Improvement on the Original By Far

Rating: 6/10 (18 January 2011)

Anyone who has read my other Harry Potter movie reviews knows that I have been pretty cruel against this series. I despised the Deathly Hallows, I hated The Sorcerer's Stone, and I was ready to hate this movie as well. Yet when it began I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It wasn't great and did have some flaws but for the most part this film had a very good opening to it.
One question I have: why are the Malfoys always the a*****e characters in this series? With a name like Malfoy your not giving them much character development when their name alone sets up that they are going to be the bad guys. Draco's d*******g attitude doesn't help either.
Anyway, my first big problem with this movie is when Harry and Ron are flying the car, how come it can turn invisible? That would be pretty useful when Voldemort rises to power again, they could just turn the car invisible and run him over? It would make things so easy! Also, how does Ron know how to drive the car, let alone a FLYING car? He's what, 11 years old in this movie? Maybe 12? Whatever age he is he shouldn't know how to drive. And when they get out of the car, it starts driving itself. How can it do that? When Snape is yelling at Harry and Ron, he mentions that they allowed themselves to be seen and jeopardizing revealing the wizardry world to the general public. Yet it seems that they have no problem running into columns in general public, breaking Harry out of his house in general public, and the idea that a castle that features flying broomsticks has yet to be detected by any countries radar baffles me. This comes up again when Hermione is called a mudblood. This confused me because they say that the world of wizardry cannot be revealed to the general public, yet they allow students with parents who have no magical background to come into Hogwarts, thereby revealing the world of wizardry to the public.
Ah, and another Quidditch game. Once again my complaints that there is no such thing as disqualification makes itself known. This time it's even worse, as Harry is followed by a heat-seeking dodge ball. Not only is this clearly in violation of the rules, if there are any, but the Gryffindore players are yet again attacked by the Slytherin players who consistently attack them. Every thing I said about this stupid game was already mentioned in my last review so I won't go into it further.
And then there's Dobby, Harry's house elf. I honestly don't see the point of his character. He has good intentions but does not know how to do it properly. It was his fault that Harry and Ron did not get into the train, and it was his fault that Harry was attacked by the heat-seeking dodge ball. I know he wants to keep Harry safe but there are better ways to do it without threatening Harry's life.
After that little kid, Colin, gets petrified, Dumbledore says that the school is unsafe. Clearly he is forgetting about the forest that has the deadly creatures, and that part of the school that he said would guarantee certain death. And if the school is so unsafe, then why is it so easy for three young student to fix the problem? If it's so unsafe then the problem should be left to the trained professionals, not the young students. It may be anti climactic, but its logical, something this series desperately needs.
Harry's bad luck continues. He runs into another petrified student along with a petrified ghost. How do you petrify a ghost? He is already dead, what could scare a ghost so? It makes sense for a person to be petrified but why can a ghost be petrified? It's things like this that takes me out of the story and really hurts the movie.
The movie does pretty well until we meet Aragog, Hagrid's giant pet spider. The spider effects were actually pretty good, but it is ruined the moment it talks. How can a spider talk? It is on the same level of stupidity as a ghost being petrified.
After a series of sometimes interesting scenes we finally get to the climax. Ginny Weasley is taken into the chamber, Lockhart is revealed to be a fraud, and Tom Riddle is revealed to be a teenage Voldemort. Instead of melting Riddle's face like he did in the last movie using the b******t power of love, Harry defeats the basilisk (which looks more like a dragon than a snake) by using a sword he pulled out of a hat. The scene lasts too long and demonstrates Harry's poor swordsman skills. While this scene takes place Voldemort does absolutely nothing, no doubt foreshadowing his uselessness in the newer films. He literally stands there and does nothing while Harry kills the basilisk and stab the book, thus defeating him.
So all is well, Voldemort is gone and Harry and Ginny are free to get together in the Deathly Hallows. Hagrid is freed from prison and all those petrified are free.
So that is The Chamber of Secrets and is it as bad as the other movies? Well in some ways yes and in some ways no. It is a definite improvement from The Sorcerer's Stone, but it is far from being good. It has some plot holes, some moments that don't make that much sense, but I will have to say that it is at least entertaining. Okay is as far as I'll go. It wasn't horrible but I can't say that it was that good. I will say this however, it is easily the best of the films in this franchise I have seen thus far.