Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: The Review

"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore...Born August 1881-Died June,1997"

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is a 2009 fantasy film.

Directed by: David Yates.

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, and Tom Felton.

This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince.

Year six at Hogwarts and it already seems like Harry won't be having an easy year either. Then again, when has he ever had a steady school year? After loosing a precious loved one in the previous film, his life has been filled with nothing but death, and being later proclaimed "The Chosen One". Dumbledore becomes more involved with Harry in this installment rather than just be on the sidelines and give an overall life lesson at the end of each film. For you see, this entry into the saga is the supposed explanatory story behind Voldemort's past and the development of Severus Snape. However, the movie doesn't do the plot justice with it's overall focus on relationships.

But the details to Voldemort's Resurrection and how he managed to survive the night he tried to kill young Potter emerge. Formed from the cloth of the blackest magic: a Horcrux. By killing another, the wielder's soul would split thus attaining the ability to hide that piece of life into his object of choice, making them practically immortal; unable to die should their original body perish, the Horcurx would serve as their return. if we remember correctly, Harry has already destroyed one back in The Chamber of Secrets.

I've always been fascinated on the kind of life Tom Riddle had lived. How his childhood might have been or how he ever met Hogwarts headmaster. By resurfacing the liquid memories and witness the first interaction between the light and the young darkness. We see a very young Tom, almost as young as Harry before he was chosen, only this version of Voldemort is haunted by his own demonic powers, he fears his unknown abilities. But even back then, no one knew he'd become the dark lord all would fear. And over the years, his lust for the Dark Arts increased and his lust for immortality.

However, the film takes a break in between Voldemort's past and focuses more on Ron and Hermionie's relationship and of course Harry and Ginny Weasley. While it serves to produce interesting and well performed character developments, they almost dragged on a little too much which nearly bored me to death when it was released. Guess that is why I lacked the enjoyment I had from the other five and that it wasn't my fault for have almost fallen asleep during the screening. I will say this, it was about bloody time those four got together, despite the immense amount of time it took for them to get there.

Draco Malfoy finally becomes a worthy antagonist at last. There's a reason why I haven't mentioned him in my reviews. Now he's been chosen to carry out the dark lords wishes without question. A side of Malfoy we've never thought possible becomes a reality. Again, fear makes it's way in the wizardly world where everyone is forced to do anything to survive. Tom Felton delivers a great performance and makes me forget all the insults his character dished out ion the past.

We reach the climax of the film ,where Harry and Dumbledore discover a Horcrux and nearly risking their lives to acquire it. The struggle that Harry had to face in order to complete the mission, fighting the pain his teacher underwent was the only scene worth seeing throughout the whole feature. And Snape revealing himself to be the Half-Blood Prince. And that tell's us what? It was just the name on text book and nothing more. Hopefully when I reach the time to read it, I can get more out of it than here.

The Actors:

Michael Gambon: Taking the final breath as Albus Dumbledore was great. He will be missed.

Tom Felton: A performance I enjoyed. About time his character shined, even if it was a dark light.

The ensemble trio have mastered their characters over the years so well they make it seem natural.

The Visuals:

Some scenes looked green to send the dark tone of the film, but then again, the book cover is green so, it fits I guess. The sequence on finding the necklace Horcrux was pitch black perfect.

The Bad:

The adaptation lacked what the other films had. They weren't boring and this one dragged to reach the moment we wanted to experience. The character development was great but too much on the kids and not enough on the villain.

Overall:

We say goodbye to a powerful wizard. The battle may be Voldemort's...but the war, will never be in his grasp.

Written by: Bawnian©-Dexeus.

Recession Seen Looming As Jobless Benefits End

The likely loss of unemployment benefits for 3.71 million Americans in a few months will only add to an economy edging ever closer to recession, according to analysis that puts the chances of another downturn at better than 1 in 3.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists say the ending of benefits for the so-called "99ers"—those who have exceeded their normal benefit allotment and are on an emergency compensation program through the end of the year—will slow the economy even further. The term comes from a previous extension to 99 weeks of eligibility for benefits.

When the long-term unemployed hit the same point several months ago, Congress stepped in with an extension. But that may not come now.

"We do not expect them to get extended," BofAML economist Joshua Dennerlein wrote in a note to clients. "This will act as a hit to income, hurting consumption growth in the first half of the year."

More importantly, this "hit" comes at a time when BofAML thinks the economy—already battered by rising unemployment and a Depression-level housing market—is very fragile. Another shock, the bank argues, could send it into recession .

Jeff Cox
Staff Writer
CNBC.com

In fact, chances of the U.S. economy entering another recession, the firm says, are now 35 percent, about double from a forecast it issued during the spring. Recession is often defined as two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product growth.

"It would take a modest worsening in financial conditions, falling oil prices and rising unemployment. None of these are extreme scenarios," economist Michelle Meyer writes in a separate note. "We argue that after a series of sucker punches earlier this year, the economy is only one shock away from falling into recession."

The good news is that the recession likely would be "mild since the economy already is very lean," specifically citing the 8.8 million jobs sliced during the previous recession and only 1.8 million rehires.

Ominously, though, a recession could trigger a number of unexpected events, with Meyer specifically citing "a muni crisis" where state and local governments, which have been cutting costs aggressively, would face more intense pressure from a new recession that could lead to bond defaults. This is in part the scenario put forth from banking analyst Meredith Whitney, who has been widely reviled for her forecast of a wave of muni defaults.

Meyer said her economic team's "baseline"—or most probable—forecast is no recession. But growth will remain slow and "still feel like a recession to many."

The forecast falls in line with others who believe a second full recession—rather than a double-dip—is on the way or in fact already here.

"It is evident that we will be going into another recession—I think at this point it's only a question of whether it has already begun—with the levels of output, employment and income all lower now than they were prior to the last contraction phase," Gluskin Sheff economist and strategist David Rosenberg said in a note.

Rosenberg said he has "pegged a U.S. recession as a virtual certainty" and warned investors to plan accordingly.

He recommends a mix of risk hedging—shorting low-quality and buying high-quality stocks —and using an income-equity distribution with low correlations to the stock market. He also backs high-yielding corporate debt from companies with solid balance sheet, gold and mining stocks, and commodities, particularly raw food and energy.

"The economy and risk assets typically hit a speed bump in a recession," he said. "That much is true, but investment ideas and opportunities within the market can still flourish even in a bear phase or a correction—cash should not have to be an option."

Investors were fleeing to safety during Thursday's market rout, pushing bond prices sharply higher and the stock market off more than 3 percent as talk spread of a looming recession. The Standard & Poor's 500 [.SPX  1198.50    -1.57  (-0.13%)   ] officially entered correction phase of a 10 percent decline from its recent high, although it recovered somewhat later in the day.

"Price declines of 5 percent or more aren't reason enough to signal recession, as there have been eight times as many of these as there have been recessions since WW II," Sam Stovall, chief equity strategist at S&P, said in a note. "But unrelenting price declines that are accompanied by weaker-than-expected GDP, ISM (manufacturing) and jobs data add to existing concerns."

Those concerns are manifesting themselves in portfolios, where a return to diversification and stock picking is likely to occur after more than two years of a highly correlated market where asset classes and individual stocks all moved in unison.

"Our advice in the last couple of months has been really pushing the notion of diversification and rebalancing which sounds like plain old vanilla advice," Liz Ann Sonders, chief strategist at Charles Schwab, said in an interview. "Correlations are starting to come down. There's more differentiation now."

Sonders said she too worries about the economy but believes the U.S. is more likely to muddle through than hit an actual recession.

"On our most optimistic day we didn't see anything close to robust growth," said Sonders, who in previous interviews had speculated a return to a "Goldilocks" economy where growth was not too fast or not too slow. "No matter how you slice it, it's not a robust picture."

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