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My niece is in her teens, she was born early in mine. She’s grown up with and around the world of Harry Potter and just like her, it’s been pretty crazy to watch the whole thing grow and evolve. The fifth movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the most mature movie of the series yet. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are upper classmen at Hogwarts now and they are dealing with more mature content than ever. As Voldemort gets closer and closer to retuning to power the wizarding world has to deal with the fear and trepidation of that fact. There are a few people daring enough to challenge him and they live with their lives in constant danger. That of course includes Mr. Potter. In this fifth movie, and the set-up to the two part conclusion of the series, Harry has to find a way to destroy Voldemort. He gets it done but not without sacrifices from him and others involved in the fight.

Overall this is the best movie in the series by far. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint have become seasoned actors and this is by far all of their best performances. The other characters, the role characters in the series including Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, Alan Rickman as Snape, Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, and Jim Broadbent as Slughorn also did an exceptional job. The acting from those role characters has always carried the movies but now that the main characters are more experienced they’re matched in every scene which is really interesting to see. The direction of David Yates has also breathed new life into the series, it’s even darker with this movie and some of the shots where he has to dive into bigger effects and larger scales are impressive.

The bonus features on the DVD include "J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life" which is probably one of the worst directed special features that I’ve ever seen if not totally useless for a few different pieces of information. "Close up with the Cast of Harry Potter" takes you on different areas of making the movie with different members of the cast. You also get a sneak peak with at the Universal Orlando Resort and a few short Q & A’s with members of the casts. The bonus features aren’t great but they’re serviceable including a quick sneak peak to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a good set-up the final two part movie of the franchise.  The DVD and Blu-Ray of the film is another good release. The acting is better than it’s ever been, David Yates upped his game in the direction department, and the bonus features- while not completely excellent- are not without their highlights. It’ll be interesting to see how the movie moves forward in its final two stages.