"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is not a bad movie, but it is far, far from being a good one. Running an obscene 2 1/2 hours, presenting a story which could have made a halfway decent half-hour episode of a half-assed TV series, this "Potter" has no focus, a comprehensive plot, any semblance of cohesion, purpose, meaning.

Given this view of David Yates' work (a director without much to his credit beyond the BBC Trollope miniseries "The Way We Live Now," and of "Potter" No. 5, but entrusted with both parts of the concluding "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"), how is it possible to say that it's "not a bad movie"?
The reason is great cinematography (by Bruno Delbonnel), excellent special effects, a sterling class, headed by such outstanding stars of the London stage as Michael Gambon (Dumbledore), Jim Broadbent (Prof. Slughorn), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape), Timothy Spall (Wormtail) - in addition to the fine "Potter" regulars: Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione), Rupert Grint (Ron Wesley), and some new characters. Helena Bonham Carter has her usual ridiculously overblown turn as Bellatrix Lestrange.

So, given all these assets, good things happen - for a few minutes here, a few lines there. At the beginning, the leisurely pace even creates an atmosphere of "literariness," creates hope for something intelligent. But pretty much everything goes up in smoke as an endless thread of side-stories, diversions, non-sequiturs use up two hours of the film.

Half soap, half sitcom, half "let's see how we can waste some more time," I had half a mind every 15 minutes to leave "Half-Blood Prince," and the fact that I stuck it out doesn't speak well of my judgment.

The central story - if you can find it - is trite and uninteresting. So much so that if I revealed the identity of mysterious prince in the title, it wouldn't make the least bit of difference.

The vast majority of the plot is described well by the unintentionally mind-numbing IMDB synopsis. Just try to follow this and imagine sitting through 153 minutes of it:

"Harry and his friends go through daily life, busy with school work, Quidditch (in which Harry has been made captain of the team), and, of course, romance. Ron has found a new girlfriend, Lavender Brown, a perky (if not obnoxious) Gryffindor student, and Hermione is not happy about it. Ron and Hermione's friendship takes a toll throughout the school year and Harry, as usual, is stuck in the middle. Harry, meanwhile, is facing a romantic dilemma of his own: he realizes he is falling for his best friend's sister, Ginny Weasley, who is unfortunately dating Harry's classmate, Dean Thomas. Harry's pining for Ginny and Ron's hilarious relationship with Lavender give this story a large dose of reality."

A large dose of *whose* reality?!