Deeper, darker, more intense and definitely more soul-searching (literally) than the previous five Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will delight fans of this mystical series, confound any novice who hasn’t read one of the books about the students at the Hogwarts wizardry school or seen one of the movies, and frustrate anyone who expects a neat, wrap-up ending.

You should know that despite some of Half-Blood Prince’s lighter moments, it’s not going to be a simple triumph of good over evil story. And — horrors! — not all of the series’ most beloved characters will survive this outing into the complex world created by author J.K. Rowling.

The film follows the further saga of Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) as he tries to uncover the history of the evil Lord Voldemort and finally eke out his revenge, but then, like the matinee movie serials of the 1940s and ’50s, we find that the story is “to be continued” in the next film. And probably the next one after that; already in the works are two more Potter films, one to be released next year and the follow-up in 2011. (Important to put them into production quickly because the young cast is definitely showing its age.)

Like Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the upcoming films are to be directed by David Yates, who also did the previous film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Although that film was a box-office hit, Yates was criticized for its awkward bridging between the past and the future.

Half-Blood Prince keeps the focus on Harry’s quest to seek revenge on the evil Lord Voldemort, who killed his parents. Yet there’s also more than a nod to its now more grownup characters who are saddled with the same anxieties many teenagers feel.

As much as the film is about Harry’s journey, which leads him into dark and sometimes very creepy places, it is also about the first pangs of romance. Harry finds a tentative love interest, sort of, in Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright), sister of his best friend, Ron (Rupert Grint), who finds himself in the middle of a romantic triangle between longtime friend Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and the pretty Lavender Brown (Jessie Cave). In one of the film’s few moments of levity, Ron is slipped a love potion and goes gaga moony-eyed over thoughts of romance.

But the emphasis is really on adventure and action, often in dark terms. We get a taste of that in the film’s spectacular special effects-laden opening sequence in which we’re introduced to the dangers Harry will face ahead as a trio of Death Eaters arrive in black plumes of smoke to wreak havoc on London, including the destruction of the Millennium Bridge. Harry, himself, is oblivious to all this until his mentor Professor Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) arrives with a warning.

There’s an air of sinister foreboding that hangs over much of the rest of the film, as several characters plot to eliminate Harry. Some are apparent, such as his longtime nemesis Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) who this time attempts to prove his worth to the Dark Lord Voldemort by skulking around the shadowy corridors of Hogwarts, trying to uncover the secrets of the Vanishing Cabinet where not everything that goes into it survives. Chillingly cool, the danger flag is always up around Draco.

Other characters are not so black and white. Jim Broadbent plays Potions Professor Horace Slughorn as a jovial, good-hearted fellow straight out of Charles Dickens, who is eager to have Harry as one of his students, the “crown jewel” in his class. He’s as comfortable to be around as an old stuffed chair and, in fact, when first we meet him, Horace is masquerading as a plump chair. He wants to teach Harry a thing or two about creating magical potions. But there’s the uncomfortable fact that one of Slughorn’s previous top students, an orphan with powerful telekinetic and psychic abilities named Tom Riddle, went on to become Lord Voldemort himself. And Slughorn has his own dark secret to contend with.

Then there’s Alan Rickman’s mysterious Professor Severus Snape, who seems to be in thrall to the Dark Lord … or is he? He’s a menacing character to be sure, and yet Dumbledore seems to have faith in him. Or should he? One thing is certain: Snape has a sneering dislike for Harry and his powers, especially for the fact that Harry seems to have grown accustomed to people calling him “The Chosen One” for his remarkable wizardly abilities.

Harry’s discovery of a book of potions that once belonged to the “Half-Blood Prince” provides him with some of the arsenal he will need to combat the dark forces. In an especially imaginative sequence, Dumbledore takes Harry to a watery crystal cave where they will try to finally unearth the secrets of Voldemort’s seeming immortality, the wise Dumbledore risking his own life to help Harry gain his destiny.

The film’s cast has been together so long and been through so much that they’ve developed an easy comfort and shorthand with the audience. Fans of the series know their strengths and frailties and the young actors play these out to the hilt. Although Watson and Grint take secondary roles this time, with the emphasis squarely on Harry, they make the best of their fumbling attempts at romance, coming across as nervously awkward. Radcliffe again fits the role of Harry, which seems by this time tailor made (especially with writer Steve Kloves again adapting Rowling’s novel). He’s the forever questing character on a mission of self-discovery, one that will lead him to magical and often dangerous places.

**** Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham-Carter, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Jim Broadbent, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Bonnie Wright.

Rated: PG, contains violence, unsettling images, drugs.

mjanuson@projo.com