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Welcome Back, Potter

After an extended wait, everyone's favorite lightning-scarred boy wizard is back in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", the sixth installment in the projected eight-part adaptation of the seven-part book series. But the boy wizard is now a teen wizard and, as movie six suggests, he's quickly becoming a man.

In book/movie six, dark times are here indeed. Lord Voldemort's minions, the Death Eaters, are running wild, and the repercussions are felt even in the non-magical Muggle world. Wizened professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon, pitch-perfect again) and young Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) try to piece together the key to Voldemort's power via a trail of human memories collected in small vials and viewed via a "Pensieve" (sort of a liquid VCR for the home movies in your head). It all leads up to a climactic event which, though common knowledge by now, I'd have to be a Dark Lord to divulge here.

As usual, screenwriter Steve Kloves (he scripted all but the last film) has done a masterful job whittling down J.K. Rowling's increasingly intricate story (even Peter Jackson must be in awe) into a two-plus hour film. Of all of the Potter movies, "Prince" takes perhaps the most liberties with the original material. The number of flashbacks to Voldemort's past is severely cut. The film wisely concentrates on the present day and the growing relationships between the characters - particularly the varied love interests for Harry and his old pal Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint, becoming visibly more comfortable in his supporting role). Hormones are running rampant at Hogwarts; even without the love potions, it seems the kids can't keep their hands off each other.

Of course, this is a summer blockbuster, so action set pieces are thrown in to balance all the talking. Aside from an opening Dementor attack on downtown London, there's a heart-stopping sequence in a water-logged cave which is as beautiful, frightening and fully-realized as anything in the series so far. There are also a few exciting trips to the Quidditch pitch which winkingly emphasize the phallic nature of boy wizards riding broomsticks.

The actors continue to grow nicely into (and with) their roles. Mr. Radcliffe still carries the film, and he's supported admirably by all the old regulars. The addition of Jim Broadbent, in a playfully brilliant performance as Potions Professor Horace Slughorn, keeps this film fresh and fun. Just watching his many facial twitches is worth the price of admission. Also, the fiendishly clever casting of Hero Fiennes-Tiffin as the young Dark Lord (his uncle's Ralph Fiennes, Voldemort himself) adds extra creepiness to the flashbacks. The young actor shows promise.

Ms. Rowling's genius was that her books matured along with her characters, and with her audience. In a surprising bit of Hollywood wisdom, the movies are following the same pattern. Each Potter film, rather than relying on a proven formula, takes risks, amping up the fantasy or the darkness as needed. With "Prince", returning director David Yates has created what might be the most mature Potter film yet. It's also the one that will be most inaccessible to non-Potter fans. Not surprisingly, the further along a franchise goes the more backstory the audience needs to know. Since there is less of a central mystery in this one (the "Half-Blood Prince" question is almost a D-plot), the film relies heavily on the audience's understanding of the many characters and their history. Working confidently from that assumption, the "Prince" story leisurely drifts through its paces. Mr. Yates wields his camera like a wand, letting it swoop through walls and over the Hogwarts grounds. When magic happens, it is without the fanfare of the previous films, though there are still some beautiful moments of CGI wizardry, particularly those Pensieve sequences.

Splitting the seventh Potter book into two movies reeks of desperate franchise-padding. But fans of the series know there's a lot of story left to tell. With Mr. Yates and Mr. Kloves signed on to do the adapting, this is one movie series I won't mind seeing extended. So far, it's movie magic.