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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe
Director: Chris Columbus
Genre: Adventure
Year: 2002
Rating: 4 / 5

Note: This review contains two differing opinions on one of the year's biggest films.

A Franchise on the Way Down

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is correctly billed as a film for adults and children alike. Its heroes are adolescents who must once again save their school from an evil presence, one which the faculty is ill-equipped to stop. Just as with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the original worldwide phenomenon, Chamber of Secrets is remarkably faithful to J.K. Rowling’s novel, right down to the irksome presence of Dobby the House Elf. (More on that later...) And, as was the case with the first film, Chamber of Secrets is magical and wondrous, not to mention long and, at times, laborious. It stands as an entertaining film that is merely a rather expensive – albeit inferior – facsimile of the novel itself.

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is due to return to school for his second year at Hogwart’s, although Dobby the House Elf has other plans. It seems that Dobby will do anything, right up to the point of taking a life, to prevent Harry from returning to school. Strangely, Dobby believes he is doing this for Harry’s own good, as he repeatedly warns of an unnamed danger at the school. It is not until Harry, with the help of good friend Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), arrives at Hogwart’s that he begins to grasp the nature of the warning. Someone has opened the Chamber of Secrets, leaving teachers and students scared and terribly worried.

Once again, as befits a school of magic, Hogwart’s is filled with impressive sights and sounds. From the fast-paced, dangerous game of Quidditch to the amusing tactics of new professor Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), there is never a dull day. Things turn anything but dull when a student is found petrified in the hallway one day. When mysterious goings-on, including the presence of giant spiders, begin to take hold of Hogwart’s, the teachers begin formulating plans to close down the school. Only with the help of his friends and some chatty apparitions can Harry Potter solve this mystery and unlock the Chamber of Secrets.

Director Chris Columbus returns for a second – and final – tour of duty in Chamber of Secrets, a noticeably darker offering. Columbus allows his child actors to carry the film without diminishing the weight of his talented core of screen veterans. Kenneth Branagh arrives to join noted thespians Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, and Alan Rickman, among others, offering a level of credibility absent in many family films. If the director – or the author, in this case – had stopped there, however, we would never have been exposed to the likes of Dobby, the most ill-begotten CGI creation since Jar Jar Binks. His scenes are grating and actually manage to grind the story to the halt, hampering an otherwise enjoyable tale. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets barrels onward, with five more films still to come – will they remain merely entertaining or will they rise above the ordinary?

A Franchise on the Way Up

Reviewed by Guest Scribe Legend

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets we see a marked improvement in many respects over the predecessor to this film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. For one, the three lead child actors appear much more comfortable on screen. They sound and appear slightly older as well while they turn the corner to adolescence, resulting in a film that feels a bit more grown up than Sorcerer’s Stone. The mystery in the film has a dark and compelling feel to it, building the necessary suspense for the film’s climax, which for some might take a bit long to reach given the movie’s duration. However, director Chris Columbus and his team have managed to capture the adventure, fantasy, humor, mystery, and suspense the story should rightly bring out.

There are chinks in the armor of this likeable film, however, as a bit of a plot hole opens up through the editing process. In sum, Chamber of Secrets is a book / film about racism in the world of wizards – some of wizard parentage (like the antagonizing Draco Malfoy) look down upon others born of Muggles (non-wizard folk, for the unschooled). Thus, there is an important connection between the list of victims which the film blithely and cavalierly glosses over. Why, for instance, is it important that the cat of the caretaker, Filch, was the first victim? Another minor character, Justin Finch-Fletchley, has no introduction whatsoever, and when his role becomes important, it fizzles from lack of explanation.

An extra plot thread suspiciously missing is the animosity shown to Harry Potter among the students as he is thrust into the spotlight as the prime suspect behind the attacks. Being unjustly ostracized by his peers would have driven the film more towards a suspenseful conclusion and shown another side to the lead character. On a personal note, I would have loved to see an identification of the beastly Millicent Bulstrode, a Slytherin rival of Hermione’s who she attempts to transform into via a shapechanging potion. While we are treated to a fantastic duel between Potter and Malfoy, it would have been priceless to see the Granger-Bulstrode duel where poor Hermione ends up in a headlock.

Pushing aside both minor oversights and the unfortunate lack of explanation in the main plot thread, there is tons to love about this film. The casting is for the most part dead-on, including fine performances by Kenneth Branagh as the narcissistic Professor Lockhart, and Jason Isaacs as the delightfully sinister Lucius Malfoy. The rest of the ensemble cast returns, of course, filling out the roster of the faculty and student body at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. (Not to belabor Justin Finch-Fletchley, but his character was also slighted in casting. Described as a likeable curly-haired blond boy, Justin appears here as a tall snooty boy with straight black hair.) Otherwise, the casting was excellent and the actors properly bring the aura of Hogwarts and the story to life.

Yes, there is an annoying CGI creation known as Dobby the house elf. However, he only appears in three scenes, and is not a major obstruction to the film. More importantly, Dobby’s character is supposed to be pathetic and annoying, unlike a certain Jar Jar Binks who is supposed to be charmingly likeable. Those who found Dobby unbearable may be altogether too terrified to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire if and when it is adapted to the silver screen. In what would be the fourth installment, the plight of house elves is an underlying story element and two house elves factor somewhat prominently into the plot. Good news: no house elves in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban expected out in 2004.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is definitely a film worth viewing for anyone who enjoyed Sorcerer’s Stone to even a marginal degree. It outstrips its predecessor in visual appearance as well as maturity of cast and story, though young children may find a downside in this as there are some scenes they might find scary. If the film simply tightened up some plot points and connected the dots a bit more with the storyline, Chamber of Secrets may have been just perfect. But while not perfect, it is still a great romp of a movie and successfully builds and improves upon its forerunner.

Cast:

Certification: Rated PG.
Running Time: 161 minutes.

Additional Info: Internet Movie Database
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