Harry Potter Month - Mini Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

So we come to the second adaptation of a JK Rowling Novel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. 

Interestingly this movie only had a $100m budget as opposed to the $125m for the first one, the film made $879m, an admirable performance but still below that of the first one.

Critical response was also positive, 83% on Rotten Tomatoes although only 63/100 on metacritic, the least of any Harry Potter Movie. But I’m not here to judge on other’s opinions, I’m here to give my own, so let’s dive in.

Whilst the first Harry Potter movie was an adventure of sorts, the second movie is more akin to a mystery, mysterious petrifications across the school. The Chamber of Secrets has been opened once again but who is responsible and how?

That’s pretty much the plot in a nut-shell  and you can tell it’s a bit dragged out in this one. Exposition is given in odd timings (why would you ask about the Chamber of Zecrets in a transformation lesson?) and the polyjuice potion segment is almost entirely skipable for example.

There are a few ways to deal with a mystery. The first is to give the audience the clues and see if they can draw a conclusion. The second is to give the audience all the answers and watch as the characters draw to that conclusion, the second is more frustrating from an audience perspective. This is often something that occurs with superhero stories wanting to introduce the villain.

This movie thankfully goes for the former. You can sometimes see that something wasn’t right with Ginny (her character doesn’t get nearly enough screen time in this but we do see Lucius slip the diary in with her books at the beginning) but the answers are not handed to you directly from those.

There is one other clue and I have to give Kudos to JK Rowling for working out an exact anagram of I am Lord Voldemort as Tom Marvolo Riddle. That is frankly incredible, if you worked that out, you might have guessed what was happening, especially in the flashback scene where Hagrid’s framing seems just a little too easy.

Some great performances from our cast of actors, Richard Harris once again deserves credit for what was his last time in the role before his unfortunate passing. Maggie Smith does a good job with she has to work with (she doesn’t have a massive role in this one) Jason Isaacs’ Lucius Malfoy is chilling and Julie Walters’ Molly was also very well done. Props also to our 3 main actors whose performances are much better than in the first movie. Also Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart was a great choice (even if not their first) as he captures the character from the book almost perfectly.

The set design is fantastic, and that’s a compliment I don’t really mention but it applies to all the Harry Potter movies.

As for the CGI, there are also some marked improvements over the first movie. The quidditch match in particular looked much better than the first one.  And the monsters all looked the part.

We do come across a number of plot conveniences. The car coming to rescue the boys, the fact that absolutely no-one saw the snake directly, Fawkes arriving at just the right time and its magical healing tears and old hat that can produce the sword. But hey, nitpicks for me, I very much enjoyed this movie, even at its substantial length.

Rating 87/100

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Images used in this review are from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use