A dark, tense & mysterious superior sequel

Rating: 8/10 (23 June 2018)

While Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was more of a set up of its great world and many colorful characters, the Chambers of Secrets manages to expand further on its world with a more serious approach. The film is darker in tone and theme & its tension far outweighs the original.
Visually the film is not as much obsessed with capturing this great fantasy universe that Harry Potter is set in, as much of that was already done wonderfully in the original film. Instead, Chamber of Secrets focuses on creating a fascinating mystery, which admittedly the first one also was, but the narrative structure in Chamber of Secrets is a bit more complex, with a lot of past events taken into account. I cannot stress enough how important John Williams's score is for these series, as they always seem to embody the feel the audience gets when watching it. In the Sorcerer's stone, we had a lot of joyous and adventurous themes, but in Chamber of Secrets most of the times quite an onimous and mysterious theme is used, which is also brilliantly composed by Williams as the music seems to tell a story in itself. Look at the scene where the chamber is finally opened for example. This scene is extremely memorable mostly due to Williams's fantastic orchestral score which captures the essence of the discovery perfectly.
Normally i'm not a big fan of adding new characters to an existing new franchise as this, but Lucius Malfoy ( Jason Isaacs ) with the arrogant like back tilting of his head is very impressive as he embodies the over confidence of his character perfectly, & Gilderoy Lockhart ( Kenneth Branagh ) who is a great addition of a character that seems to have an ego that far exceeds his capabilities. Furthermore, the brilliant performances of Alan Rickman ( Snape ), Richard Harris ( Dumbledore ) & Maggie Smith ( Professor McGonagall ) return and have not diminished in the sequel. The three main leads Daniel Radcliffe ( Harry Potter ), Rupert Grint ( Ron Weasley ) & Emma Watson ( Hermione Granger ) are also admittedly growing in acting prowess although it is still the case the adults mostly steal the show with their acting at this point.
It still does not deal directly with death as a theme, as its victims are petrified instead of killed by an unknown assailant, but this in turn creates a more mysterious feel to the film as we know everybody has the power to kill, but do not quite understand who has the power to petrify, which leads to the audience becoming fascinated in its mystery and the solving of it. It is not that the film gives the audience a clear view that the 'good guys' cannot be touched, since a real threat seems to be around every corner. The sheer teamwork between the tree main leads into solving this mystery and their great use of eachothers strengths and weaknesses furthermore enhances the emotional connection we have with them, and the final scene in which they are re-united with a certain friendly character is truly one of cinema's warmest moments, as it provides an over emotion of joy since our bonds with the characters have become so close over the first two films.
The true star is its complex narrative structure, since its mystery is always evolving until the conclusion will leave you with emotions of self discovery and joy, as if we were really there in the moment due to the fact that the camaraderie between the characters seems to genuine.