Slowly But Surely The Details Unravel

Rating: 7/10 (4 March 2017)

The first Harry Potter film, "Sorcerer's Stone", set the groundwork for the wizarding universe and the Potter characters. This second film, "Chamber of Secrets", slowly continues to unravel the narrative (with a lot of hi-jinx thrown in as well).
For a basic plot summary, "Chamber of Secrets" begins with Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) being warned by Dobby (a house elf) not to return to Hogwarts for his second year. Not heeding the warnings, Harry does indeed return to his wizarding school and reunites with friends Hermoine (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint). Not long into the year, however, Harry and co. discover that a secret chamber does indeed exist in the bowels of Hogwarts, housing a monster hungry for the non-wizard blood of the young Hogwart-ians.
The positives of this movie are that (with a few exceptions) it remains very faithful to the novel. It also is still a visual treat and contains some interesting special effects. The entire first half of the film contains a lot of what I would call "hi-jinx" (or adventurous material), which lends itself to a lot of fantastic visuals based on the crazy characters imagined in the novel.
Another interesting little track to follow in these films is that the main actors continue to improve on their performances as they age. Radcliffe, Watson, & Grint were all quite young when the series began, so to see them mature as actors on the big screen is a treat. Of course, the auxiliary cast is tremendous again, with Kenneth Branagh (as Professor Lockhart) particularly engaging.
The only reason I give this film four stars compared to the original's five is that I'm still waiting for the narrative to shift into high gear. I'm probably not being all that objective here. but the primary plots so far have been very conducive to the age of the main protagonists. As the characters age, however, I have been told that the stories mature a bit and really begin to take off.
Do not be alarmed, however, as this is still a great, entertaining film.