Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens July 15th, and early reviews are trickling in. At least one critic thinks the sixth 'Harry' installment is Oscar-worthy:

Variety:

"Suddenly looking all grown-up ... this 'Prince' is poised to be one of the year's two or three top earning films. Director David Yates displays noticeably increased confidence here, injecting more real-world grit into what began eight years ago as purest child’s fantasy; messenger owls and chattering house elves have been superseded by a frank Underground tea-room flirtation, school security checks and raging teenage hormones."

The Hollywood Reporter:

"An air of foreboding has most definitely settled over Hogwarts ... the rapidly approaching confrontation between Harry and the forces of unyielding evil led by Lord Voldemort tends to overshadow moments of comic relief or romantic escape. There seldom is a quiet moment of reflection here. Those that do occur are devoted to unfulfilled romantic yearnings more than the contemplation of an oppressive destiny.

But those romantic yearnings do offer up relief from the dark doings. Harry is growing closer to Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright), but a boyfriend stands in the way. Among his best friends, Hermoine's (Emma Watson) secret admiration of Ron (Rupert Grint) has developed to a full-blown crush. But Ron is too smothered by his romantic "stalker," one Lavender Brown (Jessie Cave), to notice.

Over on the dark side, Harry's longtime nemesis Draco Malfoy (perennially glowering Tom Felton) is acting strangely even by his standards. Charged with an unnamed task by the Dark Lord, he sneaks off to a lonely storeroom in Hogwarts castle to experiment with an ancient Vanishing Cabinet. The task so weighs on him, causing his smug veneer to all but melt away, that his mother intervenes and asks Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) to help her son."

Hollywood.com:

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a tour-de-force that combines style and substance, special effects and heart and most importantly great performances from all of the actors young and not-so-young. I was blown away like a Quidditch player on a supercharged broomstick. Not only that, halfway through, I’m thinking the unthinkable: “Ten academy awards nominations are available this year ... hmm, I wonder ...."

The Sun:

"Rather than giving us a series of computer-generated action sequences (yawn), Yates has gone for careful character development, building to a dramatic crescendo. And that is the biggest surprise of all - The Half-Blood Prince is masterful."

The Guardian UK:

Putatively winsome all this [romance] may be, but what it actually does is throw the series' biggest weakness into sharp relief: film-making can (and does) control pretty much everything – except how the cute juvenile leads grow up. Still, director David Yates knows how to play all the cards. Although a touch ungainly, his film is solidly constructed, with lots of fine effects. If, as Potter approaches his final confrontation with Voldemort, the wizardly battles begin to resemble Lord of the Rings, it's hardly a handicap; this is tried and tested cinematic language, and does all it needs.