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Review: Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets
Most of the cast is back again for the sophomore film. If you liked them before, you'll like them again, even if the boys voices have started changing and everyone is a little taller than they were last november.
The most substantial new character this time around is Gilderoy Lockhart played over the top and on the money by Kenneth Branagh. Alan Rickman's Severus Snape is practically a bit part here, but Richard Harris's Dumbledore gets a lot of scenes.
The general plot is as follows: Harry Returns to Hogwarts for his second year of wizarding school. He keeps getting signals and warnings that there will be trouble, but he ignores them and goes right on in anyway (Wouldn't you if you had his home life?). Anyway, at school students keep turning up petrified and the legend of the Chamber of Secrets revealed. Beyond that there's a little quidditch, rivalry with the other houses, and a mystery needing solving.
Generic, yes. But it's solidly produced and entertaining. Course I'm right in line for next year because I think the next 2 books are superior to the first 2.
As for the FX, I think they're a bit better than last time around. Especially during the Quidditch matches. The first films game sequences looked bad. Everything looked CG. This time around things are much more convincing. They also tackled Dobby the house elf and did him as a full CG character. The rendering on Dobby is just beautiful. Any still shot from his scenes would convince you that they just filmed a house elf right on set. And the fabric moves really well. Unfortunately the motion is all off. His weight feels wrong. His interaction with the set seems like he's a muppet. Hopefully they can nail him down before Goblet of Fire when there are many house elf scenes.
Anyway, I think this film is weaker than the first one, but I think that mostly this is because the book really doesn't add as much to the larger story. It's a solid movie and it stands well on its own feet, but knowing the bigger things yet to come gets me drooling for the next one. I'm hoping that handing the series off to someone besides Chris Columbus will give it a shot in the arm.
Harry found an old envelope, and inside it reads
FIRST POST!
I'm not embarassed to admit that I'm 26 years old and a fan of Harry Potter.
That makes one of us.
I feel much better being a fan of JRR Tolkien.
Yeah, I like that South Park commercial that's out, where Cartman and them are acting out LotR, and they pass another group of kids.
Other kids: "We're playing Harry Potter!"
Cartman: "Hahahaha--Dorks!"
Even people who know what a "plus two" sword is can have people to look down on.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Yes.
A giant gaping plot hole.
That book three was the best book.
I'm 47 and I am a Potter fan.
I'm kind of amazed at what a huge hero Harry is turning into. I mean, he's twelve and he's killed a Basalisk - Conan the Barbarian hasn't killed a Basalisk....
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
Please tell me Natalie Portman is in this film!?
Damn, Taco, you're going to be in line next year, when the next movie isn't until 2004? That's loyalty, folks.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
Which segues into
this , nicely
From last nights SNL "Warner Brothers reported tuesday that an illegal copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was leaked on line before the movie premiers this weekend. In worse news, it seems a manuscript of the book has been available for the past 4 years."
I do have to agree with the reviewer. This movie/book is probably the weakest of the whole series. The movie to really look forward to is The Prisoner of Azkaban, book 3. It is my favorite book of the series so far and I think it starts to get to a nice level of darkness in the story. Additionally, Book 4 picks up on this darker aspect well, if not a slightly sillier story.
"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door." - Emily Dickinson
Is there anything on earth more tiresome than a so-called "pagan"?
If there is, please post some examples here.
Um, christians waking you up on weekends to foist bright smiles, pamphlets and a "holier than thou"-attitude on you? Calmly undressing in front of them tends to scare them off, though.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
I was traumatized when they shot Bambi's mother. I've never been the same since.
Kids, don't try driving your flying car at home.
Was I the only person who thought that the scene with Malfoy in the Quidditch match was like the Death Star trench scene in Star Wars?
I kept on expecting Dobby's voice to break in, saying "Harry Potter must use the Force, sir!"
Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
Would that be the baby-eating Bishop of Bath and Wells?
It's been rumoured that Christopher Lee will step into the late Richard Harris's shoes as Dumbledore in the third film, although he has emphatically denied this. I'd prefer Ian McKellan myself.
Exactly! Now who could really tell the difference between Dumbledore and Gandalf. Be honest, now...
Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
I can't wait for these to come out:
Harry Potter and the Affectionate Sailor
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Bone
Harry Potter and the Brown Accident
Harry Potter and the Small Dark Hole
Harry Potter and the Misplaced Gerbil
Yeah, I know, groan...
I'm looking forward to the next movie, "Harry Potter and the Mystery of the Training Bra".
Yes, shamelessly ripped from Mr. Cranky.
besides, making Saruman into Dumbledore is like making Mr. Smith into Elrond. Oh, they did that didn't they?
Elrond needs sunglasses.
catgirls and fairies
Huh? I'm sorry but that's just stuuuupid. First of all, there a whole ton of stuff in Tolkien about individuals overcoming their racial dispositions (Hobbits are sedentary; humans are greedy; dwarves hate elves, elves trust only elves, etc.)
Whatever. You could be forgiven for not realizing this if you didn't read the books.
What shocks me is that HARRY BUTTHOLE POTTER is somehow superior in this regard. I find it shocking exactly because this "determinism by birth" is my single biggest problem with Harry Potter. Basically, Harry Potter, on his own merits, is a below-average student that breaks whatever rules he pleases, and gets away with it, and everybody still wants to kiss his ass... why... because of his PARENTS. Just because he has some fancy-ass parents, Harry Potter is some sort of living legend. He did nothing to deserve this honor. Hermione, for example, is a much more talented and diligent student, but why does nobody bow befor her? Because she doesn't have the right parents. And all the while, the movies encourage us to think that this is all OK. That we should think that the sun sets in Harry Potter's ass. Why? What the fuck did he ever do on his own merits?
I can tell you, if I were at a school and one of my fellow students was automatically the pet of the whole faculty (especially the dictatorial director), and it was all because of who his parents were... well, I would kick his ass every single day and take his lunch money. Especially if I saw that I was a much better student while nobody noticed and kept talking about how "golden child" is like some fucking baby Jesus. Well, fuck that. I mean, some of us might even remember kids who were treated this way by your schoolteachers. Their glasses were "mysteriously" broken at least once a week. Because even children understand what justice demands! Well, except in Hogwarts, apparently. That really pissed me off. I wanted to like Harry Potter, but I found myself only feeling this burning sense of injustice about how he doesn't get his comeuppance. So I wanted to punch him, maybe give him a swift kick in the balls, just so he maintains his perspective amid all the "so this is The Famous Mr. Potter" swooning.
Alas, this is only in my fantasy, so consider this post to be my first work of Harry-Potter-Related Fan Fiction.
You know, we really need a moderation topic: "-1: just plain wrong"
dave