Stroking the scales with a peculiar circular motion of his fingers, a motion which always carried the fingers back to their starting place, his voice sank still lower as he whispered dark names and grisly incantations forgotten the world over save in the grim hinterlands of dark Stygia, where monstrous shapes move in the dusk of the tombs. There was a movement in the air about him, such a swirl as is made in water when some creature rises to the surface. A nameless, freezing wind blew on him briefly, as if from an opened Door. Thoth felt a presence at his back, but he did not look about.
He kept his eyes fixed on the moonlit space of marble, on which a tenuous shadow hovered. As he continued his whispered incantations, this shadow grew in size and clarity, until it stood out distinct and horrific. Its outline was not unlike that of a gigantic baboon, but no such baboon ever walked the earth, not even in Stygia. Still Thoth did not look, but drawing from his girdle a sandal of his master—always carried in the dim hope that he might be able to put it to such use—he cast it behind him. Look into his eyes and blast his soul, before you tear out his throat!
Aye," in a blind burst of passion, "and all with him! Etched on the moonlit wall Thoth saw the horror lower its misshapen head and take the scent like some hideous hound. Then the grisly head was thrown back and the thing wheeled and was gone like a wind through the trees. The Stygian flung up his arms in maddened exultation, and his teeth and eyes gleamed in the moonlight. A soldier on guard without the walls yelled in startled horror as a great loping black shadow with flaming eyes cleared the wall and swept by him with a swirling rush of wind.
But it was gone so swiftly that the bewildered warrior was left wondering whether it had been a dream or a hallucination. When the world was young and men were weak, and the fiends of the night walked free, I strove with Set by fire and steel and the juice of the upas-tree; Now that I sleep in the mount's black heart, and the ages take their toll, Forget ye him who fought with the Snake to save the human soul?
Through swirling gray mists he heard a curious call, faint and far, and though he did not understand it, it seemed not within his power to ignore it. Sword in hand he went through the gray mist, as a man might walk through clouds, and the voice grew more distinct as he proceeded until he understood the word it spoke—it was his own name that was being called across the gulfs of Space or Time. Now the mists grew lighter and he saw that he was in a great dark corridor that seemed to be cut in solid black stone.
It was unlighted, but by some magic he could see plainly.
- Join Kobo & start eReading today!
- A Million Words And Counting: How Global English Is Rewriting The World.
- Account Options.
- Please Login!
- Interfacial Phenomena: Equilibrium and Dynamic Effects, Second Edition (Surfactant Science)?
The floor, ceiling and walls were highly polished and gleamed dull, and they were carved with the figures of ancient heroes and half-forgotten gods. He shuddered to see the vast shadowy outlines of the Nameless Old Ones, and he knew somehow that mortal feet had not traversed the corridor for centuries. He came upon a wide stair carved in the solid rock, and the sides of the shaft were adorned with esoteric symbols so ancient and horrific that King Conan's skin crawled. The steps were carven each with the abhorrent figure of the Old Serpent, Set, so that at each step he planted his heel on the head of the Snake, as it was intended from old times.
But he was none the less at ease for all that. But the voice called him on, and at last, in darkness that would have been impenetrable to his material eyes, he came into a strange crypt, and saw a vague white-bearded figure sitting on a tomb. Conan's hair rose up and he grasped his sword, but the figure spoke in sepulchral tones. I have marked you well, Conan of Cimmeria, and the stamp of mighty happenings and great deeds is upon you.
But dooms are loose in the land, against which your sword can not aid you. There are dark worlds barely guessed by man, wherein formless monsters stalk—fiends which may be drawn from the Outer Voids to take material shape and rend and devour at the bidding of evil magicians. There is a serpent in your house, oh king—an adder in your kingdom, come up from Stygia, with the dark wisdom of the shadows in his murky soul.
As a sleeping man dreams of the serpent which crawls near him, I have felt the foul presence of Set's neophyte. He is drunk with terrible power, and the blows he strikes at his enemy may well bring down the kingdom. I have called you to me, to give you a weapon against him and his hell-hound pack.
Gigantic happenings are forming in the web and the womb of Fate, and a blood-mad sorcerer shall not stand in the path of imperial destiny. Ages ago Set coiled about the world like a python about its prey. All my life, which was as the lives of three common men, I fought him. I drove him into the shadows of the mysterious south, but in dark Stygia men still worship him who to us is the arch-demon. As I fought Set, I fight his worshippers and his votaries and his acolytes. Hold out your sword. Wondering, Conan did so, and on the great blade, close to the heavy silver guard, the ancient traced with a bony finger a strange symbol that glowed like white fire in the shadows.
And on the instant crypt, tomb and ancient vanished, and Conan, bewildered, sprang from his couch in the great golden-domed chamber. And as he stood, bewildered at the strangeness of his dream, he realized that he was gripping his sword in his hand. And his hair prickled at the nape of his neck, for on the broad blade was carven a symbol — the outline of a phoenix.
And he remembered that on the tomb in the crypt he had seen what he had thought to be a similar figure, carven of stone. Now he wondered if it had been but a stone figure, and his skin crawled at the strangeness of it all. Then as he stood, a stealthy sound in the corridor outside brought him to life, and without stopping to investigate, he began to don his armor; again he was the barbarian, suspicious and alert as a gray wolf at bay.
What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie? I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky. The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing; Rush in and die, dogs—I was a man before I was a king. Their stealthy feet, bare or cased in soft leather, made no sound either on thick carpet or bare marble tile. The torches which stood in niches along the halls gleamed red on dagger, sword and keen-edged ax.
The Phoenix Prince
The officer of the night-guard has removed most of the sentries from these halls and made the rest drunk, but we must be careful, just the same. Here come the guard! They crowded back behind a cluster of carven pillars, and almost immediately ten giants in black armor swung by at a measured pace. Their faces showed doubt as they glanced at the officer who was leading them away from their post of duty. This officer was rather pale; as the guard passed the hiding-places of the conspirators, he was seen to wipe the sweat from his brow with a shaky hand.
He was young, and this betrayal of a king did not come easy to him. He mentally cursed the vainglorious extravagance which had put him in debt to the money-lenders and made him a pawn of scheming politicians. If they catch us killing him, we're undone—but few men will espouse the cause of a dead king. I hear the gathering of the vultures! They hurried down the corridor with reckless speed and stopped before a gilded door which bore the royal dragon symbol of Aquilonia.
The giant drew a deep breath and launched his mighty frame against the panels, which groaned and bent at the impact. Again he crouched and plunged. With a snapping of bolts and a rending crash of wood, the door splintered and burst inward. Conan faced them, not a naked man roused mazed and unarmed out of deep sleep to be butchered like a sheep, but a barbarian wide- awake and at bay, partly armored, and with his long sword in his hand.
True; there had been lack of time to don the heavy plumed casque, or to lace in place the side-plates of the cuirass, nor was there now time to snatch the great shield from the wall. Still, Conan was better protected than any of his foes except Volmana and Gromel, who were in full armor.
- Santa Claws Is Coming To Town.
- The Girl in the Red Bikini (An Erotic Short)?
- The Phoenix Prince (Royal Blood Book 1) - indie author ebook.
- Without Uncle Joe.
- Gedankenspiele: Kleine Gedichte (German Edition).
- The Phoenix Prince (Royal Blood Book 1).
- Simplify Your Life: Get Organized and Stay That Way!
- The Phoenix on the Sword;
The king glared, puzzled as to their identity. Ascalante he did not know; he could not see through the closed vizors of the armored conspirators, and Rinaldo had pulled his slouch cap down above his eyes. But there was no time for surmise. With a yell that rang to the roof, the killers flooded into the room, Gromel first.
He came like a charging bull, head down, sword low for the disembowelling thrust. Conan sprang to meet him, and all his tigerish strength went into the arm that swung the sword. In a whistling arc the great blade flashed through the air and crashed on the Bossonian's helmet. Blade and casque shivered together and Gromel rolled lifeless on the floor.
Conan bounded back, still gripping the broken hilt. A dagger point raked along his ribs between breastplate and backplate, a sword-edge flashed before his eyes. He flung aside the dagger-wielder with his left arm, and smashed his broken hilt like a cestus into the swordsman's temple.
The man's brains spattered in his face. The rogues drew back momentarily, as their leader seized several and thrust them toward the single door, and in that brief respite Conan leaped to the wall and tore therefrom an ancient battle-ax which, untouched by time, had hung there for half a century. With his back to the wall he faced the closing ring for a flashing instant, then leaped into the thick of them.
He was no defensive fighter; even in the teeth of overwhelming odds he always carried the war to the enemy. Any other man would have already died there, and Conan himself did not hope to survive, but he did ferociously wish to inflict as much damage as he could before he fell. His barbaric soul was ablaze, and the chants of old heroes were singing in his ears. As he sprang from the wall his ax dropped an outlaw with a severed shoulder, and the terrible back-hand return crushed the skull of another.
Swords whined venomously about him, but death passed him by breathless margins. The Cimmerian moved in, a blur of blinding speed. He was like a tiger among baboons as he leaped, side-stepped and spun, offering an ever-moving target, while his ax wove a shining wheel of death about him.
For a brief space the assassins crowded him fiercely, raining blows blindly and hampered by their own numbers; then they gave back suddenly — two corpses on the floor gave mute evidence of the king's fury, though Conan himself was bleeding from wounds on arm, neck and legs. Shall the despot live?
He rushed in, hacking madly, but Conan, recognizing him, shattered his sword with a short terrific chop and with a powerful push of his open hand sent him reeling to the floor. The king took Ascalante's point in his left arm, and the outlaw barely saved his life by ducking and springing backward from the swinging ax. Again the wolves swirled in and Conan's ax sang and crushed. A hairy rascal stooped beneath its stroke and dived at the king's legs, but after wrestling for a brief instant at what seemed a solid iron tower, glanced up in time to see the ax falling, but not in time to avoid it.
In the interim one of his comrades lifted a broadsword with both hands and hewed through the king's left shoulder-plate, wounding the shoulder beneath. In an instant Conan's cuirass was full of blood.
The Phoenix Prince by Kristen Gupton - FictionDB
Volmana, flinging the attackers right and left in his savage impatience, came plowing through and hacked murderously at Conan's unprotected head. The king ducked deeply and the sword shaved off a lock of his black hair as it whistled above him. Conan pivoted on his heel and struck in from the side. The ax crunched through the steel cuirass and Volmana crumpled with his whole left side caved in. Conan leaped back, lifting his ax. Conan delayed the blow he was loth to deliver, until it was too late. Only when he felt the bite of the steel in his unprotected side did he strike, in a frenzy of blind desperation.
Rinaldo dropped with his skull shattered, and Conan reeled back against the wall, blood spurting from between the fingers which gripped his wound. Conan put his back against the wall and lifted his ax. He stood like an image of the unconquerable primordial—legs braced far apart, head thrust forward, one hand clutching the wall for support, the other gripping the ax on high, with the great corded muscles standing out in iron ridges, and his features frozen in a death snarl of fury—his eyes blazing terribly through the mist of blood which veiled them.
The men faltered—wild, criminal and dissolute though they were, yet they came of a breed men called civilized, with a civilized background; here was the barbarian—the natural killer. They shrank back—the dying tiger could still deal death. Conan sensed their uncertainty and grinned mirthlessly and ferociously. Ascalante leaped like a wolf, halted almost in midair with incredible quickness and fell prostrate to avoid the death which was hissing toward him.
He frantically whirled his feet out of the way and rolled clear as Conan recovered from his missed blow and struck again. This time the ax sank inches deep into the polished floor close to Ascalante's revolving legs. Another misguided desperado chose this instant to charge, followed half-heartedly by his fellows. He intended killing Conan before the Cimmerian could wrench his ax from the floor, but his judgment was faulty.
The red ax lurched up and crashed down and a crimson caricature of a man catapulted back against the legs of the attackers. At that instant a fearful scream burst from the rogues at the door as a black misshapen shadow fell across the wall. All but Ascalante wheeled at that cry, and then, howling like dogs, they burst blindly through the door in a raving, blaspheming mob, and scattered through the corridors in screaming flight.
Ascalante did not look toward the door; he had eyes only for the wounded king.
He supposed that the noise of the fray had at last roused the palace, and that the loyal guards were upon him, though even in that moment it seemed strange that his hardened rogues should scream so terribly in their flight. Conan did not look toward the door because he was watching the outlaw with the burning eyes of a dying wolf. In this extremity Ascalante's cynical philosophy did not desert him.
But even as he began his charge, there was a strange rushing in the air and a heavy weight struck terrifically between his shoulders. He was dashed headlong and great talons sank agonizingly in his flesh. Writhing desperately beneath his attacker, he twisted his head about and stared into the face of Nightmare and lunacy. Upon him crouched a great black thing which he knew was born in no sane or human world.
Its slavering black fangs were near his throat and the glare of its yellow eyes shrivelled his limbs as a killing wind shrivels young corn. The hideousness of its face transcended mere bestiality. It might have been the face of an ancient, evil mummy, quickened with demoniac life. In those abhorrent features the outlaw's dilated eyes seemed to see, like a shadow in the madness that enveloped him, a faint and terrible resemblance to the slave Thoth-amon. Then Ascalante's cynical and all-sufficient philosophy deserted him, and with a ghastly cry he gave up the ghost before those slavering fangs touched him.
Conan, shaking the blood-drops from his eyes, stared frozen. At first he thought it was a great black hound which stood above Ascalante's distorted body; then as his sight cleared he saw that it was neither a hound nor a baboon. With a cry that was like an echo of Ascalante's death-shriek, he reeled away from the wall and met the leaping horror with a cast of his ax that had behind it all the desperate power of his electrified nerves. The flying weapon glanced singing from the slanting skull it should have crushed, and the king was hurled half-way across the chamber by the impact of the giant body.
The slavering jaws closed on the arm Conan flung up to guard his throat, but the monster made no effort to secure a death-grip. Over his mangled arm it glared fiendishly into the king's eyes, in which there began to be mirrored a likeness of the horror which stared from the dead eyes of Ascalante. Conan felt his soul shrivel and begin to be drawn out of his body, to drown in the yellow wells of cosmic horror which glimmered spectrally in the formless chaos that was growing about him and engulfing all life and sanity.
Those eyes grew and became gigantic, and in them the Cimmerian glimpsed the reality of all the abysmal and blasphemous horrors that lurk in the outer darkness of formless voids and nighted gulfs. He opened his bloody lips to shriek his hate and loathing, but only a dry rattle burst from his throat. But the horror that paralyzed and destroyed Ascalante roused in the Cimmerian a frenzied fury akin to madness.
With a volcanic wrench of his whole body he plunged backward, heedless of the agony of his torn arm, dragging the monster bodily with him. And his outflung hand struck something his dazed fighting-brain recognized as the hilt of his broken sword. Instinctively he gripped it and struck with all the power of nerve and thew, as a man stabs with a dagger. The broken blade sank deep and Conan's arm was released as the abhorrent mouth gaped as in agony.
Navigation menu
The king was hurled violently aside, and lifting himself on one hand he saw, as one mazed, the terrible convulsions of the monster from which thick blood was gushing through the great wound his broken blade had torn. And as he watched, its struggles ceased and it lay jerking spasmodically, staring upward with its grisly dead eyes. Conan blinked and shook the blood from his own eyes; it seemed to him that the thing was melting and disintegrating into a slimy unstable mass.
Then a medley of voices reached his ears, and the room was thronged with the finally roused people of the court—knights, peers, ladies, men-at- arms, councillors—all babbling and shouting and getting in one another's way. The Black Dragons were on hand, wild with rage, swearing and ruffling, with their hands on their hilts and foreign oaths in their teeth. Of the young officer of the door-guard nothing was seen, nor was he found then or later, though earnestly sought after.
He's like to bleed to death. Send for every leech of the court! Oh, my lord, what a black shame on the city! Are you entirely slain? They put a goblet to his bloody lips and he drank like a man half dead of thirst. They had stanched the flow of blood, and the innate vitality of the barbarian was asserting itself. What devil's work brought him up from his desert haunts? The others fell silent as they gazed at the dead outlaw. Blast your own gaze by looking at—" He stopped short, his mouth gaping, his finger pointing fruitlessly. Where the monster had died, only the bare floor met his eyes.
Conan heard and swore with barbaric oaths. It was like a cross between a Stygian mummy and a baboon. It came through the door, and Ascalante's rogues fled before it. It slew Ascalante, who was about to run me through. Then it came upon me and I slew it—how I know not, for my ax glanced from it as from a rack. But I think that the Sage Epemitreus had a hand in it—".
He called to me in my dreams, and I walked down a black stone corridor carved with old gods, to a stone stair on the steps of which were the outlines of Set, until I came to a crypt, and a tomb with a phoenix carved on it—". It is currently the 48th-highest-grossing film of all time worldwide unadjusted for inflation. The film received positive reviews, with praise for Yates's direction and the performances, cinematography, musical score, and "emotionally satisfying" story.
Lord Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the wizarding and Muggle worlds, kidnapping Ollivander from Diagon Alley and destroying the Millennium Bridge. The Malfoy family is disgraced when Lucius is apprehended and sent to Azkaban for his involvement with the Death Eaters.
Voldemort instead chooses Draco to carry out a secret mission at Hogwarts. Draco's mother Narcissa and aunt Bellatrix Lestrange seek help from Severus Snape , who claims to have been acting as a mole within the Order of the Phoenix all along. Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa to protect Draco and fulfill the assignment if he fails. Slughorn, who has been in hiding, agrees to return to teach at Hogwarts.
Harry is found and saved by Luna Lovegood. At Hogwarts, Harry and Ron borrow textbooks for Slughorn's Potions class, and Harry is stuck with a copy that turns out to be filled with helpful notes and spells left by the "Half-Blood Prince". Harry uses the book to excel in the class and impresses Slughorn, winning a Liquid Luck potion.
Ron becomes Keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and forms a romantic relationship with Lavender Brown , upsetting Hermione. Harry consoles Hermione and admits that he now has feelings for Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley. Harry spends the Christmas holidays with the Weasleys. His suspicions are dismissed, but Arthur Weasley later tells Harry privately that the Malfoys may have been interested in a Vanishing Cabinet. Bellatrix and Greyback attack and burn down the Burrow, drawing Harry into a battle. He saves Ginny before the Order arrive and fight off the Death Eaters.
At Hogwarts, Dumbledore reveals to Harry that Slughorn possesses a memory of Voldemort that Dumbledore desperately needs. He asks Harry to confront Slughorn and retrieve the real memory, after being given an altered version that made it appear as though Slughorn did not know anything. Harry is unable to convince Slughorn. After Ron accidentally ingests a love potion intended for Harry, Harry cures him with Slughorn's help. The trio celebrate with mead that Slughorn had intended to gift to Dumbledore.
The mead poisons Ron, and Harry is forced to save his life after Slughorn hesitates. Ron murmurs Hermione's name while recovering in the infirmary, causing Lavender to end their relationship. Harry confronts Draco about the mead and a cursed necklace, and the two duel. Harry uses a curse from the Half-Blood Prince's potion book to severely injure Malfoy, who is rescued and healed by Snape. Fearing the book may be filled with more Dark Magic , Ginny and Harry hide it in the Room of Requirement and share their first kiss. Harry decides to use his Liquid Luck potion to convince Slughorn to give up the memory Dumbledore needs.
Harry views the memory with Dumbledore and learns that Voldemort wanted information for creating Horcruxes , magical objects that could contain pieces of a wizard's soul and make them immortal. Dumbledore concludes that Voldemort successfully divided his soul into seven pieces by creating six Horcruxes, two of which have already been destroyed: Tom Riddle's diary by Harry and Marvolo Gaunt's ring by him. The two travel to a seaside cave where Harry aids Dumbledore in drinking a potion that hides another Horcrux, Slytherin's locket.
A weakened Dumbledore defends them from Inferi and apparates back to Hogwarts. Dumbledore instructs Harry to hide and not interfere under any circumstance. Draco arrives in the Astronomy Tower and disarms Dumbledore revealing that he has been chosen by Voldemort to kill the headmaster.
Snape arrives, and casts the killing curse on Dumbledore when Draco is unable to bring himself to do it, killing the Headmaster. He then overpowers Harry and reveals himself as the Half-Blood Prince before escaping. Harry returns to Hogwarts, where the students, staff, and a few guests mourn Dumbledore's death. He later reveals to Ron and Hermione that the locket Horcrux was a fake.
The locket contains a message from " R. Rather than returning for their final year at Hogwarts, the three decide to leave and track down the remaining Horcruxes. Before David Yates was officially chosen to direct the film, many directors had expressed an interest in taking the helm. When asked whether he would consider directing a later film, Gilliam said, "Warner Bros.
So they were really delighted with the material that they were seeing while we were in post-production, and the conversations happened before the movie was released, because I had to start pre-production on it while Order of the Phoenix was being promoted. It was just something they see in the work that they really liked, and responded to. Emma Watson considered not returning for the film, [20] but eventually decided that, "the pluses outweighed the minuses," and could not bear to see anyone else play Hermione.
Composer Nicholas Hooper returned from the last film; he included a reworking of John Williams 's " Hedwig's Theme ", which has recurred in all scores. Also maintained were costume designer Jany Temime, visual effects supervisor Tim Burke, creature and make-up effects designer Nick Dudman, and special effects supervisor John Richardson from the third film. Christian Coulson , who played the young Tom Riddle in Chamber of Secrets , expressed an interest in returning in the role for flashback sequences; [23] Yates responded that Coulson was too old, nearing 30, to be playing the role.
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street , previously noted that he had his "fingers crossed" he would be cast as a young Riddle. Thomas James Longley was the original choice to take on the role but Riddle was ultimately played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin as a child and Frank Dillane as a teenager. McCrory was originally cast as Bellatrix in Order of the Phoenix , but had to drop out due to pregnancy. Stuart Craig , the production designer of the first five films, stayed on to design all the sets in Half-Blood Prince.
Craig noted that the film used several CGI sets, noticeably the interior of the Cave where Harry and Dumbledore both go to hunt Horcruxes. The exterior of the cave scene was filmed at the Cliffs of Moher in the west of Ireland, the only location to be filmed outside of the United Kingdom throughout the film series. The interior of the cave is made up of geometric crystal formations.
Craig noted "Apart from the point at which Harry and Dumbledore first arrive and the island formation on which everything inside the cave happens, the set is entirely virtual, designed in the computer. We'd had our first totally virtual set on the last film, so we approached this one with a bit more confidence.
Before filming began, there was belief that filming might move from the UK, where all previous films were shot. The crew also scouted around Cape Wrath in Scotland, for use in the cave scene. Following a week of rehearsals, principal photography began on 24 September and ended on 17 May On the weekend of 6 October , the crew shot scenes involving the Hogwarts Express in the misty and dewy environment of Fort William , Scotland.
Due to cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel 's use of de-focussing and soft wipes in the digital grade, Warner Bros. Yates didn't want to lose the "very European look" of the film, but after retouching the picture, he said, "It's not what you wanted, but we're happy with it. One of the major challenges for Delbonnel was lighting the film. In an interview with the Academy, he said, "Some of the sets are there since the very first Potter. How could I light them in a different way? This question brought another one based on the series itself… I thought it would be interesting to have those very intimate stories amidst this very dark mood.
As if the school was a dark character. That's when I suggested to go for this again dark moody variations of greys. Fortunately David Yates, and the producers liked the idea. I thought it could be interesting and more dramatic if the light was floating, circling above the characters faces: Tim Burke and Tim Alexander were the visual effects supervisors for the film.
Tim Alexander said that completing the Inferi -attack scene took several months. He said, "It's certainly much bolder and scarier than we imagined that they'd ever go in a 'Potter' movie. Director David Yates was cautious of not making this into a zombie movie, so we were constantly trying to figure out how not to make these dead people coming up look like zombies. A lot of it came down to their movement — they don't move fast, but they don't move really slow or groan and moan. We ended up going with a very realistic style. About Dumbledore's ring of fire, he noted that the effect would look as if someone sprayed propane and then lit it.
He added, "We did a lot of research on molten volcanoes, which have a lot of heat going on but no actual flames, and collected a bunch of other references, including flares that burn underwater, and showed them to the Potter folks. Since the whole fire scene was very time consuming, computer graphics artist Chris Horvath spent eight months finding a faster way to conjure flames. Double Negative spent six months surveying and documenting the environment around the River Thames and Trafalgar Square to create the swooping views of the city.
Double Negative also contributed the Pensieve sequences, developing complex directed fluid simulations to realise the swirling world of memory and the past. The film's score was composed by Nicholas Hooper , who also composed the music for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The soundtrack was released on an Audio CD format on 14 July , a day before the film was released in cinemas. The album debuted at number twenty-nine on the Billboard chart, thus making it the highest-charting soundtrack among all the six movie soundtracks released.
While at the middle of the series in length, the film Half-Blood Prince did add or change events in the literary canon. The book begins with a scene involving the Muggle Prime Minister. Yates and his crew debated over this scene, as well as the character Rufus Scrimgeour , but gave up the beginning of the movie to events described but not seen in the book. The US theatrical trailer was released on 14 November.
Horn noted that the move was meant "to guarantee the studio a major summer blockbuster in ," with other films being delayed due to the —08 Writers Guild of America strike. The date change was met with a heavily negative reaction by Harry Potter fans, as the Los Angeles Times noted: Despite each being owned by Time Warner Inc. The sixth film was simultaneously released in regular cinemas and IMAX 3D everywhere but the United States, due to a conflicting agreement in which Transformers: Advance ticket sales on Fandango.
It is also in MovieTickets. Running minutes 2 hours 33 minutes and 19 seconds long, [] Half-Blood Prince is the third-longest film in the series, behind Chamber of Secrets minutes [] and Goblet of Fire minutes. Also included are deleted scenes comprising 8 scenes with a running length of 6 minutes and 31 seconds, [] and a sneak peek of the next Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 Worldwide DVD and Blu-ray sales of the film show that it is the fastest-selling film of On 14 June , an Ultimate Edition was released simultaneously with the Ultimate Edition of the Order of the Phoenix film on both Blu-ray and DVD, containing new bonus features, documentaries and collectables.
The film opened in 4, cinemas rising to 4, three weeks later, becoming the largest number of cinemas until The Twilight Saga: Revenge of the Fallen and The Twilight Saga: In the US, it surpassed all of its predecessors by a wide margin, achieving the sixth-largest-ever five-day opening in that country. Revenge of the Fallen. It is the fifth-highest-grossing film in the franchise, behind Philosopher's Stone , both parts of Deathly Hallows , and Order of the Phoenix. The website's critical consensus reads, "Dark, thrilling, and occasionally quite funny, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is also visually stunning and emotionally satisfying.
The first review of the film came three weeks before the official release. Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood. He commented, " Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a tour-de-force that combines style and substance, special effects and heart and most importantly great performances from all of the actors young and not-so-young". Andrew Pulver of The Guardian wrote a positive review, and gave the film 3. He praised Alan Rickman 's performance and he described Helena Bonham Carter as "mesmerising" and Jim Broadbent as a "grand eccentric old professor".
He adds, "Composer Nicholas Hooper, cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel and designer Stuart Craig deliver a singularly muscular and vigorous chapter". Chris Tilly of IGN UK commented on the length of the film, saying "while on occasion it drags, the minute run-time never feels too long, thanks in no small part to the astonishing visuals and largely marvellous performances," and goes on to say, "This is by far the best-looking of the Potter films thus far," commending the "beautiful" Quidditch match and the "stunning" finale.
David Stratton , of Margaret and David at the Movies , gave the film a 2. Margaret Pomeranz , the co-host of the television show, gave the film 3 out of 5 stars. At the time of its release, Rowling stated that Half-Blood Prince was her "favourite one" of the six film adaptations. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
David Heyman David Barron. Pictures [1] Heyday Films. List of Harry Potter cast members. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince soundtrack. Harry Potter portal Film portal. Retrieved July 24, British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 27 December Retrieved 5 May Retrieved 23 March The New York Times. Retrieved 6 August Daniel Radcliffe soaked by rain". Retrieved 19 July Retrieved 13 August Retrieved 26 April British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Archived from the original on 28 February Retrieved 4 May Archived from the original on 14 December Retrieved 18 November Retrieved 1 April Retrieved 16 October