An improvement over the first part

Rating: 7/10 (1 August 2004)

After the somewhat underwhelming "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" I wasn't in a hurry to watch this second Harry Potter movie, but I finally got around to it and I'd have to say that it's a definite improvement over the first one, although there's still a lot that could be done better.

The best thing about this movie is that it's a lot darker and more mature than the first one. Most of the childish humor is gone, the characters are far more convincing this time around (the children have obviously grown in their roles), and the tone of this movie is definitely more serious than that of the first one.
The plot yet again sticks very closely to the book, although it's a shame that in spite of a 2+ hour running time, almost all things that were not essential to the main plot have been left out or marginalized (e.g. Lockheart barely plays a role of importance, and none of the sharp humor from the book makes it into the movie).
I also think that too much time is spent on the action sequences (e.g. car ride, quidditch match) and the climax. They look a lot better than in the first movie, but they're all stretched way too long and take up time that could have been better used to flesh out the world of Harry Potter a bit more.
With a bit more focus on characters and details instead of endless action sequences, this movie could have been great. As it is, it's certainly watchable, but it still feels like the director took the easy way out.

**1/2 out of ****