Harry Potter and friends return in 2002's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (review with link)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
If you have ever watched a film series based on a multivolume literary tale – like, say, The Lord of the Rings orTwilight – you’ve probably noticed that the first movie is the “expository” installment in which we are introduced to the characters, settings and situations of the story. Usually, these first movies are sometimes a bit long and leisurely paced so that we can get our bearings in their universe, especially if they take place in a fantasy Utopia with magical themes and otherworldly creatures.
Second films in continuing sagas, on the other hand, tend to flow better and with a firmer grasp on the story and characters because the introduction of characters and the setup of the overarching tale have all been dispensed with. The pacing of the story is usually brisker – even if the running time is not particularly short – and the writers, director, and actors can get on to the meat of the tale.
Such is the case with director Chris Columbus’ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second of eight films* based on the popular series of books by J.K. Rowling. Director Chris Columbus is back at its creative helm, backed by producer David Heyman, screenwriter Steve Kloves, production designer Stuart Craig, composer John Williams, and, naturally, actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Tom Fenton and Julie Walters reprise their roles from the first movie.
The story begins – as did Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – with Harry (Radcliffe) unhappily spending his summer with his terrible relatives, the Dursleys (Richard Griffiths, Fiona Shaw and Harry Melling). Though his uncle Vernon has upgraded Harry’s living quarters by allowing him to stay in an actual bedroom, the selfish, mean and ambitious Muggle (non-magic person) nevertheless treats his wife’s nephew shabbily; he orders Harry to stay in his room when company is expected and to “not make a sound.”
Uncle Vernon: And Dudley, you will be?
Dudley Dursley: I'll be waiting to open the door.
Uncle Vernon: Excellent. And you?
Harry: I'll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending that I don't exist.
For his part, Harry doesn’t want any aggravations with his dislikable Muggle relatives, but his efforts to stay out of trouble come to naught when Dobby (voiced by Toby Jones), a house elf, materializes in Harry’s bedroom and warns him not to return to Hogwarts.
To Harry, this warning is unacceptable and he refuses to accept Dobby’s message. The house-elf (which bears an unfortunate resemblance to Russian President/Prime Minister Vladimir Putin) tries to force Harry’s hand by using magic to ruin the Dursleys’ business-related dinner and making it look like Harry did it and promptly vanishing into thin air.
Furious, Vernon Dursley imprisons Harry in the bedroom, placing deadbolts on the door and barring the second-floor windows so the young wizard – who is forbidden to use magic outside of Hogwarts – can’t escape.
But the Dursleys don’t count on the ingenuity of Harry’s friend Ron (Grint) and his brothers Fred and George (James and Oliver Phelps); using a flying Ford Anglia car, the Weasleys liberate Harry and his owl Hedwig and head for the Weasley home out in the countryside.
After a somewhat dodgy trip (using Floo powder and ) to London and Diagon Alley, and resorting to the flying car because they missed the Hogwarts Express, Harry and Ron return to Hogwarts as second year pupils...barely avoiding being expelled for having landed in the Forbidden Forest.
Reunited with his friends Ron and Hermione Granger (Watson) and watched over – discreetly – by Professors Dumbledore (Harris) and McGonagall (Smith), Harry is soon at the center of another mystery involving dark magic, the rivalry between Hogwarts’ four “houses” – especially that between Gryffindor and Slytherin – and a dangerous section of the campus known as the Chamber of Secrets.
Hermione: It's a bit strange, isn't it?
Harry: Strange?
Hermione: You hear this voice, a voice only you can hear, and then Mrs. Norris turns up petrified? It's just... strange.
Harry: Do you think I should have told them? Dumbledore and the others, I mean.
Ron: Are you mad?
Hermione: No, Harry. Even in the wizarding world, hearing voices isn't a good sign.
Soon, ominous portents that something dark is afoot begin materializing: Harry hears a sinister voice in his ears that no one else can; Mr. Filch’s cat and several students are found petrified. A message – alluding to the return of the “heir of Slytherin” – appears written in blood in a corridor wall, and Harry discovers that he’s a Parselmouth (a wizard who can speak to snakes).
For more insights about this film, please read my review here
If you have ever watched a film series based on a multivolume literary tale – like, say, The Lord of the Rings orTwilight – you’ve probably noticed that the first movie is the “expository” installment in which we are introduced to the characters, settings and situations of the story. Usually, these first movies are sometimes a bit long and leisurely paced so that we can get our bearings in their universe, especially if they take place in a fantasy Utopia with magical themes and otherworldly creatures.
Second films in continuing sagas, on the other hand, tend to flow better and with a firmer grasp on the story and characters because the introduction of characters and the setup of the overarching tale have all been dispensed with. The pacing of the story is usually brisker – even if the running time is not particularly short – and the writers, director, and actors can get on to the meat of the tale.
Such is the case with director Chris Columbus’ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second of eight films* based on the popular series of books by J.K. Rowling. Director Chris Columbus is back at its creative helm, backed by producer David Heyman, screenwriter Steve Kloves, production designer Stuart Craig, composer John Williams, and, naturally, actors Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Tom Fenton and Julie Walters reprise their roles from the first movie.
The story begins – as did Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – with Harry (Radcliffe) unhappily spending his summer with his terrible relatives, the Dursleys (Richard Griffiths, Fiona Shaw and Harry Melling). Though his uncle Vernon has upgraded Harry’s living quarters by allowing him to stay in an actual bedroom, the selfish, mean and ambitious Muggle (non-magic person) nevertheless treats his wife’s nephew shabbily; he orders Harry to stay in his room when company is expected and to “not make a sound.”
Uncle Vernon: And Dudley, you will be?
Dudley Dursley: I'll be waiting to open the door.
Uncle Vernon: Excellent. And you?
Harry: I'll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending that I don't exist.
For his part, Harry doesn’t want any aggravations with his dislikable Muggle relatives, but his efforts to stay out of trouble come to naught when Dobby (voiced by Toby Jones), a house elf, materializes in Harry’s bedroom and warns him not to return to Hogwarts.
To Harry, this warning is unacceptable and he refuses to accept Dobby’s message. The house-elf (which bears an unfortunate resemblance to Russian President/Prime Minister Vladimir Putin) tries to force Harry’s hand by using magic to ruin the Dursleys’ business-related dinner and making it look like Harry did it and promptly vanishing into thin air.
Furious, Vernon Dursley imprisons Harry in the bedroom, placing deadbolts on the door and barring the second-floor windows so the young wizard – who is forbidden to use magic outside of Hogwarts – can’t escape.
But the Dursleys don’t count on the ingenuity of Harry’s friend Ron (Grint) and his brothers Fred and George (James and Oliver Phelps); using a flying Ford Anglia car, the Weasleys liberate Harry and his owl Hedwig and head for the Weasley home out in the countryside.
After a somewhat dodgy trip (using Floo powder and ) to London and Diagon Alley, and resorting to the flying car because they missed the Hogwarts Express, Harry and Ron return to Hogwarts as second year pupils...barely avoiding being expelled for having landed in the Forbidden Forest.
Reunited with his friends Ron and Hermione Granger (Watson) and watched over – discreetly – by Professors Dumbledore (Harris) and McGonagall (Smith), Harry is soon at the center of another mystery involving dark magic, the rivalry between Hogwarts’ four “houses” – especially that between Gryffindor and Slytherin – and a dangerous section of the campus known as the Chamber of Secrets.
Hermione: It's a bit strange, isn't it?
Harry: Strange?
Hermione: You hear this voice, a voice only you can hear, and then Mrs. Norris turns up petrified? It's just... strange.
Harry: Do you think I should have told them? Dumbledore and the others, I mean.
Ron: Are you mad?
Hermione: No, Harry. Even in the wizarding world, hearing voices isn't a good sign.
Soon, ominous portents that something dark is afoot begin materializing: Harry hears a sinister voice in his ears that no one else can; Mr. Filch’s cat and several students are found petrified. A message – alluding to the return of the “heir of Slytherin” – appears written in blood in a corridor wall, and Harry discovers that he’s a Parselmouth (a wizard who can speak to snakes).
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