Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth installment in the Harry Potter franchise and continues the build up of the inevitable final battle between good versus evil. Death Eaters have begun wrecking havoc all over the world to both Muggles, wizards, and witches alike. Hogwarts is no longer a safe haven, like it once was, and there is a feeling in the air that danger is lurking behind seemingly ever corner. Because of this, Professor Dumbledore is more intent than ever before on preparing students for the upcoming dangers, as well as personally training with Harry and attempting to discover the carefully hidden secrets of Tom Riddle. Meanwhile, great tragedy looms, and all of the characters truly begin growing up as they are presented with more and more challenges each and every day. 

 While the movie feels slightly grimmer and fairly darker than some of the other movies, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince manages to combine a brilliant beginning, a marvelous middle, and an absolutely Earth-shattering ending that is packed with a thrilling twist for the ages-it's that shocking-to create a cohesive, enticing tale that is able to create enormous amounts of intensity for both the entirety of the film and for the inevitable battles coming up. 

 As great as the plot and dialogue are, another intriguing aspect of the movie is the fact that there is more than a fair amount of Severus Snape, who happens to be one of the more interesting, complicated characters in the entire world of magic. Snape's motives are misleading and confusing throughout the entire movie, and his grim facial expressions and attitude pair perfectly with the tone of the movie. 

 Although parts of the movie feel slightly too slow at parts, things quickly speed up in an adventurous manner. Even though this movie is definitely not the best in the franchise, it is certainly still worth watching, and critics seem to agree. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a fairly decent 84%, and an outstanding 95% of Google users liked the movie, meaning audiences clearly seemed to enjoy it. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince feels bigger than the sum of its parts and combines a dark, grim tone with a mind-blowing ending, an important role for Severus Snape, and teenagers' issues to create an excellent choice for avid fans, actual teenagers, and just about anyone and everyone who's been following the Harry Potter franchise up until this point.