*spoiler*

Rating: Null/10 (15 November 2002)

As a HUGE fan of the Harry Potter books I do not feel that this movie did the book justice. I took my husband to see it, and spent the entire car ride home filling in all of the blanks for him. Once again, Hollywood has taken over and left the story by the wayside. The exclusion of many characters left the story empty and undeveloped. Taking away the History of Magic professor, who unwillingly told the story of the Chamber to the students in the book, left that task to Professor McGonagall. This was totally out of character for her, as she would not want to frighten the students. By lessening the part of Colin Creevy, and removing the girl who is later found to be Percey's girlfriend in the book, the film leaves out the feeling of the panic felt by the students in the book. You don't feel their fear and uncertainty. The film also leaves out Harry's isolation. The majority of the book is Harry's struggle with the whole school that had turned on him, which drives his desperation to find the real heir of Slytherin. It also shrinks Ginny's part, as well as her crush on Harry. Without including how she was gushing about how wonderful Harry was in the journal, the film offers no explanation of how Tom Riddle grew to hate Harry and want him dead. In the movie, Tom Riddle says that he took the name Voldermort because he would not keep his Muggle father's name. That leaves the audience wondering how he could then be the heir of Slytherin. It leaves out that Slytherin was from his mother's side and that his father left her when he found out that she was a witch. But I must say the absolute most annoying part of the movie was the final scene, which had no part in the book where Hagrid returned and the entire room applauded. It might have had more meaning had they bothered to include how half the school thought he was guilty, but either was it was pure Hollywood. I do realize that in any film adaptation of a book things need to be left out, and I was even glad that many of the Lockhart scenes were excluded. I just think that the overall story needs to be upheld so that the film can at least be understood for those who haven't read the book. All that aside, I still enjoyed watching the movie simply because I enjoy the characters so much. For those of you who have not read the books, please to not judge them based on these movies. Justice was not served.