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HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS Send This Review to a Friend
What can be more futile than rendering a verdict on a "Harry Potter" movie? Legions of fans have been poised to see the new one no matter what anyone says about it. But here goes. It doesn’t take long for "Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets" to plunge into the fun promised by the franchise triggered by author J.K. Rowling's howling success. Director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Steve Kloves, abetted by the special effects geniuses, stamp the work with broad imagination and artistry.
The animated creature Dobby is a lively, comical elf, who inflicts self-punishment by bashing his head repeatedly against a wall. There's the flying car in which Harry (Daniel Radcliffe a mite older) and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grant) make it back to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry despite efforts to prevent them, and once back, trouble escalates. Flying high playing Quidditch gets another go, if overextended. There is an army of spiders. A tree gets furious. And so on. Imagination rules.
But about two-thirds or so into the film the plot shifts into action geared around battles of good-versus-evil with an emphasis on fighting an escapes and grappling over magic powers, and the film begins to seem like "Lord of the Rings" or a Harrison Ford adventure. Charm and humor give way to battles for survival and the story gets somewhat tedious despite the expertise evident on the screen. I began to look at my watch to see how far along we were in the extravaganza, which lasts two hours and 41 minutes.
I would think youngsters would begin to squirm, but must attest that there was little squirming among them at the screening I saw, and it was at night past many a bedtime.
The familiar characters are there, including delightful Emma Watson as Hermione, John Cleese as Nearly Headless Nick, Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid, Alan Rickman as Professor Snape, Fiona Shaw as Aunt Petunia Dursley and Richard Harris as Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. (It was good but sad to see Harris, who died only recently, in his last role after such an illustrious career.) One addition and a definite plus is Kenneth Branagh, who brings a fresh quality as the comically egotistical and pompous Gilderoy Lockhart,.
Many pleasures await the "Harry Potter" multitude. You know who you are, and those immune to the craze know who you are. A Warner Bros. release.
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