OK, but not great

Rating: 6/10 (26 January 2014)

The first Harry Potter was interesting, and good fun. Much of this was due to the novelty of it all. The first Harry Potter introduced us to the characters and concepts of the series.
This, the second, uses that template and provides another plot. The plot is fairly mundane and overwrought. At nearly three hours it is ridiculously long for a linear plot-driven kid's adventure story.
This is all said, there is a momentum that keeps it going. There are some new concepts and characters. All this is enough to make it marginally likable (hence the 3/5).
High points for me are the acting of Kenneth Branagh and Alan Rickman, and their characters' rivalry.
The worry is that if the Harry Potter series has run out of steam this much since the first movie, what will the eighth movie be like?