Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts. Harry finds himself more and more drawn to Ginny, but so is Dean Thomas. And Lavender Brown has decided that Ron is the one for her, only she hadn’t counted on Romilda Vane’s chocolates! And then there’s Hermione, simpering with jealously but determined not to show her feelings. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.”

What to Expect: I don’t know why I’m bothering to write a preview and do my usual analysis of this film’s development, crew, cast and financial prospects. I should just say “It’s Harry Potter.” Full stop. What more do you need to know?

A blogger commenting on the posters and the trailer for this film said “Forget taglines. They should just say ‘By now you’re either with us or you’re not.’” He has a point. Most people have seen a couple of the movies by now, and if you’re wondering about the sixth installment of the franchise, you should know what to expect by this time.

Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts. Harry finds himself more and more drawn to Ginny, but so is Dean Thomas. And Lavender Brown has decided that Ron is the one for her, only she hadn’t counted on Romilda Vane’s chocolates! And then there’s Hermione, simpering with jealously but determined not to show her feelings. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.”

What to Expect: I don’t know why I’m bothering to write a preview and do my usual analysis of this film’s development, crew, cast and financial prospects. I should just say “It’s Harry Potter.” Full stop. What more do you need to know?

A blogger commenting on the posters and the trailer for this film said “Forget taglines. They should just say ‘By now you’re either with us or you’re not.’” He has a point. Most people have seen a couple of the movies by now, and if you’re wondering about the sixth installment of the franchise, you should know what to expect by this time.

There’ll be some good-to-great special effects, some stuff won’t match up to the picture in your head from when you read the books, Dan Radcliffe won’t be any taller and you’ll be witness to a veritable parade of prestigious British stage and screen actors in what’s probably the smallest role they’ve had in the last thirty years. It’ll get above-average reviews, some critics will persist in being cantankerous about the whole fantasy genre, and people will go see it by the boatloads.

Or will they? Some of the number-crunchers are worried. See their worried little foreheads with the worried little furrows in them? Try and imagine it. They’re worried because, well…Pottermania is so last year. Or two years ago. The Potter craze is dying down without new books to fuel it. While the series will no doubt remain a mainstay of young-adult literature for decades or even centuries to come, and new readers will discover it every day, it isn’t quite at the fever-pitch of excitement it used to be. That torch has been passed (dubiously) to “Twilight” which is also over (so they say) but which has the virtue of being new and fresh, kinda. Potter in America is a phenomenom of ten years, which is already a hugely long lifespan for a craze of that kind, but nothing lasts forever. The fear is that with no new books coming out, and even the most die-hard Potterphiles finding new books to love, will anyone still care about Potter films?

Yes. The answer is yes. They will still care. Even if the tweens aren’t reading Potter anymore, they still remember with fondness the time when they were, and will want to see the film version of…okay, probably the least popular book in the series.

Which is another reason for the furrowed brows over in Accounting at Warner Bros. If you poll ten thousand Potter fans, I doubt you’ll find more than a handful who’d pick “Half-Blood Prince” as their favorite novel of the series. It’s light on action, high on angst and flashbacks, and deals a great deal with Harry and Dumbledore’s final journeys together as mentor and protege, journeys through Dumbledore’s memories of the young Tom Riddle, who would grow up to be the sinister and noseless Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). This is probably the least filmable of the Potter books, and therefore it’s the one that seems to have had the most things changed.