Review of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) by Mrmoviebuff — 24 Aug 2016

'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' is a little longer and not quite as good as the first movie in terms of its pacing and tone, but it's still got the innocent, full-blooded adventures we come to expect, especially with our three young leads.

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is back at his home, and continues to be mistreated by his uncle, aunt and cousin. He comes across an innocent looking elf named Dobby (voiced by Toby Jones), who tells him that Harry cannot go back to Hogwarts school. After an incident occurs, Ron (Rupert Grint) rescues Harry from his cynical family and takes him back to his home where he is able to get back to the magical world of Diagon Alley and return to Hogwarts.

During his time back at the school, Harry has already met the new teacher named Professor Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh) who has this strange charm about him, but something suspicious lurks ahead. Harry also has met Draco's (Tom Felton) father, Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) who proves to be intimidating and a bit of a threat for Harry.

Hermione (Emma Watson) also returns to help Harry find the answers to questions he needs answered.

The movie mainly focuses on a mysterious secret that seems to be "The Chamber of Secrets", Harry, Ron and Hermione spend the entire movie trying to find out secrets that involve who killed a member of staff's cat, who wrote a message on the wall in blood and many other strange acts that lurk around in Hogwarts school.

Chris Columbus returns as the director, and he does, yet again, a masterful job at crafting some eerie atmospheres from Steve Kloves' screenplay adapted from the book by J.K. Rowling. The music by John Williams is magical and exciting, and fits the tone once again.

The one thing I failed to mention in my "Sorcerer's Stone" review are the members of staff all played by the likes of Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman. Snape, played by Rickman, is my favorite adult, member of staff character and performance. He has this strange enigma in him, and plays him very sneaky and almost very intimidating. Rickman has the right charisma and atmospheric nature for the character.

The movie, like I said, is a little longer and darker in tone... it also does drag a little bit more towards the second act of the movie when Harry discovers the diary of a young boy named Tom Riddle (Christian Coulson) and finds out more clues about the chamber. There is a lot of exposition and build-up in the first half of the movie, but the action is still dazzling and the pay-off is still satisfying.

All in all, "Chamber of Secrets" is good, enjoyable fun...