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Just one more year to go. Understandably, there’s so much to do for young Mr Potter and his pals, now in their sixth year at Hogwarts. Before they enter their final year, they have to find ways to wind up their save-the-world mission by wiping out the Dark Lord and his devious ambition. Because, when the seventh year begins, it would be just do or die, with no time for deliberations, explorations, inventions.Film: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Drama) Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint Direction: DavYates

Hence, there is an overriding sense of urgency in the penultimate film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which moves at breakneck speed from the opening sequence itself. The spooky death-eaters rise from the hell beneath and surround the dimly-lit world, as Hogwarts prepares to open for a new term. Surprisingly, Harry doesn’t seem to be in a tearing hurry this time and prefers to spend some quality time in a coffee shop, getting harmlessly flirty with a saucy waitress while he reads a newspaper that anoints him as the Chosen One. But hey, Harry’s got no time for birds and bees, does he? So enter Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gammbon) and his homily on how the clock’s ticking, hopes dimming and Voldermort’s grinning, as he gets closer to victory.

The film literally flies off onto another plane after this brief tryst with levity. It’s a darker, brooding landscape that awaits Harry and his friends at Hogwarts as the times get more dangerous and desperate. Harry must befriend the new professor of potions, Horace Slughorn (Jim Boraodbent) and find out the secrets of his star ex-student, Tom Riddle who grew up to be Lord Voldermort, the wizard-gone-astray. Also, he must decipher the new book he has found: a diary of the Half-Blood Prince. Will Professor Slughorn lend Harry the bit of memory he has deliberately expunged and help him find the missing link in the Pensieve (remember Dumbledore’s magical memory bowl)? Now this is imperative, for Harry must learn about the Horcruxes — the objects where Voldermort has hidden his soul after splitting it — in order to end the Dark Lord’s gift of immortality.

It’s a treachorous journey which our young hero must embark, almost alone with old ally Dumbledore leading him through the sundry death-defying twists and turns in and around Hogwarts. It’s a journey which gets even more agonising, since his friends have other adolescent distractions that keep them busy this time. While Ron is busy fighting off love potions and falling for the campus hottie, Lavender Brown, Hermione is pining away with an unreciprocated ardour for Ron. Harry too is coming to terms with the adrenalin rush that hits him whenever he sees Ginny Weasely (Bonnie Wright), but knows he can’t give in to love and its mundane demands, when the world awaits deliverance, and the evil forces — Bellatrix, Malfoy, Snape (stillbadanvoldermort — are gaining ground. The film scores heavily in terms of its scintillating cinematography (Bruno Delbonnel), its edgy atmospherics and its straight-from-the-book histrionics. The actors truly live-out the characters, so meticulously created by JK Rowling. Of course, you do miss the menacing presence of Voldermort, who appears as a mere silhouette. But the roll call of evil is otherwise complete with pallid Draco Malfoy, mean and maddish Bellatrix (Helena Bonham Carter) and Parcel-tongued Snape (Alan Rickman) creating adequate havoc and providing a perfect build-up to the climactic Deathly Hallows. But the high point of the film are it’s fresh and juicy moments of adolescent madness, where our young wizards try to cope with the turbulence of normal teenage years. Almost poignant!

Voldermort’s coming….He’s taken control of the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts too. The final battle is about to begin and the only way Harry Potter and his friends, Hermione and Ron, can control his growing power — and his immortality — is by destroying the Horcruxes (magical artefacts) which hold his soul. Can they find them in time? Indeed a difficult task, specially since the death-eaters are on their way and Voldermort’s evil friends are hungry for Harry’s life.Spot the one big difference. Hogwart’s gone. Yes, the first part of the last HP film does have the dearly beloved trio — Harry, Hermione, Ron — testing their skills, but not in the fondly familiar environs of Hogwarts. The comfort zone’s gone and with it have vanished most of the familiar fraternity. Even Ginny Weasley gets to play a two-minute scene and so does Hagrid and Snape. Vile Voldermort isn’t there for too long too, although his evil threatens to explode any moment in a film that essentially sets the stage for the final battle between the boy wizard and the bad wizard.

Yup. Part one of The Deathly Hallows is largely a rumble before the deafening storm (Part 2) which opens in July next year. Till then, rest assured with arough ride in the English countryside — dangerous moors, marshes and unfriendly forests — as the trio go out on a mission impossible. They have to decipher strange clues and find the Horcruxes in order to destroy Voldermort’s shards of soul that lie hidden within them. Hence, the film mostly unfolds like one big adventurous camping trip that serves as a prelude to the final dhamaka.

No complaints really, other than the fact that the trip gets a little long-winded and the drama comes in fits and starts. Of course, there is a fire that rages across in the form of the surging hormone play between the pubescent protagonists. There’s Harry and Hermione who seem to be getting really close, although we know where their loyalties lie. But Ron seems to be burning with pangs of jealousy, harbours strange visions of the duo and even momentarily abandons his friends.

So who are the scene-stealers? Of course Harry is his usual bright self and displays a growing maturity as the anointed messiah of the apocalyptic world, but the film truly belongs to Hermione. She’s wise, warm, stable and nurturing and carries the mission forward with unflinching loyalty, despite the growing threat. And a special mention for Dobby, the free-spirit who can never forget a favour from his erstwhile master.

The Harry Potter series may be coming to an end, but it has inspired many of its fans to create their own art. Karin Westman, associate professor and expert on the Harry Potter series, has been studying the role of art in the books and how they have energized people to create art themselves.

Westman found the movie and book has inspired art which includes music, fan fiction, textile creation, artistic designs and costumed play. An example of such inspiration is a musical performed by a group of 40 actors, titled ‘The Final Battle’. It was written by Lena Gabrielle andMallory Vance, and it depicts the last battle at Hogwarts Castle in the seventh book. Another is Wizard rock, a musical genre created by Harry Potter fans that involves music and songs about different characters or events.

Currently there are more than 500 Wizard rock bands with names such as Harry and the Potters, The Whomping Willows and The Remus Lupins. Westman says many of these fans have taken a social justice response to Harry Potter, like the Harry Potter Alliance, which is a charity organization based on the principles of social justice and anti-prejudice that J.K. Rowling included in the books. The group’s current project is a Deathly Hallows campaign, which is dedicated to destroying seven real-world ‘Horcruxes’, such as starvation wages. What is interesting about these groups is that they value fan energy and interest in the series, and find ways to channel Rowling’s themes into activities and possibilities for the community,” Westman stated.

Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) sends out the Furious Fighters — Dragon Warriors Po (Jack Black), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Crane (David Cross) — on their second adventure. This time they must save the world, and China, from the evil domination plans of the albino peacock Lord Shen (Gary Oldman). But before they can do that, Po, the affable panda must find inner peace and come to terms with his troubled past.

Kung Fu Panda works not only because of his bumbling ways as a martial arts hero but also because he is such a bundle of doubts, misgivings and apprehensions. Yes, he’s hardly your archetypal superhero and therein lies his super charm.

The first film was a winner because it not only traced the birth of a hero, but also had the philosophical underpinnings of the most-reader friendly self-help book. How to grow from zero to hero: that was the sweet and stirring sub-text of the film that won young and adult hearts alike with the antics of an overweight, ungainly panda who could have spent the rest of his life peddling noodles, if he hadn’t mastered himself….

Well, Po is already a hero now, nevertheless, he has his moments of weakness and his frailties which still need to be overcome before he can teach his new enemy the lesson of his life. Po must come to terms with his strange parentage: how can a panda be the son of a goose; so what, if the goose (James Hong) is the best dad in the world…. Time for some flashback and the arrival of the cutest baby panda on screen who makes you go all gooey with his baby talk.

The action sequences of the film, shot in 3D, do form the highlight of it, but there’s no undermining the friendship-and family emotional sequences. Perhaps, the most touching sequences of the film are the show of affection between the noodle-hawking goose, Mr Ping and his adopted son Po and the spontaneous touch-feely tid-bits between heavy-stuff Tigress and all-butter Po.

the sequel ironically suffers a hangover from the record-busting first part which made a spectacular worldwide haul of over $450 million. While the first film won the world audience over with the most unusual situational gags ever witnessed in a recent comedy and had the funniest laugh lines coming from a bunch of oddball characters, part two relies more on action and mayhem to tickle your funny bone. There is too much of running helter-skelter in the sleazy downtown, with gangsters and drug dealers chasing the threesome (Stu, Alan, Phil). And there is too little of repartee and rip-roaring goof-ups to keep the grins on overdrive. End result? You barely manage a few luke-warm laughs here and there, although, rest assured, you do not get bored.

The wolfpack is still in fine fettle. Although they seem to have lost some of their spark. While Stu (Ed Helms) spends most of his time displaying bewilderment, Alan (Zach Galifianakis) oscillates between playing obnoxious and eccentric and is quite happy fondling a drug-peddling monkey. Phil (Bradley Cooper), the smart alec, has little smartness to display and is basically trying to figure out how the three of them ended up in a seedy Bangkok hotel with a monkey and a ringed finger which belongs to Stu’s teen brother-in-law. The plot follows a similar track-the-events-back style that was so effectively used in the first part. The search is primarily for Stu’s Stanford-genius brother-in-law who has disappeared after the wild beach party. There’s Paul Giamatti, Ken Jeong and Mike Tyson(yes, again) to spice up the fun quotient, but by and large, the film relies on low-brow humor (sexual miscapades, monkey with a penchant for genitals) to create merriment.