He’s back; he’s better, and bigger than ever. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) returns to the silver screen in the second of what promises to be seven outings. Hermione (Emma Watson (II)), Ron (Rupert Grint), Dumbledore (Richard Harris) and the rest of the gang are back on the big screen in “”Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets”” the second book in wildly popular JK Rowling’s series of books about an abused boy who discovers he’s a Wizard.
Director, Christopher Columbus has assumed that everyone who walks into a theater to see “”Chamber of Secrets,”” has already seen last year’s wildly successful first film, or has read the books. It’s a fairly good assumption as the books have sold almost 100 million copies worldwide, and the first film is the second highest grossest film of all time. COS doesn’t mess around and forgoes any exposition or character development and jumps right into the meat of the plot. The movie opens with Harry a strange little creature named Dobby (an house-elf) warning him that danger awaits him if he attends Hogwarts for his second year. When faced with the possibility of going back to school and danger or being forced to remain a virtual prisoner in at his abusive Aunt and Uncle’s home, he obviously chooses to take his chances at Hogwarts. Dobby does everything in his power to try and keep Harry from attending Hogwarts, including ruining his muggle (non-magic folk) relatives dinner party, to blocking the barrier to platform 9 3/4. One of my main concerns with COS was how Dobby would come across on the big screen, he was easily the most annoying part of the book, and to compare him to Jar Jar Binks is certainly fair, fortunately on the big screen, Dobby looks amazing! The CGI work is brilliantly realized and you just sit there and marvel at how lifelike he truly seemed. Columbus also cut Dobby’s moments down to a tolerable level, he’s on the screen just long enough for you to marvel at the technical accomplishment, but not long enough for him to truly become irritating. Danielle Radcliffe’s acting, while improves as the film progresses, in the early Dobby scenes he was just laughably bad, and seemed to have a real problem with acting to a blue-screen.When the trio finally reaches Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizards, they find themselves facing a multitude of challenges, including a narcissistic, preening, primping, Defense of The Dark Arts Teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart played with great relish and joy by Kenneth Branagh. The scenes with Lockhart and Professor Snape (played by the great Alan Rickman), Rickman’s small facial expressions and ticks were truly classic.In addition to Lockhart, the trio faces a multi-layered mystery that focuses on a mysterious chamber and the monster contained within it; the chamber was built by one of the founders of Hogwarts. It seems one of the founders wanted to “”purify”” the school and rid it of “”mudbloods”” (wizards born to “”muggles””) and keep the school and magical training for “”purebloods.”” When the chamber is opened an unknown creature starts attacking all the muggle board wizards. The film’s dark tone and plot, and really some of the set designs, reminds you of the darker part of our history and the racial bigotry that’s exhibited in the real world, is also at the heart of the battle between the light and dark side in Harry Potter’s world. It’s pretty heady stuff for children to take in. Unfortunately the movie waters down the significance of this from the book. But the message is still pretty powerful on the screen, one of the changes from the book, that makes this crystal clear is when Hermione explains to Harry the significance and meaning of the word “”mudblood.”” Emily Watson brings passion and power to this one brief moment you can feel her pain and empathize with her. At times the film is so dark, that one would wonder why anyone would want to be part of this school or world.While the first Potter film’s slow pacing left a lot to be desired for some, COS goes in the opposite direction and goes into over drive, it doesn’t linger on any scene for more than five minutes, and there’s a major action sequence seemingly every ten minutes. The child leads really seem to be growing into their roles you can believe them as Harry, Ron, and Hermione. It seems like the three have really grown to be close friends off camera and their chemistry shines through on the screen. My only gripe would be with Grint’s facial expression when he was scared, at times seemed a little forced and too fake. Sure, I have my quibbles, and gripes, but the film moves at such a fast pace that it doesn’t give you time to dwell on things that you don’t like, and Columbus actually knew when to end scenes before they went long in the tooth, or you figured out how horrendous the acting was in certain spots. For instance, I thoroughly disliked the woman who played Mrs. Weasley (Julie Walters), I was disappointed in the way “”The Burrow”” looked, and the Flying Anglia didn’t do much for me. Thanks to the quick pacing of the film, these scenes were not on screen long enough for me to really dwell on how much I disliked them. John William’s musical score was just rehashed from last year, but it was actually toned down and blended in with the film. Unlike last year where they beat you over the head with musical cues, Columbus seemed a lot more sure about his direction, vision, and the material this time out to let the images tell the story and set the tone and not the music.I would be remiss if I did not mention the performance of Tom Felton who played the bullying, spoiled, “”neo-nazi like”” Draco Malfoy who everyone suspects as being responsible for opening the Chamber. Jason Isaacs as the positively evil Lucius Malfoy and the late Richard Harris as the kindly old school headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Harris truly was Dumbledore and he’ll be hard to replace.The movie’s pacing may be a problem for folks who haven’t read the books, as this one forgoes a lot of “”internal”” characterization and goes straight for the action and mystery elements of the book. There were several moments in this film where I said “”WOW!”” out loud; I LOVED Moaning Myrtle, the Whomping Willow, Aragog, The Spiders, Quidditch were all excellently done, and the floo powder at the beginning was amazingly cool!! Everything about COS is just bigger and better than the first film, and is probably the best purely exciting big budget popcorn flick of the year. The film’s 161 minutes just fly by and I only checked my watch once. It’s definitely one of the year’s MUST SEE flicks. Final Grade Areview by Michelle AlexandriaNovember 10, 2002