Product Details

• Actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Jim Broadbent, Elarica Gallacher
• Directors: David Yates
• Writers: J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves
• Producers: David Barron, David Heyman, Lionel Wigram, Tim Lewis
• Format: Color, Special Edition, Widescreen, Dubbed, Subtitled
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby TrueHD 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: December 8, 2009
• Run Time: 153 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (634 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000ZELISO
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #466 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

  #2 in	Movies & TV > Kids & Family > 10-12 Years > Harry Potter > Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  #1 in	Movies & TV > Kids & Family > 10-12 Years > Harry Potter > Blu-ray
  #3 in	Movies & TV > Kids & Family > Adapted from Books

• For more information about "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (+ BD-Live) [Blu-ray]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The sixth installment of the Harry Potter series begins right where The Order of the Phoenix left off. The wizarding world is rocked by the news that "He Who Must Not Be Named" has truly returned, and the audience finally knows that Harry is "the Chosen One"--the only wizard who can defeat Lord Voldemort in the end. Dark forces loom around every corner, and now regularly attempt to penetrate the protected walls of Hogwarts School. This is no longer the fun and fascinating world of magic from the first few books—it's dark, dangerous, and scary.

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) suspects Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) to be a new Death Eater recruit on a special mission for the Dark Lord. In the meantime, Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) seems to have finally removed the shroud of secrecy from Harry about the dark path that lies ahead, and instead provides private lessons to get him prepared. It's in these intriguing scenes that the dark past of Tom Riddle (a.k.a. Voldemort) is finally revealed. The actors cast as the different young versions of Riddle (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and Frank Dillane) do an eerily fantastic job of portraying the villain as a child. While the previous movies' many new characters could be slightly overwhelming, only one new key character is introduced this time: Professor Horace Slughorn (with a spot-on performance by Jim Broadbent). Within his mind he holds a key secret in the battle to defeat the Dark Lord, and Harry is tasked by Dumbledore to uncover a memory about Voldemort's darkest weapon--the Horcrux. Despite the long list of distractions, Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) still try to focus on being teenagers, and audiences will enjoy the budding awkward romances. All of the actors have developed nicely, giving their most convincing performances to date.

More dramatic and significant things go down in this movie than any of its predecessors, and the stakes are higher than ever. The creators have been tasked with a practically impossible challenge, as fans of the beloved J.K. Rowling book series desperately want the movies to capture the magic of the books as closely as possible. Alas, the point at which one accepts that these two mediums are very different is the point at which one can truly enjoy these brilliant adaptations. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is no exception: it may be the best film yet. For those who have not read the book, nail-biting entertainment is guaranteed. For those who have, the movie does it justice. The key dramatic scenes, including the cave and the shocking twist in the final chapter, are executed very well. It does a perfect job of setting up the two-part grand finale that is to follow. --Jordan Thompson

Product Description

Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort's defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Even as the decisive showdown looms, romance blossoms for Harry, Ron, Hermione and their classmates. Love is in the air, but danger lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same.

The Blu-ray disc of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will feature Warner Bros. Maximum Movie Mode, an interactive viewing experience that examines the entire film with such features as Focus Points, Picture-in-Picture, photo galleries and more. Maximum Movie Mode includes commentary from director David Yates, producers David Heyman and David Barron, and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Tom Felton.

The disc also includes Warner Bros. BD-LiveTM, which allows users with web-enabled Blu-ray players to access exciting additional content and connect and share with other BD-Live users via the My Commentary and Live Community Screening features. Another feature of the BD-Live interactivity is Facebook Connect, which allows users to interact with their friends from Facebook, update their Facebook status while in BD-Live and invite their Facebook friends to a Live Community Screening.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

518 of 568 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars dvd details, November 26, 2009

By	M. Potter (Detroit) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Two-Disc Limited Special Edition) (DVD)

Since I had to look elsewhere for DVD details (to decide whether to buy the 2-disc or one-disc film), I thought I'd post here:

1-Disc Wide screen and Full Screen DVD


*Includes both a wide screen and full screen version of the film.
*No special features
*RRP $28.98
2-Disc Digital Copy Special Edition DVD


*Widescreen version only
*Additional scenes (6:31)
*Close-Up with the Cast and Crew of Harry Potter special. Matthew Lewis ("Neville Longbottom") and Alfred Enoch ("Dean Thomas") lead us on an entertaining look at the cast of Harry Potter as they explore their interests away from acting and spend a day on set with the production team (28:30)
*J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life: A fascinating and intimate look into the life of J.K. Rowling over the last year of writing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." (49:32)
*One Minute Drills: The cast has 60 seconds to describe their character's personality, history, relationships and other traits before time runs out (6:43)
*What's On Your Mind: Hosted by Tom Felton, the cast is put on the spot when asked a series of rapid-fire questions on their likes and dislikes. (6:41)
*Universal's "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" Sneak Peek: Get an "inside look" at the amazing world of magic and excitement being created at Universal Orlando® Resort in Florida (11:38)
*Digital Copy of the theatrical film (2nd disc)
*RRP $34.99

I can't believe the negative reviews. I read the book and thought the filmmakers did a fantastic job with it. Anyone who wants a film to be an exact replica of any book should do themselves a favor and just read the book again. Am looking forward to enjoying it again (and again) on DVD.

41 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Love Potter series... TERRIBLE Director!!!, February 24, 2010

By	Midge (TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD)

I agree with Geoff. I love the Potter series and I love the movies... until this one. I was positively mortified and left hanging with a lifeless conclusion of an almost unrecognizable movie; butchered by Yates.

While I realize things have to be omitted and trimmed for reasons of time and expense, there was no excuse for the butchering this Director Yates did to this movie. He didn't trim... he decided to rewrite the entire book to his own version... as if he thought he could do a better job than a billionaire author? It had nothing to do with saving money either. Did it not occur to him that hundreds of millions of fans had already read the book and were expecting some semblance of similarity between the movie and the book? Did they think they would win brownie points with ANY of us by butchering our story? We don't go to the Potter movies to see something different. We go to see a video version of the books we read because we enjoyed the books... not a hack job by some hack director trying to rewrite the series. Where the heck were the executive controls at WB who should have been watching what Yates was doing? And who did Yates blackmail to get the last 2 movies after what he did to this one? It certainly was not a case of talent on his part.

I had to reread the book to make sure I didn't miss something. The things this director did to butcher this movie did nothing to improve the story or save money and were completely unnecessary. We have to wonder if Yates ever bothered to read the books. I shudder to think what this poor excuse for a director will do to the final two movies. We'll watch it because we have no choice... but I can guarantee, after the Potter films, I will never, ever watch another movie directed by Yates... ever again. I hope everyone else boycotts his future ambitions as well.

Burning down the Weasley's home... what purpose did that serve except to upset all of the fans? It was disrespectful like having someone spit on your family heirlooms. It did nothing to improve the movie or "move along" the progress of the movie. It had no useful purpose whatsoever and certainly did not please any of the movie fans and wasted the original Christmas scene... which would not have required as many expensive CGI's as this distorted Yates version used.

Same with the exclusion of the interaction with the Dursely's and Dumbledore... so instead this terrible director has Harry hanging out in the underground metro diner hitting on some waitress while reading the daily profit out in the open... while Dumbledore appears outside the metro station dressed in his usual Wizard robes for all the muggles to see.... Not only was this totally in contradiction with the book, it served no useful purpose except to leave the entire audience wondering if they were watching the right movie. A dud of an opener.

The exclusion of Kreacher and Harry's inheriting Sirius's home made no sense whatsoever. Kreacher is a big part of the final book.
There is no semblance of a relationship between Harry and Ginny. That entire endeavor has fallen flat and nothing they can do will spark that part of the storyline now. There is zero magic between them. In fact, there is much more magic between Neville and Ginny than there is with Harry. Every relationship they have tried with Harry has been a dud. Hermione would have been the only one which might have worked.
The relationship with Lavender and Ron was just terrible. Talk about "over acting!" They could have cut that part out and none of us would have missed it.
Neville was almost nonexistent in the movie and that's a shame. He adds a lot to the stories.
Cutting out all of the storyline about Riddle's family was cutting out the heart of why Voldemort is so obsessed about hating muggles and the hypocrisy of it.

Then there was this ridiculous Yates version of the potions book. Like others have commented... Snape didn't even react to Harry nearly killing Malfoy. He didn't even act upset as he calmly healed Malfoy's wounds... and unlike the book, Harry wasn't even punished. Part of that punishment would have given Harry an insight as to how cruel his own father had been toward Snape.

Yet, Yates completely changed the story where Harry put the book in the room of requirement with the Tiara on top of it... which is critical for the ending of the final book. It is substituted with some ridiculous scene with Ginny hiding the book... ending with a flat moment of meaningless intimacy.

The worst moment of the movie by Yates is where Harry remained quietly below, watching while Dumbledore was being accosted and killed... where in the book, he had been paralyzed by Dumbledore and covered with his cloak so he could not interfere. I can't see where changing this scene saved a single penny or a single moment of time. What it did was to be completely out of character for Harry to just stand there gaping while his mentor was killed. This was totally unpalatable for fans.

Then, out of the blue, Snape declares himself to be the Half Blood Prince... when there wasn't any reason given in the movie as to why Snape would even be aware that Harry was familiar with that name or the book... other than the fact that he had used one of his own spells on him... but there was no connecting storyline in the film that made his statement make any sense. It was just blurted totally out of context.

The big let down was the ending. There was no ending. It just faded away without any climax or closure. It ended with a dud.

I don't know what WB is thinking... but they are allowing Yates to make enemies out of millions... hundreds of millions of fans. That is a huge fan base to upset just to protect some hack director who is butchering the most popular series of books ever published. I cannot imagine where their heads are... certainly not anywhere we can describe in public... Just like the idiots who cancelled Star Trek... a billion dollar franchise. Shallow thinking pitbulls who can't leave a good thing alone... and then blame everyone but themselves when they shoot themselves in the foot.

Yes... we go to the Harry Potter movies expecting to see what we read in the book with the understanding that they don't have time to include everything. We do not go to the Harry Potter movies to see the story changed or rewritten.

There is only one thing that all the fans would agree on having rewritten.... and that would be to use the resurrection stone to bring back Sirius, Dumbledore and everyone else who was killed in the series... including Harry's parents and Snape. If WB and Yates want to change something... then change that! That is the one change we would welcome... and it might be enough to salvage WB's reputation from this hack job they allowed to be perpetrated on our movie series.

465 of 580 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars So sad, so... very... sad., October 29, 2009

By	Geoff (Connecticut snob, temporarily on loan to South Carolina) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

First. please let me say that I adore (nay, worship) the Harry Potter stories. So, being a gen-you-wine "Potter-Head" I was first in line to see Half-Blood Prince.

It was an interesting movie. Nice special effects.
Disjointed enough however that one MUST have seen all the previous movies and/or read the books to follow the plot.

...Most importantly, it bears little resemblance to the Harry Potter books!!!

Really. I can forgive replacing the actions of one character with another character, to save time, I can even forgive eliminating whole chapters for the sake of brevity, but to change scenes, edit whole parts, and invent whole chapters???

Beware, below, there be SPOILERS! Don't read if you haven't watched!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some examples of lost scenes:

-Dumbledore confronting the Dursley's? Gone.
-The invention of a fight at the burrow, including the destruction of the whole house? Really? Where's Bill & Fleur going to get married next movie? (Oh that's right, in the movies, they AREN'T! Heck, they aren't even in -this- movie!)
-The "Meeting of the Ministers" scene? Gone. Heck there's absolutely NO sign of Scrimgeour -anywhere- in the whole movie!
-Tonks rescuing Harry from the train? Nope, now it's Luna, looking for Wrackspurts, and removing Harry's invisibility cloak with her wand. (As A Deathly Hallow, it should be immune to summoning and/or levitation charms.)
-The slow build up leading to the Quiddich victory kiss? Gone. Now just a "close your eyes" peck in the Room of Requirement, and this was done horribly!!
-The two months of Harry & Ginny dating? Gone.
-Harry breaking up with Ginny to protect her? Gone!
-Harry's ownership of Grimmauld Place and Kreacher? (Key for the next movie) Gone.
-The Gaunt house flash-backs? Both gone. And with them any mention of Merope, Voldemort's mother. Gone too the mention of her locket by Caractacus Burke.
-The memories of Hokey the house elf, and of Dumbledore's job interview with Voldemort? (Key for the next movie) Gone. In fact, all references to the valuable heirlooms such as Hufflepuff's cup are gone.
-Crabb & Goyle polyjuiceing into girls to stand watch? (would have been funny, but...) Gone.
-Snapes "Defense Against the Dark Arts" lessons? Gone.
-Apparition lessons and test? Gone.
-Hermione & Ron's Prefect status? (Well, since it wasn't mentioned LAST film, why mention it now?)
-Harry's appointment as Quiddich captain? (Not mentioned, only implied during the tryouts)
-Mundungus stealing Sirius' property? (KEY for the next movie) Gone.
-Snap's betrayal of Trelawney's prophecy to Voldemort? (HUGE!) Gone!!!
-Harry petrified by Dumbledoor to protect him? GONE!
-The Hogwarts battle between Death Eaters and Order members? (and Bill's disfigurement?) GONE!!
-Dumbledore's funeral? GONE!!!!

...oh sure, we'll probably get to see a few of the minor bits I've mentioned in the "deleted scenes" portion of the "Deluxe" version of the DVD, but for this screen version, We get such useless add-on scenes as:
-All the trees around the burrow (HP 2/the flying car shot) have been cut down and replaced by a marsh?
-Harry wandering the underground, and chatting up a waitress??
-The aforementioned Burrow fight and subsequent burning??

Not to mention, Harry NOT petrified, but willingly hiding and watching Dumbledore's assassination? (Does anyone besides me see how that fundamentally would change Harry's view of himself?) Yeash!

And WHAT the heck was up with Jessie Cave/Lavender Brown? Worst acting since Brother Sun/Sister Moon! They tested 7000 girls, and they picked a 2nd rate ham? In fact, they tested using the hospital scene, which was single-handedly the worst scene she did in the film!

Ok, ok, on the positive side, the Quidditch tryouts and match were well done, and Dumbledore and Harry's apparition is depicted quite well.

All in all, I am happy they are making Harry Potter movies, but they are -nothing- compared to the books, and THIS one should be prefaced with "Loosely based on the novel by J. K. Rowling"!!