For those of you who are Potter fans, and have been eagerly awaiting the release of the second installment of the “Harry Potter” series, this movie is definitely worth a watch. “Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets” is packed with great visual effects, better acting, and is much more visually appealing than its predeccessor. It also, of course, comes with a brilliant storyline.
The adventure begins when Harry is mysteriously visited by a house elf called Dobby (voiced by Toby Jones), who warns him not to return to Hogwarts as there is danger awaiting Harry there. Dobby, who is desperate to “protect” Harry, has been the one who has been stopping all of Ron’s and Hermione’s letters from reaching him, in an attempt to making Harry beleive that his friends have forgotten him, and thus dissuade him from returning to Hogwarts. He frames Harry and causes the Dursleys to get mad at their nephew and bar him in his room, in order to imprison him and prevent him from returning to Hogwarts. Along comes Ron Weasley and his brothers, who rescue our troubled hero.
Harry faces a lot of trouble in getting to Hogwarts, including the mysterious barring of his entry to platform 9 and 3/4. He manages to make it in one piece, only to face new and terrible dangers at Hogwarts. Many of Hogwarts students are being attacked, and there are mysterious warnings and messages behind these attacks, claiming the re-opening of the mysterious Chamber of Secrets, which contains a monster created by Salazar Slytherin. It is now up to Harry and his friends to find out the who or what is behind these attacks, and why.
In my opinion, the movie flows quite well, with a good pace and some very exciting scenes. The director, Chris Columbus, who also directed the first Harry Potter movie, has done justice to the book, and some of the shots are visually spectacular. The characters are very well portrayed, and are just as you would have imagined them in the book, especially Hagrid and Harry himself. The production sets and environment created for this movie are magnificent, and Hogwarts is portrayed well. The Dark Forest, too, is very well depicted. The creatures, places and enchantments of J. K. Rowling’s fantasy world are brilliantly brought to life in this movie.
If you are a Potter fan, then this movie is definitely a must-see.
This article was first published on 30 Apr 2003.