Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2002

B+

I enjoyed the movie and the group of seven I was with (two neices, a nephew, their mom, and grandmother, and my girlfriend) all had a good time. The girls (aged 7 and 10) even said they weren’t too scared, though maybe us pounding them with the question will leave them more scared than they would have been otherwise. To me it was pretty scary with tons of giant spiders trying to kill and eat people and jumping out of nowhere. The giant snake (which everyone talks about so I don’t feel like I’m giving anything away) was so obviously fake that it wasn’t as scary though it was still pretty menacing.

It was good that in this movie they didn’t have to explain quite so many basics and we’ve already been introduced to most of the characters too, so there was less exposition. But still there was so much crammed in here that they just seem to skim the surface rather than get deep into character development. There is a lot here that has nothing to do with the plot and could have been left out without hurting the story and freeing up time to get into more detail. That’s not entirely the moviemakers’ fault: they are following the book to a T and the book throws all of this in there too (and skims just as much, often introducing something and having it play out in that chapter, which is about 5-10 minutes in the movie). Quidditch seems like a goofy sport and has nothing to do with the rest of the movie, just a way to show some gee-whiz effects. If they can fly around on brooms, why do they walk anywhere?

The acting is good, certainly better than last time when Harry’s primary job seemed to be staring wide-eyed at all the amazing things going on around him. My problem with the book and movie concerning the characters is that many of the grownups are so spiteful and shallow. Potter could have chosen to go to one of the trusted school elders, but instead puts himself and his friends in great danger trying to solve the mystery himself. Maybe that’s like complaining that all the person being pursued by the crooks needs to do is call a policeman or journalist . . . Anyway, the kid characters have depth and the movie really centers around them anyway. Good acting for such young performers, but that doesn’t mean great acting.

The effects are neat. One great thing about movies is it is getting hard to tell what is computer generated and what is “real". Dobby, the house elf (again, very obnoxious in the book and just the same here), was interesting to look at as a technical accomplishment alone. The phoenix looked fake, as did the snake, but the Hogwarts castle is very well done and I love those staircases that move. The pictures and paintings with people that move in them are a lot of fun.

There is so much packed in to this movie that it is almost guaranteed to entertain. You never have much time to get tired of anything. But you never have much time to really get drawn in either. But don’t give up on the series yet. With a new director coming on board and the third book being stronger than the first two, I expect some very good things next time.

B+

Owned on: Digital