Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Well it's time for the second movie in this long running series. However, is there enough different here to make it worth your time or is it just another run of the mill sequel? Let's find out.
The film begins in a similar fashion to the first one with Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) being alone in a room, but this one's actually a room and not a closet under the stairs. He's supposed to stay in his room while some company comes over to see the Dursleys. However, this proves difficult when a house elf, named Dobby (Toby Jones) pays Harry a visit and makes a lot of noise. Dobby warns Harry that if he returns to Hogwarts, bad things will happen. Harry, of course, says that he must return because he can't stand being here. Dobby then finds a way to get the Dursleys to lock him up, which involves ruining the cake that they made for the guests. That night or the following, Harry is visited by his good friend, Ron (Rupert Grint), along with his brothers, Fred (James Phelps) and George (Oliver Phelps), who free Harry thanks to their magical flying car. The following day, Harry and the others go to Diagon Alley to purchase their school materials, but run into Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), a famous wizard that's having a book signing. After some more time, most of the family manage to make it to Platform 9 3/4, but Ron and Harry don't. So they steal the car, manage to make it to Hogwarts, serve punishment, and eventually learn about a mysterious chamber known as the Chamber of Secrets.
In a lot of ways, this film does what a sequel needs to do. It improves upon what was given before without making the characters do things that they wouldn't do in this world. The visuals are definitely improved in a lot of areas, especially the special effects with Dobby. We also get to meet some interesting new characters that will, hopefully, stay throughout the series. We meet Draco's father and learn more about, not only his family, but about this world in general. We also get to see some more mystical creatures that, while not completely original, are interesting in both design and how they work in this world. A new type of magic is even shown off, which is offensive magic. Basically, how to fight with spells, which either wasn't in the previous film, or was barely used since I have little to no recollection of it.
However, in a lot of other ways, this movie does the opposite of what a good sequel should do. The basic plot of the previous film is literally copy and pasted straight to this movie, the only difference are the details. It starts with Harry being trapped, getting rescued by someone, goes to school, learns about some mystical thing that no one knows exist except most likely some of the teachers and Dumbledore, Harry and friends find said mystical thing, and it turns out the same guy is behind it. It feels like this was another episode of a TV show rather than a movie just because of how lazy the basic plot was re-used from the previous film. Some of the new characters don't really serve any purpose either, especially Gilderoy Lockhart. He works as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, but by the end of the movie, he's gone. Even when he's supposed to help Harry and Ron in the final act, he does nothing but whine. There's some smaller things, like some terrible moments for the green screen and some things that I didn't quite understand, like the logic with the car being able to drive itself, but still allowing people to put it into danger.
So should you see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? Depends on what you want. If you wanted more of what we saw in the previous film, then you'll love this movie. If you want a brand new adventure that's nothing to do with the previous film, but still feels like it belongs in the Harry Potter universe, you'll be disappointed.
The film begins in a similar fashion to the first one with Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) being alone in a room, but this one's actually a room and not a closet under the stairs. He's supposed to stay in his room while some company comes over to see the Dursleys. However, this proves difficult when a house elf, named Dobby (Toby Jones) pays Harry a visit and makes a lot of noise. Dobby warns Harry that if he returns to Hogwarts, bad things will happen. Harry, of course, says that he must return because he can't stand being here. Dobby then finds a way to get the Dursleys to lock him up, which involves ruining the cake that they made for the guests. That night or the following, Harry is visited by his good friend, Ron (Rupert Grint), along with his brothers, Fred (James Phelps) and George (Oliver Phelps), who free Harry thanks to their magical flying car. The following day, Harry and the others go to Diagon Alley to purchase their school materials, but run into Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), a famous wizard that's having a book signing. After some more time, most of the family manage to make it to Platform 9 3/4, but Ron and Harry don't. So they steal the car, manage to make it to Hogwarts, serve punishment, and eventually learn about a mysterious chamber known as the Chamber of Secrets.
In a lot of ways, this film does what a sequel needs to do. It improves upon what was given before without making the characters do things that they wouldn't do in this world. The visuals are definitely improved in a lot of areas, especially the special effects with Dobby. We also get to meet some interesting new characters that will, hopefully, stay throughout the series. We meet Draco's father and learn more about, not only his family, but about this world in general. We also get to see some more mystical creatures that, while not completely original, are interesting in both design and how they work in this world. A new type of magic is even shown off, which is offensive magic. Basically, how to fight with spells, which either wasn't in the previous film, or was barely used since I have little to no recollection of it.
However, in a lot of other ways, this movie does the opposite of what a good sequel should do. The basic plot of the previous film is literally copy and pasted straight to this movie, the only difference are the details. It starts with Harry being trapped, getting rescued by someone, goes to school, learns about some mystical thing that no one knows exist except most likely some of the teachers and Dumbledore, Harry and friends find said mystical thing, and it turns out the same guy is behind it. It feels like this was another episode of a TV show rather than a movie just because of how lazy the basic plot was re-used from the previous film. Some of the new characters don't really serve any purpose either, especially Gilderoy Lockhart. He works as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, but by the end of the movie, he's gone. Even when he's supposed to help Harry and Ron in the final act, he does nothing but whine. There's some smaller things, like some terrible moments for the green screen and some things that I didn't quite understand, like the logic with the car being able to drive itself, but still allowing people to put it into danger.
So should you see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? Depends on what you want. If you wanted more of what we saw in the previous film, then you'll love this movie. If you want a brand new adventure that's nothing to do with the previous film, but still feels like it belongs in the Harry Potter universe, you'll be disappointed.