered by a pack of Death Eaters, Harry hides—just as he was told to do. But the fact that he survives the confrontation is of little, bitter consolation.
Make no mistake: Harry makes mistakes, but when it comes to the big stuff, he's making the "right" decisions—decisions that will pay off in the next couple of movies. When the credits roll at the end of The Half-Blood Prince, though, he (and we) has (have) no such assurance. Harry's world feels empty, nonsensical, frighteningly random. We're left in a bleak twilight with only a glimmer of hope for dawn.
The Half-Blood Prince is, then, in some sense, indeed a dark art. It is powerful, poignant and problematic—filled with magic and mayhem and messy issues.
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