An improvement over the first.

Rating: 8/10 (30 November 2004)

While the first Harry Potter was just entertaining, the second one luckily provides more than just that.
Good thing about sequels is that they don't have to waste time on character introduction anymore since we already know the main characters from the first movie. "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" also introduce some new fresh character, yet again played by an amazing list of well known actors. Favorite is Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father and Kenneth Branagh as Gilderoy Lockhart.
The movie has more story and depth than the first movie had, but still yet again the ending doesn't feel fitting. I did some thinking about it what it is that makes the endings of Harry Potter movies so bad and I came to the following conclusion; The movie is basically about and relies on the three main characters Harry, Ron and Hermione, towards the ending Harry Potter always has to face 'evil' on his own, without Ron and Hermione. I think this is the reason why the endings always feels so out of place, without Ron and Hermione, Harry Potter is quite boring and not at his best.
The movie still has some other downers, such as Dobby the House Elf and the fact that it still relies too much on the book, with as a result too many pointless characters and moments and some elements that are never completely clear for people who never read the books (such as myself).
But thankfully the movie has more ups than downs. Visually the movie looks wonderful with nice costumes and sets. Also the special effects have improved big time! The game of quidditch looks far better and more realistic than it did in the first movie.
Entertaining movie, an improvement over the first. Not for people with arachnophobia though!
8/10
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