Saturday, January 13, 2018

Movie review - "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (2002) ***1/2

The second Harry Potter film shows an increased confidence from everyone around - director Chris Columbus, the young actors. There are some excellent additions - Ken Branagh's show pony wizard and Jason Isaac's Malfoy are both terrific - and the old reliables remain, well, reliable: Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltraine, Alan Rickman, Richard Griffiths.

I wasn't a big fan of the perennially whining Dobby but I did like how he was liberated at the end - this was very touching. There's more sport, more monsters, good banter between the three leads, a decent mystery about who has opened the chamber of secrets, Ron's sister is ideal stakes. The kid who plays Tom Riddle wasn't very good - and I wish the film didn't go for so long, there were places it could have been cut, if only trimming dialogue.

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