A good first sequel

Rating: Null/10 (18 July 2011)

Harry Potter's second year at Hogwarts consolidates the successes of the first.
It tells a self contained story well (introducing a new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher as it does so, in the person of Kenneth Branagh's very funny narcissistic Gilderoy Lockhart) and introduces some characters and elements which are part of the larger picture - Lucius Malfoy and Dobbie the house elf, for instance, both destined to have future significance which is not apparent at this stage.
As before, the technical aspects of the movie are fine, and the climax is particularly exciting.
Most of all, though, the three young stars are noticeably better than they were in the first film, and the improvement is particularly noticeable with Emma Watson. She tried so hard in the first film that she was distractingly bad. Here in part 2, she has already improved to the extent that she is merely young and inexperienced. And she gets better from film to film.