Harry Potter Half-Blood Prince Reviews

I recently had the opportunity to visit Universal & Islands of Adventure the other day and got to see first hand the progress of Harry Potter Wizarding World that is set to open in 2010.

I was also able to get a few photo’s and you can tell by them that it is going to be very big and very exciting. The downfall to all the construction going on right now is that the Dueling Dragons ride is a very busy area right now since that is the area of the new attraction.

There was a lot of people checking out the different sights that they could see to grab photo’s of the soon to be attraction.

You could really see the excitement in the true Die Hard Harry Potterfans who was looking thru every crevices to see the construction guys working on the attraction.

I have been going to Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure for many years and for years The Hulk and Spiderman have always been my favorite part, but I do believe that when this is finished, Harry Potterwill become my all time favorite and I am sure that it will become everybody else’s too.

Also I didn’t get any good shots but was also able to see how Rip Ride ‘n’ Rockit was doing and by the way it looks , this Roller Coaster is on track to open in the early spring just in time for the big rushes that come to Universal Studios every year during Spring Break and Easter.

Oxford graduate student Karen A. Brown has published a study on discrimination in J.K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ novels (See http://www.thelppc.com/featuredbook-prejudiceinharrypotter.html). While it has been widely acknowledged that Rowling’s work chronicles real-world social issues through some not-so-subtle subplots and allegories, so far, no one has dedicated an entire book to the subject. And Brown hastens to emphasize this feature in her blog, where she admits that she has been doing some “promotional work” for the new book. (See http://www.thelppc.com/karenbrown-blogg-prejudiceinharrypotter.html).

Ironically, this book’s release coincides with the latest controversy surrounding Rowling’s work, as HPLexicon.com founder Steve Vander Ark’s efforts to publish his own ‘Harry Potter Lexicon’ have been thwarted by Rowling’s lawyers. They claim that the Lexicon breeches their client’s copyright and infringes upon exclusive materials that Rowling intends to use in her own ‘Harry Potter Encyclopaedia.’

Since Brown has made it possible for readers to write to her, I contacted her to enquire how she felt about the Vander Ark controversy, and how it impacts upon her upcoming publication. She insists that ‘Prejudice in Harry Potter’s World’ does not in any way infringe upon Ms. Rowling’s copyright, and that all copyrighted materials (quotes and long citations) are properly referenced and kept to a minimum, as specified by the Christopher Little Literary Agency, to whom she wrote years ago to request permission to publish an essay entitled “Harry Potter and the Minorities Issue.”

“Lots of publishers turned me down,” Brown claims. “And it was not because of copyright concerns: Many other things have been written about Rowling’s work, none of them being given her authorization or approval. But I found it curious that most of the rejection letters I got clearly stated that my study was not marketable because no one was interested in reading about prejudice and racism. Some editors stressed that people who read Harry Potter are not interested in reading ‘about’ the books. So in the end I decided to publish the book myself, and mostly for me, because I strongly believe in the ideas put forth in it.”

All things considered, Ms. Brown appears to be quite passionate about this project, and seems to understand her own legal standing where Rowling’s work is concerned: “I did not create Harry Potter, obviously. I simply comment on how the books make reference to some of the social trends in our own world. Wizarding-world biases and social hierarchy share some shocking similarities with our own world. And I think we need to stop and take notice.”

Rowling herself has stated in various interviews that the series is a “prolonged argument for tolerance.” And it is at least encouraging that one of her readers has chosen to focus on this message.

For all the Harry Potter enthusiasts, who were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the latest sensational novel “ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” are more than happy to receive the novel that has hit the world wide markets on the July 21, 2007. J.K Rowling claims that this is the last and the final book in the Harry Potter’s series of Novels. Harry Potter mania seems to have fill all the book stores of UK and around the world with an air of fantasy, enigma and magic.

If you are one of the Harry Potter’s fan, who haven’t missed any book of the famous series and you are dying to flip on to the pages of the latest adventure, you could easily order one of your favourite books completely online. You might have heard of the various e book stores that could easily be found on the Internet. And you could get hold of one of such e- book stores with the help of a popular search engine. All you have to do is to find out the best buy and thus you can easily enjoy a home delivery of your favourite book that you could enjoy in the privacy of your houses.

While choosing on to the right kind of the online book store, there are several facts that you must keep in your mind in making your choice. Firstly, you must understand that online shopping is full of special offers and discounts that could be easily found on the world wide web. So, you can keep searching for such schemes till you find one. For instance, if you choose to buy this book from a particular cashback portal, then you can sought the benefit by claiming the cashback that follows your buy. Also, many book stores give you the facility of a free home delivery that saves much of your money. In this way, you are rightly be able to find the best bargain for your favourite book.

If you are interested, then you may visit any one of your comparison portals in order to find out the best bang for your money and thus select the deal from there. So, drown in the Harry Potter mania and get your copy of Harry Potter from an online book store today.

For Harry Potter fans, July 21 2007 will be a date to celebrate and rue in equal measure. The last instalment of JK Rowling’s spine-chilling Harry Potter series, called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will hit the shelves on this day and ultimately put an end to the phenomenon that has had the world gripped since Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone first debuted ten years ago.

The books, which follow the life of social outcast-come-legendary wizard Harry and his friends Ron and Hermione as they battle the evil forces of Lord Voldemort, has had children and adults of all ages enthralled – and the Deathly Hallows looks to be no exception. The title of the book was thrillingly revealed via a hangman puzzle on Rowling’s website on December 21 2006 and the author reportedly finished the book while staying in Edinburgh’s famous Balmoral Hotel – carving a concluding note on a marble bust in her room which reads: “JK Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room.”

But what can Harry Potter fans expect from this final tome in the Harry Potter series? As always, Rowling has remained tight-lipped, but has expressed deep satisfaction with the closing of the book. In an interview, she claimed:

“While each of the previous Potter books has strong claims on my affections, ‘Deathly Hallows’ is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series.”

Even the term ‘Deathly Hallows’ has caused consternation amongst many Potter-philes eager to shed some light on the book’s conclusion. While ‘hallow’ is generally used as a verb in the English language, Rowling uses it as a noun in her latest title – although it is still generally seen to have overtones of its original meaning – “to make holy or sacred”.

While it’s expected that readers will learn more about Harry’s family – in particular the relationship between Harry’s mother Lily and his aunt Petunia – it’s also likely that more will be revealed about other key characters, including Professor Snape; apparently a murderer but whose loyalties still remain in doubt, and Peter Pettigrew – a former friend of Harry’s father’s who carried out a terrible betrayal which is said to have cost Harry’s parents their lives.

But while the plot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows may confound critics and fans alike, it’s certain that the book will be one of the fastest selling of all time. In fact, so many people have decided to pre-order Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that major retailers – including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Border – are currently reporting that they’ve received more orders for the book than any other in history – a victory that’s sure to stand the series in good stead over the course of time, whatever the final verdict on its plot may be.

Yes Paris Hilton has been a victim of acne. One more thing to add to her bag of woe. Brad Pitt still has scars from his acne. The Harry Potter bunch had an outbreak during the filming of the last episode. Acne does not discriminate. It hits all ages, sizes, and colors. Acne does not care about your profession or social statis.

During times of high social interaction, such as proms, summer time beach parties, holiday seasons, also means high anxiety over appearance. That can trigger an outbreak of acne. Anxiety factors such as final exams, job interviews, and such can also cause acne outbreaks. In fact, the effects of acne go far beyond skin deep. It impacts a person’s self-esteem. Teens were most at risk, given the link between physical appearance and social acceptance amongst their peers.

Acne Kills!

Yes acne can kill. It can kill your social life. It can kill your confidence, your good looks, your chances for success.I remember as a young teenager I had acne, and no social life. I remember what it was like to be teased about having acne. One of the things that really hurt was when one of the older boys would say, the reason I had such bad acne was because I masturbated.

The sad part was I had no way to prove that what he said was not true. As a matter of fact I kinda believed him. Yes I like all the other teenage boys I did masturbate, and yes I had acne. So maybe there was a connection. To make things worse, no matter if it was true or not I was not going to give up masturbating.

As I got older and my acne subsided and eventually went away. That was when I found out that what I was told about acne was not true. Then in my early twenties it happened! An outbreak of acne. As I look back I can say it was not very bad, but to a young man just one pimple is one too many. That is when I began to study acne and it’s causes. There are a lot of products on the market, but I only know of one that really works using natural ingredients.

During my studies I have found out that teenagers are not the only ones that suffer from acne. There is adult acne, and even infantile or baby acne. Acne can strike anyone at any age. Because of the problems I encountered as a teenager I decided to create a blog to publish information that will be helpful to anyone suffering from acne.

My own personal preference is natural acne treatment, but I cover all kinds of acne treatments on my blog. Everyone is different and need different acne treatment. A very effective supplement in the treatment of acne is zinc. Yet there are some that may need laser treatment. But for most people there is a very simple inexpensive treatment for acne.

An 800 word prequel to the Harry Potter series, handwritten and signed by JK Rowling, sold for £25,000 tonight at a charity auction run by Waterstone’s to benefit English PEN and Dyslexia Action. The card was one of 13 original A5 storycards donated by world famous authors for the book chain’s What’s Your Story? Campaign, raising a total of £47,150 for the two charities.The auction was taken by Sotheby’s auctioneer Edward Rising and attracted a frenzied bidding. Other high bids from the evening included Tom Stoppard’s card which sold for £4,000.00, and Doris Lessing’s, which sold for £3,000.00.

JK Rowling commented: “I had great fun writing the card and I’m absolutely delighted that it has raised £25,000 for two such worthy causes.”JK Rowling’s story is set three years before Harry is born and features the characters Sirius Black and James Potter, Harry’s father. The story opens with a youthful Sirius and James cornered by two irate policemen at the end of a high-speed motorcycle chase. After a cheeky exchange with the policemen, the two teenage characters make their escape – using broomsticks, “drumsticks” and just a little bit of magic. The card finishes with the handwritten words – “From the prequel I am not working on – but that was fun!” and JK Rowling’s signature, dated May 2008.Gerry Johnson Managing Director, Waterstone’s said: “We never imagined when Waterstone’s started What’s Your Story? that we would end up with authors who have won the Booker, the Nobel Prize and so many other accolades, great storytellers one and all, including the writer of the bestselling books in history. We’re proud to have helped raise so much for two marvellous charities, both so important, especially in this National Year of Reading.”To meet the massive demand from fans to read these stories, Waterstone’s is already taking pre-orders for an exclusive limited edition What’s Your Story? postcard book published in early August, with all profits again going to the two charities. Also, from tomorrow, June 11th, all the stories will be available to read, at Waterstones.com and in Waterstone’s store windows. Waterstone’s National Press Officer Jon Howells said: “Waterstone’s is very grateful to all 13 authors for allowing us to host their stories online and in stores, as well as feature them in the postcard book, for which we’ve already taken several thousand pre-orders. It means that not only do the charities benefit, but the whole world will get to read these small, but perfectlyformed tales.”The full list of authors who donated to the What’s Your Story? auction is: Lisa Appignanesi, Margaret Atwood, Lauren Child, Sebastian Faulks, Richard Ford, Neil Gaiman, Nick Hornby, Doris Lessing, Michael Rosen, JK Rowling, Axel Scheffler, Tom Stoppard and Irvine Welsh.Proceeds from the auction and all profits from the postcard book sales will go to English PEN and Dyslexia Action. Lisa Appignanesi, President, English PEN says: ‘English PEN is deeply grateful to Waterstone’s and to all the writers who freely gave their words to create this wonderful storytelling event. The money raised here will go towards PEN’s work in freeing the words of writers around the world as well as promoting literature, which provides a bridge for greater understanding between people everywhere.’Shirley Cramer, Chief Executive Officer of Dyslexia Action, added: “We are extremely grateful to the wonderful storytellers and to Waterstone’s. The funds raised will help Dyslexia Action support many more children and adults to become readers.” Another highlight of the evening included Margaret Atwood joining the auction live from Paris to write her original storycard via her unique LongPen™ machine, which allows her to sign books remotely using a touch sensitive pad and a computer link-up to guide a robotic arm.Highlights of the auctioned storycards which will feature in the What’s Your Story?postcard book include:- Lisa Appignanesi – Appignanesi has delivered a clever, poignant tale of allconsuming love and the consequences of desire- Margaret Atwood – The Man Booker winner tells of marital strife in the Canute household – with explosive results- Lauren Child – Utilising all her skills as a writer and artist, Lauren Child’s rumination on everlasting bad hair days is typically creative and very funny- Sebastian Faulks – Desire and obsession lie at the heart of Faulks classically-inspired erotic tale- Richard Ford – A stranger’s selfless determination to do the right thing in the face of grief inspires another when they cross paths on a train, in Ford’s typically thoughtful study- Neil Gaiman – Gaiman is a master of short fiction, and this story is a great example of his work – spooky, scary and with a killer twist. A great detective mulls over a series of gruesome murders: is the killer on the loose in the woods, or somewhere closer to home…- Nick Hornby – Hornby calls on his love of pop-culture for this mixture of collage and text, introducing the newest, oddest superhero on the scene – Nightburner!- Doris Lessing – The Nobel laureate’s story is one that celebrates the power of reading and will tug at the heartstrings of any booklover- Michael Rosen – The Children’s laureate delivers an acerbic tale that shows that not only can’t you fight City Hall, you can’t outbid it either- JK Rowling – Rowling’s 800-word story reveals a unique prequel to the Harry Potter series. The card finishes with the handwritten words – “From the prequel I am not working on – but that was fun!” and the author’s signature, dated May 2008- Axel Scheffler – In four perfect frames, Scheffler tells a small, but perfectly formed, tale of the Gruffalo, with a brilliant punchline- Tom Stoppard – Nothing gets past Inspector Chamberlain in Tom Stoppard’s brilliantly theatrical short mystery- Irvine Welsh – This tale of a taciturn oil rig worker at odds with his lot is vintage Welsh and full of earthy language and humourwww.waterstones.com/whatsyourstory www.waterstones.com www.waterstoneswys.com

Late in June of 1997 in London a publishing company released what was to become a cultural phenomenon. The book’s author, a teacher, would go on to become a household name. Her journey took her from Gloucestershire, England, where she was born, through Exeter, a town in the south coast of England where she went to university, to a job as a research assistant for Amnesty International and on to teaching. Joanne Rowling’s lifelong dream was to be a writer…she succeeded.

Since the release of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (the title was edited to Sorcerer’s Stone in America because it was thought we wouldn’t associate magic and wizardry with the word Philosopher), the book now a series, has garnered world-wide attention, countless fans, numerous awards and accolades, drawing attention from film producers, video game makers and merchandisers.

The list of awards Rowling’s has received?

– 4 Whitaker Platinum Book Awards in 2001

– 3 Nestle Smarties Book Prizes in ‘97 and again in ‘99

– 2 Scottish Arts Council Book Awards

– the first ever Whitbread children’s book of the year award in ‘99

– and in 2006, the WHSmith book of the year

Oh, and her little friend, Harry Potter, who borrows his name from Rowling’s childhood neighbors, is a legend FROM her own mind.

Fans waited in long lines as the hours tick down to the official release date of each new book… many times at midnight! Special security measures had to be taken to ensure no books were sold before the actual date. Book store owners had to sign legal documents insuring they would not even open the boxes before then.

Numerous conventions, conferences and symposiums have sprung up all over the world. People couldn’t and apparently still can’t get enough of Harry and his clan. These gatherings feature speakers, book and film discussions, games and costumes. Just recently (May 2007)the was a conference in New Orleans – Phoenix Rising which ran from May 17th to the 21st.

From the site:

“The conference will examine the novels, the movies, and the extraordinary fan phenomenon during the day; then, attendees will revel with the beat of the Crescent City herself rising from ash and flame when evening advances.”

For those of you who might have missed it, don’t worry, there’s another schedules for August 7-11, 2008, in Chicago.

The impact on the publishing world was immense. So great was the clamor for each new book in the series that the New York Times was persuaded to reformat its best-seller list. Harry was taking up too many slots on the list. In 2002 just before the release of Goblet Of Fire the Times created a separate list for Harry Potter and the children’s book category.

The New York Times wasn’t alone. FedEx used 9,000 trucks whose sole purpose was to deliver the Goblet Of Fire to eager fans. Book retailers like Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Borders pre-sold books in spectacular amounts – 700,000 copies of Goblets Of Fire. Sales records were shattered with each new release.

In all the books alone have sold over 325 million copies worldwide. With the subsequent films, video games and merchandising that followed, Joanne, aka J. K. Rowling by her fans, is a billionaire.

In spite of her success, or maybe because of it, she and Harry have their critics. Right wing conservatives claim the premise of the series is designed to entice the younger generation over to the dark side by glorifying witchcraft. Personally, I think Bewitched already did that. But if you’re really that concerned that a work of pure fantasy will convince your child it’s ok to turn his 6th grade math teacher into the next slimy little spokesman for Geico, then learn calculus and help your child with his homework! On a side note – I have nothing against the Geico gecko, I think using cute little animals to sell insurance is brilliant.

For those of you dealing with separation anxiety over the departure of Harry and his gang, fear not! Although Rowling has decided to retire the teenaged wizard, she does plan to write an encyclopedia, an epilogue, which would detail some background information derived from the narrative, what happens after Deathly Hallows and reveals who will step into the Hogwart Headmaster’s position.

Q. I think that Harry Potter provides an excellent learning opportunity for my kids. How can I take advantage of his popularity to teach my children something?

A. You’re on the right track here I think. A Harry Potter quiz would be an outstanding vehicle to teach your children logic. You don’t necessarily have to focus on particular scenes from any of the books or movies, you can use a Harry Potter quiz as a foothold into a wider learning experience.

For example, you could devise a Harry Potter quiz that sets up a scenario where Harry Potter is faced with a problem that needs to be solved. He can use 1/3 magic, 1/3 math, and 1/3 logic to solve the problem.

For example: You could create a Harry Potter quiz question that says:

“Harry Potter is lost in the Forbidden Forrest. He has forgotten his magic wand and his spell book. All he has is his watch, a telescope, and one spell that lets him understand what animals are saying but doesn’t let them understand him. Help Harry Potter get back to Hogwarts.”

Let me just say that I’m not sure that this particular Harry potter quiz question can even be answered. It’s your job to write the quiz, I’m only here to give you ideas.

What you want to make sure is that you don’t just go for the easy answer and create a Harry Potter trivia quiz. That won’t do anything for your goal of creating a Harry Potter quiz that will teach your children something. Be creative and imaginative. The results of a well-crafted Harry Potter quiz will be magical if you do it right.

Are we there yet? Well, not quite. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the latest big-screen iteration of the global phenomenon, is merely the sixth chapter in a now eight-part series that, much like its young hero, played by Daniel Radcliffe, has begun to show signs of stress around the edges, a bit of fatigue, or maybe that’s just my gnawing impatience. Not that the director, David Yates, doesn’t keep things moving and flying and soaring, his cameras slashing through the gloom that has settled onto this epic endeavor like a damp, enveloping fog and at times threatened to snuff out its joy as terminally as a soul-sucking Dementor.

That any sense of play and pleasure remains amid all the doom and the dust, the poisonous potions and murderous sentiments, is partly a testament to the remarkable sturdiness of this movie franchise, which has transformed in subtle and obvious fashion, changing in tandem with the sprouting bodies and slowly evolving personalities of its young, now teenage characters. The series is now almost as old (it took off in 2001) as Harry was when he started his journey, which found the orphan whisked after his 11th birthday from a cramped, tragic nook to Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardry in a parallel world teeming with wondrous creatures, including an embarrassment of lavishly talented British screen actors.

Surgically adapted by Steve Kloves, who has written all the screenplays save for No. 5, “The Half-Blood Prince” was to be the penultimate film, the corollary to the J. K. Rowling book. Instead, the concluding volume, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” has been deemed hefty enough by Warner Brothers — 784 hardcover pages, 2.4 pounds shipping weight, a fight to the death — to be split into two movies that will hit in late 2010 and summer 2011. Considering that the take for Harry Potter and His Big Pot of Cinematic Gold now totals almost $4.5 billion in international box office, the studio’s reluctance to embrace the end is touchingly obvious.

But, seriously, could we just get on with it? For at least one committed follower of the series, who closed the last chapter on Harry soon after “The Deathly Hallows” was published in 2007, the lag time between the final books and the movies has drained much of the urgency from this screen adaptation, which, far more than any of the previous films, comes across as an afterthought. Mr. Yates, who directed the last movie, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which also arrived in summer 2007, does a fine job of keeping Ms. Rowling’s multiple parts in balanced play, nimbly shifting between the action and the adolescent soap operatics. Yet even with a surer directorial touch, he can’t keep the whole thing from feeling like filler.

Not that he doesn’t juice the material for all it’s worth, starting with some preliminary mayhem meant to signal that this isn’t your 10-year-old’s Harry Potter.

After a nod to the last movie’s big finish, with Harry bloodied but victorious, the new picture opens in London, where an office filled with nonmagical humans (Muggles, in Rowling-speak) are staring out the high-rise windows — as slack-jawed, presumably, as those filling theater seats — at sinister gray clouds surging in the sky. Suddenly three plumes of black smoke, Death Eaters in fast, fuming motion, cut through the moody overhead dome, race through the streets and wobble the pedestrian-only Millennium Bridge that slings across the Thames, snapping cables, fatally upending human bodies and further unnerving the wizardly world.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the story, well, there’s always Wikipedia. Although Mr. Kloves has done an admirable job tailoring Ms. Rowling’s progressively longer and baggier books, he or, perhaps more accurately, the series’s producers have not made many concessions for the uninitiated. If you have kept pace, you will grasp why Dumbledore (the invaluable Michael Gambon), the headmaster of Hogwarts, has placed so much trust in Harry, a callow student with prodigious wizard gifts and little discernable personality. The chosen one, Harry has been commissioned to destroy the too-little-seen evildoer Voldemort, a sluglike ghoul usually played by Ralph Fiennes (alas, seen only briefly this time out) and here played, in his early embodied form as Tom Riddle, by the excellent young actors Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Frank Dillane.

There must be a factory where the British mint their acting royalty: Hero, who plays the dark lord as a spectrally pale, creepy child of 11, is Ralph Fiennes’s nephew, and Frank is the son of the terrific actor Stephen Dillane (Thomas Jefferson in the HBO mini-series “John Adams”). The younger Mr. Dillane, who plays Voldemort at 16, conveys the seductiveness of evil with small, silky smiles he bestows like dangerous gifts on Jim Broadbent’s Horace Slughorn, a professor whose trembling jowls suggest a deeper tremulousness. When Slughorn, the fear almost visibly leaking from his body, shares the secret of immortality with Voldemort, you feel, much as when Ralph Fiennes raged through “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” in 2005, that something vital is at stake.

If that sense of exigency rarely materializes in “The Half-Blood Prince,” it’s partly because the series finale is both too close and too far away and partly because Mr. Radcliffe and his co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, as Harry’s friends Hermione and Ron, have grown up into three prettily manicured bores. Unlike the veterans, notably the sensational Alan Rickman, who invests his character, Prof. Severus Snape, with much-needed ambiguity, drawing each word out with exquisite luxury, bringing to mind a buzzard lazily pulling at entrails, Mr. Radcliffe in particular proves incapable of the most crucial cinematic magic. Namely the alchemical transformation of dialogue into something that feels like passion, something that feels real and true and makes you as wild for Harry as for all those enticingly dark forces.

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). The movie is more suggestively than overtly violent, though sometimes rather intense.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Opens on Wednesday nationwide.

Directed by David Yates; written by Steve Kloves, based on the book by J. K. Rowling; director of photography, Bruno Delbonnel; edited by Mark Day; music by Nicholas Hooper; production designer, Stuart Craig; visual effects supervisor, Tim Burke; make-up and creature effects design by Nick Dudman; produced by David Heyman and David Barron; released by Warner Brothers Pictures. Running time: 2 hours 33 minutes.

WITH: Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), Jim Broadbent (Professor Horace Slughorn), Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), Robbie Coltrane (Rubeus Hagrid), Michael Gambon (Prof. Albus Dumbledore), Alan Rickman (Prof. Severus Snape), Maggie Smith (Minerva McGonagall), Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown), Hero Fiennes Tiffin (Tom Riddle, age 11) and Frank Dillane (teenage Tom Riddle).

Correction: July 16, 2009

A picture caption on Wednesday with a film review of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” misstated the surname of the author of the Harry Potter books. She is J. K. Rowling, not Rowlings. The review also misstated the timing of Harry’s first trip to the Hogwarts School. It is after he turns 11, not on the eve of his 11th birthday.

Hackers are using the promise of a ‘Half-Blood Prince’ bootleg to lure fans and steal info.

Harry Potter’s latest cinematic adventure is already breaking box-office records, as the boy wizard encounters murder, betrayal and heartbreak at a theater near you. But a very different danger is plaguing his fans in cyberspace — where hackers are using the blockbuster to cast a spell on computers worldwide.

“It’s definitely the most targeted film that we’ve seen,” explained Michael Greene, VP of Product Strategy at PC Tools, whose virus fighters have been hard at work battling “Harry Potter hackers” over the last few weeks. “This is pretty scary stuff.”

Here’s how it works: These days, millions of people are searching the Web for info on “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which is certain to become the #1 film in the country. Knowing this, cybercriminals are using search optimization tactics to target popular sites like Digg.com with headlines like “Watch ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ online free!” and comment posts filled with related keywords to attract Google. Seeing professional-looking images from the film, Potter fans are convinced that the movie is one click away — but as they keep clicking, a virus is being installed on their computers.

“A couple of weeks ago I started to notice it; there was a Digg post about viewing the new ‘Harry Potter’ movie in advance,” Greene explained. “It tells you to download a video player — which is actually pretty common — if you watch a Flash movie or don’t have the right software. But in this case, you’re not getting a Flash plug-in or anything like that — what you’re getting is the malware of the day.

“At that point, your computer has been infected,” he added. “And even worse, you don’t get to see the ‘Harry Potter’ movie.”

The reason it’s particularly scary is that these virus downloads are brazenly creeping onto legitimate Web sites — and teasing a largely youth-oriented fanbase with the forbidden fruit of a free, legal download. “In the old days, people would go to gambling sites or pornography sites and get infected — the dark underbelly of the Internet,” Greene said of the new hackers. “Viruses and malware would just trash your computer, and you might lose some data. Nowadays, it’s a lot worse than that.”

The Potter virus is categorized as crimeware, which searches your computer for credit card or bank information, Greene said. “[The hackers] will collect credit card details, social security numbers. Then they’ll turn around and sell that to another group, a ‘carding operation’ they call it, and these guys will buy blank credit cards from a third group; they’ll put them together, print out the credit cards and then sell physical credit cards with your numbers on the street.”

The lesson, Greene explained, is a basic one: If you want to see “Half-Blood Prince,” pay 10 bucks and get yourself to a movie theater. And if you’re one of the many who’ve already attempted to download something too good to be true — get yourself a good antivirus program and begin cleaning up your computer, immediately.

“As long as there is money to be made, havoc to be created, there will be Voldemorts out there,” Greene joked, comparing the Harry Potter hackers to the boy wizard’s evil nemesis. “To keep Hogwarts running, we have to train the magicians to keep themselves safe.” Source