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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(November 2002)

The second book of the Harry potter series finds young wizard Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) facing new challenges during their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as they try to unravel the mysterious dark force that is terrorizing the school.

When going to see a Harry Potter movie I am away filled with a sense of dread as well as hope. As someone who has read all the books, multiple times, I can not help but to compare the movie to the books. This will inevitable lead to a disappointing first time viewing of the movie. The books are so imaginative and bring a flood of images to your head. That's where the problem lays, Chris Columbus has clearly tried to remain too true to the words of the book without giving thought to the imagery and feelings they inspire. He merely chops portions from the books and tries to spoon feed them to the audience line by line. In doing this he has produced a movie that is over two and a half hours long with surprisingly little character development or feeling of suspense. Luckily for us Chris Columbus will not be directing the next installment in the Harry Potter series. Cuar÷n, director of Y Tu Mama Tambien, will be taking on that task.

Over all the quality of the special effects and the flow of Chamber of Secrets has vastly improved from its predecessor, The Sorcerers Stone. However the movie does feel a little rushed in parts and does not allow for much character development. It is a shame to have such great actors as Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Richard Harris (Professor Dumbledore) and Alan Rickman (Professor Snape) milling about like extras in the background. New additions to the cast this time include: Kenneth Branagh, who did an outstanding job playing the egocentric Professor Gilderoy Lockhart and Jason Isaacs playing a truly evil Lucius Malfoy.

Rating: PG for scary moments, some creature violence and mild language.