Delightful improvement

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 2002)

This was a delightful improvement on the first Harry Potter which was too short and too crammed. In this was there was time to tell the story and excellent acting from the better parts of the actors. Three hours may be a tad long for the youngest audience but considering the relatively high level of spookyness, perhaps they should stay in bed while their parents go and what this movie.
The magic was more magical and the small puffs of smoke a nice touch. And the spiders... Whhrhrhr-yuck!
The addition of Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart was neat. Not only was he a slimey fraud he actually seemed to enjoy the parody of himself. Also Lucius Malfoy was as well cast as his son was not.
All in all a brilliant movie and true to the book. Perhaps the Quidditch game was a bit too long but hey, you can't have it all.
The art department could, I might add, take a bit more care making the books look old. Two pages shown in the movie had right adjusted margins which is somewhat modern considering they were supposed to look hand written.