Beats the first one hands down (very minor spoilers)

Rating: 9/10 (15 November 2002)

When Harry Potter first hit the big time, I really couldn't see what all the fuss was about. When the first film came out, I hid. After a while, I got curious, and bought the books. In about twenty minutes, I knew what all the fuss was about.
Of the four books, Philosopher's Stone is my least favourite, so although I was intrigued to see the first film, I wasn't that shocked when I thought it wasn't handled as well as it could have been - aside from some really choice casting (Alan Rickman, Julie Walters, and Tom Felton stand out) it was decidedly average. However, Chamber of Secrets is my favourite (alongside Prisoner of Azkaban) and so I was very interested to see this film. I re-read the book in preparation, I surfed around reading reviews.
Was I impressed? You betcha.
From the first moment of Harry studying his parent's old photos, to the final scenes of the Hogwarts Great Hall, the film is funny, honest, and entertaining. More importantly, it's a cracking adaptation to boot. All the unimportant parts are cut to get straight to heart of the action (for example, Harry and Ron follow the spiders directly from Hagrid's hut, rather than going back to the castle, seeing them in Herbology etc, which makes a good text, but not a very interesting scene, especially when we want to get them into the Forbidden Forest asap) and ILM do a fantastic job on the special effects - unlike Fluffy from HPATPS, the beastie in CoS is really life-like. (Unlike Fawkes, but nobody's perfect)
Speaking of life-like, unlike poor old Radcliffe who still has his moments of stiffness, Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) is coming along in leaps and bounds. He and Emma Watson (Hermione) are brilliant, and Rupert Grint (Ron) plays the funny man to Harry's straight man very well - I loved the line "Follow the spiders. Why an't it be follow the butterflies?" Mark Williams is spot on as Arthur Weasley, and Julie Walters was every bit as wonderful as I'd been anticipating from PS. Whoever cast her deserves a medal - I can't imagine a better Mrs Weasley if I tried! I was quite perturbed when I found out Bridget Jones' best mate would be taking up the robes of Moaning Myrtle, but Henderson did a great job - you wouldn't guess her true age for a minute. Versatile or what?!
All in all, apart from a VERY cheesy moment at the end with Hagrid, see this movie. If you like the book, you'll LOVE it. If you've never even heard of JK Rowling - dude, you gotta get out more - you'll still think it's brilliant. You don't even need to have seen the first one to understand it (although obviously it helps). Columbus, I salute you. Roll on Azkaban! (Now if only they take my suggestion of Jude Law for Sirius Black...)