Continuing on from my review of the first movie yesterday, Jon Reviews: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (movie), Last night we watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and here are my thoughts. Like the first movie, I think this was, overall, a good movie and a successful adaptation of the book. And speaking of books, here is my standard pitch for my own books “The Shadow of the Past” and “And the Sun Burned Red”, available for purchase and rent on Amazon. Any purchases, comments, and reviews would be appreciated.
Things that worked for me in the film. The cast of the movie remains strong and I would say particular stand outs are Toby Jones’ Dobby, Robbie Coltrane’s Hagrid, Kenneth Branagh’s Lockhart, and Alan Rickman’s Snape. The film does a great job of building up the mystery and suspense of the events happening at the school. Daniel Radcliffe really seems to be coming into his own as an actor here and he does well in grounding and anchoring and bringing across what Harry is going through for much of the movie. Compared to the previous film, the movie seems to flow better. There are still a few standalone and seemingly unconnected scenes, but not having to establish the world as much they are able to get right down to the actual events of what is going on. I also thought the Tom Riddle memory/Horcrux was a great villain with a lot of menace. Finally, it is easy to see that the budget was likely quite a bit higher for this film, and overall the CGI is a lot more effective, particular for Dobby and the Basilisk, and there were some great practical effects at points as well.
Things that did not work for me. Outside of a few scenes and a few characters, this is very much focused on Harry and most of the other characters sort of fade into the background. Daniel Radcliffe (as I noted in the previous section) does great with this and really carries the movie, but all of the other characters that bring so much variety to the world fade into the background and just sort of seem to be there. Of particular note: this is the start of Ron going from Harry’s best friend and a capable person to just being comic relief, even Hermoine doesn’t do a lot here, the suspicion that Harry faces from both his own and other houses is completely absence and is a big part of the story, and other than one or two brief looks there is nothing of Ginny’s distress presented here so that her disappearance and being responsible lacks much of its punch. I remember loving Dobby when I was younger, but here the character does come across as somewhat annoying (although the voicework is excellent). There are still a few points (again, the Quidditch sequence) where the CGI has not aged the best to the point of being somewhat amusing.
As an adaptation of the book, I feel that overall this movie was quite successful. It captured the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets and its threat and Harry’s turmoil about his potential connection to Slytherin. It would have been nice to see more from Ginny and the other students, particular when they first start suspecting Harry, to really add more to the themes of the story, and the paranoia and accusations that occur when things like that happen. I feel that they could have cut out some of the pointless action sequences (Harry almost falling out of the flying car and the lengthy spider chase through the forest) and instead given some of the side characters more to do and showed their suspicion of Harry and the sense of fear at the school and would have made for a stronger movie with more of the cast participating.
One thing with the translation of book to screen is that, unlike the first movie which largely makes the Dursley’s comical, this movie presents their unspeakable cruelty and disregard for Harry. This is one of the things in this series that, as the series has aged, has become VERY problematic is the treatment of Harry by the Dursleys. This was not a hardship or a struggle for Harry to overcome, or a counterpoint for his wizarding life, this was out and out cruelty and barbaric treatment that should have landed the Dursley’s, and Dumbledore for insisting that they stay with them, in jail and the interactions are hard to watch or read about. By the same note, the attacks at the school, even though no one dies, are highly problematic as attacks on and in schools have become sadly and tragically common in recent decades, and closing down the school or doing more to protect the children being so delayed is also a problematic and troubling thing with this movie.
Overall, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a good movie and a successful translation of the book to screen. There are some things in the story that have not aged well (and probably should have been considered problematic from the beginning) and the supporting cast is not as well used as in the first film but much of this is made up for how well Daniel Radcliffe carries the movie and the whole thing being well plotted and paced with an effective villain.
I will sign off by once more encouraging anyone reading this to buy or rent my books!
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