The Adventures of Harry Potter during his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It looks like a secret vault within Hogwarts has been opened, and the monster within is after any wizard who has non-wizard parents. Harry has been warned he’s in danger, but many at the school suspect that he is the one behind all the trouble. Once again, it is up to Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson), with some help and hindrance from professors Dumbledore (Richard Harris), McGonagall (Maggie Smith), Snape (Alan Rickman), and Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), to uncover the answer and save the day.
The hard part about reviewing Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is finding something I didn’t say in my review of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, as these films are so much alike. Look at my earlier review and just project it all onto this film. For those of you who hate the thought of reading two reviews, I’ll recap. Like its predecessor, Chamber of Secrets is a beautiful film with a more than adequate cast. It has many exciting moments, presents an interesting mystery, paints engaging characters, and fills the screen with more than you could see in three viewings. It is also overly long, poorly paced, and has irrelevant scenes that are poorly integrated into the storyline. It starts too slowly and has five endings, which is at least three too many. For God’s sake, it isn’t that tricky: Once our hero has saved the day, have a brief scene wrapping up the loose ends and then end the picture.
So what has changed? Not a lot. More often than not the differences between the two films come from things being a little more than they were before. The child actors are more competent and the effects, though still overburdening the movie, are better. The monster from the Chamber of Secrets is a far cry from the poorly realized Centaur in Sorcerer’s Stone. And the plot contrivances are bigger than ever.
Harry and his friends have to deal with a great many problems in Chamber of Secrets, but most of them stem from everyone refusing to give even the slightest bit of vital information to anyone else. Hermione figures out what the monster is, but doesn’t mention it to anyone. Instead she writes it down in a note that can be found much later at a convenient moment. The truth about Hagrid’s background could have been ascertained in any number of simple, direct ways, but instead it is uncovered in the most convoluted fashion possible. There are also mind-numbingly stupid actions to create danger. Harry drops his wand (he doesn’t fumble it, but rather he just lets it go) upon finding an injured girl. Why does he drop it? If he doesn’t think he’ll need it, why not stick it in his pocket? Since he’s in the middle of a dangerous place, keeping it in hand would be smarter. But he drops it, merely because it creates a problem that wouldn’t otherwise exist.
Additionally, a great deal of time is wasted with accusations that Harry is guilty of one thing or another. We know he isn’t, and most of the characters should know he isn’t, so watching these moments is tiring.
The dei ex machinis (my best guess at the plural to deus ex machina) are too noticeable in this outing, although it is generally a problem with the Harry Potter series. Things just pop up right when our heroes need them. The worst example is a car that rescues Harry and Ron. Why it pops up is never explained. That’s lazy writing. And there are multiple moments like it, including the climax.
Two major strands exist merely to show off special effects. The giant spiders are excellent CG animations, and Dobby the House Elf isn’t bad, but neither have any reason to be in the film. A few minutes of re-writes could have dumped them both (and should have).
This is a lot of writing to say something very simple: No one should see Chamber of Secrets without having seen Sorcerer’s Stone first, and how you felt about that is how you will feel about this.
It is followed by the superior Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.