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"Half-Blood Prince" is easily in the top tier of the Potter films.

Not saying all that much, I guess: the first two disposable, unwatchable, literal fluff, the fifth one a botched synopsis of the longest, most compelling book that contained maybe 10 minutes with THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX.

I'd rank it between Alfonso Cuaron's third installment and Mike Newell's "Goblet of Fire." For me, "Goblet" has been the series crown jewel up to this point. A loaded, colorful, lonnng book whose film adaptation chose selected bits (Quidditch World Cup, Yule Ball, Triwizard Tourmanent's stages) and vibrantly brought them to life, gave them necessary screen time. When Cedric died, his body teleported into the stadium in front of his father - poignancy and poetry man, the series' most heartbreaking moment.

"Half-Blood Prince" gets the rare distinction of being the first film more enjoyable than the book. It's also the first release post-print finale so extra kudos are in order as most viewers suspiciously comb for foreshadowing, knowing the ultimate fate of all these characters.

The book itself has three major but fairly straightforward plot points (Horace Slughorn, horcruxes, the betrayal) and filler. Onscreen, the filler is compelling, beautiful, vibrant. I pictured Slughorn like a fat Teddy Roosevelt because of how he's illustrated, but the Slughorn adaptation is far more interesting. Slughorn is the loud, proud, self-aggrandizing academic not just proud of his student's future accomplishments, but how said accomplishments reflect on his stature. He's a delightful drunk.

This is Potter's "Empire" moment and they nailed the sadness and darkness. This is Potter's adult moment we're served a perfect cocktail of hormones and hallucinogens.

And I don't know if anyone doesn't already know this, but the ending, knowing it's coming, still impactful. To quote George Costanza, "It was a helluva thing when Spock died."

Perhaps there's a bit too much foreshadowing (Snape and Dumbledore talking shop in the study) and the Half-Blood Prince revelation was botched and obvious; and we missed some opportunities for big moments: no white tomb, no wizard battle wherein Fenir fucks up Bill's face (and they teased the shit outta Fenir, it was like that Simpsons episode, "Marge, the little Chinese guy hasn't done anything yet, when he does you know it's gonna be good,") but I loved every bit of what we got.

Making book seven two movies is still a lame idea.

Now back to hip-hop....