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Hairy Pot-smoker and the Stoned Sorcerer’s


Perhaps one of the most anticipated fantasy movies to come out this year, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which premiered out on November 15th, has run into a tumult of reviews, both good and bad. Most say that the movie outdid its predecessor, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. While The Sorcerer’s Stone had the advantage of being the first movie made of the hit trilogy, it had the tedious task of explaining the whole magical world that J. K. Rowling had created, meaning that it was missing a lot of action and intrigue that we might have been expecting. However, that meant that after the first movie, the stage was set to jump into the real core of the series; and that’s just what Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets did.

The movie starts out at the house of the Dursley’s, Harry’s rather maniacal relatives. Shortly thereafter, we encounter Dobby, the abused house-elf come to save Harry from the evil doings at Hogwarts. The computer animated (or partially puppet?) Dobby, which is wonderfully realistic, fails, however, to bring out the lovable yet eccentric character described in the books. His features (long nose, huge ears), are far from cute, and make him look more like an imp than a house-elf. The computer animators do a far better job with the Whomping Willow, which Ron and Harry encounter upon their return to Hogwarts. The violent tree does a great job at nearly killing Ron and Harry, and is sufficiently scary enough to make young audiences fear for the two boy’s lives.

After Harry and Ron have reached Hogwarts, we are treated to several great performances by Alan Rickman, who plays the evil, Potter hating Potions teacher, and Maggie Smith, the stern transfiguration teacher. The plot also gets a little more dangerous, with a monster on the loose that is petrifying students right and left. Also in the movie is a daring duel between Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter. But the best scene is at the very end, where Harry faces the monster (a basilisk, or giant serpent) in the legendary Chamber of Secrets. The basilisk is realistic (though, nobody really knows what a basilisk looks like, for obvious reasons) and is marvelously scary. Harry dukes it out with the help of Fawkes, Dumbledore’s phoenix, and triumphs over Lord Voldemort. So, the overall flavor of the movie? It was well done, but certainly didn’t live up to the hype of the books. And, although the acting was overall well done (with some exceptions), it was really geared to a younger audience, and needed to be a little more captivating to really entertain the older fans. The scenery and computer animation, however, was wonderfully done, and really helped the fanciful Harry Potter atmosphere penetrate into the audience. Overall, the movie lacked the comedy and action to keep older audiences entertained. The movie was really more of a visual companion for the book, not a separate entity. People that haven’t read the series probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much as those who are die-hard fans of the books. Was it a good movie? Yes. Was it good enough to match the popularity of the books? Certainly not. Hopefully we can expect a more accurate and exiting interpretation of the book with the next movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.