Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

As everyone probably knows this is the second story in the Harry Potter saga; and in terms of story The Chamber of Secrets turns out to be pretty good sequel. The themes are more mature, the conflict and the villain are darker and more dangerous than the last movie. And the actors are, surprise, surprise more grown up. Now that doesn’t automatically mean that this is a great movie, in fact in some ways it hurts it, but I’ll get to that in a bit. The story for those few people who haven’t read the books follows Harry’s second year at Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry. This year things are a little different. We skip over the glossy exposition, and sadly, the sense of wonderment that made the first film so charming and jump right into story. A secret room in the school has been discovered by some unknown psychopath who is systematically campaigning to destroy the school. Of course it’s up to Harry to put an end to the attacks on the student body. But however will he accomplish that when most of the school thinks he is the heir of Slytherin and the very monster they fear??? Why, with the hard work, good luck, and determined pluck of his courageous friends Ron and Hermione; that’s how.

The story is good, I know, I’ve read the book. But the movie doesn’t really convey the same sense of desperate struggle that give our heroes so much life. Really though, the biggest story problem that kept glaring at me throughout this film was the pacing. Everything felt rushed, I mean I think the best sequels don’t mess about too much with recapping, or what not, but this film had none. And it’s really not even just that, things just happened too quick overall. To put it another way there wasn’t time to catch your breath, but the story wasn’t such that I was holding my breath… This led to the pretty annoying quality that everything felt pushed rough shod into place.

Other than that quabble there really were some very nice story elements added to this chapter of the Potter saga. I really liked how the new characters were treated. The introductions of Lucious Malfoy, Harold Weasley, Corneleous Fudge, and of course Tom Riddle were all handled very well. The phoenix Faux and Ginny Weasley’s character were both really nicely used here. As with the last film the Quidditch scene was very cool. And even certain scenes that were rushed came off ok. Its just a pet peeve of mine when films don’t give plot the time to sink in that it deserves.

As with the last film, HP:COS looks very good. The art direction and set dec are spot on. The Chamber of Secrets itself was maybe a bit hokey, but hey, it is a kids film. I wasn’t overly impressed with the lighting all of the time. But it was obvious they were trying to create a mood. Maybe it isn’t the fault of the lighting that that tone didn’t really come off. It’s strange, and really inconsistent that sometimes we are shown things and others we are left in the dark, literally and figuratively. For example, after some really good effects where Harry has a conversation with Tom Riddle’s diary, we are taken to a weak, poorly lit flashback sequence that might serve the story well enough, but only bogs the tone down more. I guess at the end of the day I did like the look of this film, they worked out a lot of the potential problems in the first film and this as expected follows suit.

If there really is only major problem I had with this film, it was the acting. Now I’m not sure if I can blame this on anyone really. I mean these kids aren’t actors (ok, maybe they are learning) but for the most part they are just kids. Now I understand and approve of how they cast the first Harry Potter. They picked their actors well, and I still have faith that these young adults will get better as the films go on, but this movie in particular suffered a lot from their stumbles. I really remember now why production companies don’t hire actual teenagers to play teens. They’re balls of hormones, they’re lanky, growing at odd times, have cracking squeaky voices and generally speaking just don’t look comfortable in most anything they do. Ah yes, I now remember puberty well. These kids are completely out of sorts here, I mean they’re trying hard enough, but they just aren’t smooth enough. Art should only reflect life to that extent! We really don’t need to experience the awkwardness of being a teen again! I guess there wasn’t much they could do about this, and I know they all tried really hard; but the film did suffer.

The direction was decent, Columbus worked hard to give us something new, and I’m sure he worked as best he could with the actors. He handled the story pretty well and made some pretty interesting thematic choices with the look of this film as compared to the first one. I was fairly contented with the direction overall. Nothing ground breaking, but it was still strong.

The most pleasant surprise of the film was Jason Isaacs who played Lucious Malfoy; Draco’s father. He gave the character all the spiteful entertaining villainy I’d imagined with the character. In fact I was probably more impressed with the character after seeing this performance. Isaacs’ was slimy, and tasteless, and mean; just a perfect fit for the role. Great work, honestly I want to watch the film again just for scenes. Just excellent fun with this one.

Check this out if you get the chance, it’s a decent way to spend a few hours. Try to ignore the poor quality of acting by the stars and concentrate on the interesting plotline or the moody set dec.