Funnily enough, Metacritic is way behind the curve this time around and doesn’t have many reviews up at all. Meanwhile, RT has too many. Either way, their “top critics” have given Harry Potter a unanimous 100%. As far as I can tell, though, these aren’t the kind of reviews that put the thing way over the top, as they seemed they might be going in. Kenneth Turan’s review is good, but as expected. And Manohla Dargis writes:
Are we there yet? Well, not quite. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the latest big-screen iteration of the global phenomenon, is merely the sixth chapter in a now eight-part series that, much like its young hero, played by Daniel Radcliffe, has begun to show signs of stress around the edges, a bit of fatigue, or maybe that’s just my gnawing impatience. Not that the director David Yates doesn’t keep things moving and flying and soaring, his cameras slashing through the gloom that has settled onto this epic endeavor like a damp, enveloping fog and at times threatened to snuff out its joy as terminally as a soul-sucking Dementor.
All around good reviews. But just good reviews.