Better than the first one

Rating: 8/10 (21 November 2002)

Marvelously inventive, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" follows Harry, Hermione, and Ron through their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft
and Wizardry. The trio has grown up over the summer holiday. Ron has gotten taller, Hermione has started to lose her baby fat, and Draco Malfoy seems more menacing than ever, with a larger countenance and slightly deeper voice.

Readers of the books will remember "TCOS" is a more serious that "The
Sorcerer's Stone", which introduced us to the Hogwarts family. The story isn't as lighthearted as the first film, which set the tone for the series, It's darker and scarier, with a villain who is unseen for most of the movie, but revealed in a frightening sequence in the Chamber of Secrets.
Jason Isaacs, who played the evil Col. Tavington in "The Patriot", is creepy as Lucius Malfoy, proving the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Kenneth Branagh is perfectly pompous as Gilderoy Lockhart, and if you stay through the entire credits, you will be treated to a final scene of him.
TCOS is a terrific second film in the series that makes you wish there wasn't going to be 2 years until the next one rather than one.