The climactic set piece in which Harry and Dumbledore delve deep into an enchanted cave in search of a secret treasure, might all too easily be part of the footage for a video game and produced a lack of visceral, as opposed to purely visual, thrills. Yates, who has clearly worked hard to tell a good story, allows himself to get caught up in the special effects and at this crucial moment leaves his dramatic sensibility behind. Having dawdled over the romance, he has to rush through the heroics, giving this highly elaborate set piece a rather cursory and unsatisfactory quality.
For all its faults and unevenness, Half-Blood Prince is good to look at, but Yates is clearly putting the pieces in place for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, which is scheduled for release in two parts next year and in 2011. At the end of two and a half hours, one has the feeling of having sat through an extended introduction to the main event, not altogether a satisfactory way to leave the cinema.
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