Harry Potter stars get drenched

The stars of the latest Harry Potter film got caught in a downpour on Tuesday night as they arrived for the movie's world premiere in Leicester Square. Emma Watson, dressed in a fabulous vintage 1970s Ozzy Clarke dress with plunging neckline, managed to escape the worst of it, while her leading men, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, got soaked to the skin.

Regardless of the weather, 3,000 screaming fans lined the square to great the young stars and the older cameo brigade - Alan Rickman (back as Snape), Dame Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall) and Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid). They were joined by the author herself, JK Rowling, dressed in an Alberta Ferretti purple number, with gold heels.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which opens at cinemas next week, is the sixth in the franchise and said to be the darkest film of the series. Fans should be prepared for apocalyptic scenes as Voldermort and his followers (the Death Eaters) cast their evil spell on the muggle (human) world.

Nineteen-year-old Watson, who plays Hermione Grainger, told reporters she will be sad when the series finally comes to an end in 2011. "We'll all miss it, but I think you underestimate the longevity of the books and the series. I don't think it's going anywhere fast, I think new generations of children will keep reading the books and hopefully watching the films."

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT THE FILM
Andrew Pulver, the Guardian: "There's lots of blushing, stammering and smooching. Will Harry lock lips with Ginny? Is Ron smart enough to see that Hermione... Well, it's not Skins. Hands are kept above the waist at all times. Putatively winsome all this 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."

Wendy Ide, in the Times: "The climax - a quest undertaken by Harry and Professor Dumbledore - is genuinely scary; and the shattered heart of the school hall, demolished by a vengeful Bellatrix Lestrange (an excellent Helena Bonham Carter), is a shocking, chilling image."

Kirk Honeycutt, the Hollywood Reporter: “This film series always has been marked by a tension in its filmmakers over how to address an audience larger than novelist JK Rowling's readership. The early films feared to leave out a semi-colon. The middle two discarded chunks of bloat and sought out the emotions. The most recent two, under [David] Yates, have boiled and distilled with abandon, but the non-reader often is left puzzled. There seldom is a quiet moment of reflection here."

Ella Thorold, the Independent: "The acting of all three main characters has stepped up a level: still not great, but it's passable. They are, naturally, shown up by co-stars Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith and Jim Broadbent. Only one big name, Michael Gambon, disappoints; he doesn't quite capture the pure love of Albus Dumbledore - at times coming across as too harsh."