Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Plot synopsis:
While home with the Dursleys for the summer, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is not getting any mail from his friends, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson). On his twelfth birthday (July 31) Harry is visited by Dobby, a house-elf, who warns Harry that he will be in mortal danger if he returns to Hogwarts. Harry ignores Dobby's warning and is determined to return. It turns out that Dobby has been collecting Harry's letters to make it seem as though his friends had forgotten him, hoping Harry might then not want to return to Hogwarts. Seeing that he will have to use force, Dobby decides to destroy, by the use of a charm, a large cake that Aunt Petunia (Fiona Shaw) has baked for an important dinner party attended by Vernon Dursley's (Richard Griffiths) boss and his wife. Harry is blamed by the Ministry of Magic for Dobby's charm, and is told that if he does magic outside school again, he will be expelled. On learning that Harry cannot perform magic outside school, the Dursleys, previously fearful of his wizarding, lock Harrys books and wand away and Vernon Dursley fits bars onto his bedroom window, making Harry a prisoner.A few days later, Fred, George (James and Oliver Phelps) and Ron Weasley come to his rescue in their father's enchanted Ford Anglia. After a pleasant summer together in the Weasley house, everyone heads to Platform 9¾ to take the Hogwarts Express back to school. To their shock, Harry and Ron are unable to enter the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. In desperation, they fly to Hogwarts in the car, crashing into the Whomping Willow and damaging Ron's wand. The semi-sentient car ejects them and their belongings and disappears into the Forbidden Forest.Harry soon finds he is the unwanted centre of attention of three people: the vain new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), admirer Colin Creevey (Hugh Mitchell), and Ron's sister, Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright), who fancies Harry. Events take a turn for the worse when the Chamber of Secrets is opened and a monster stalks the castle, with the power literally to petrify several students. According to legend, the Chamber was built by Salazar Slytherin and can only be opened by his heir, in order to purge Hogwarts of students who are not pure-blood wizards. Many suspect Harry is the Heir of Slytherin, especially after he inadvertently speaks Parseltongue (the language of snakes), a rare ability Harry gained after Voldemort's murderous attack upon him when he was an infant.Harry, Ron, and Hermione attempt to discover the Heir of Slytherin's true identity. Using Polyjuice Potion brewed by Hermione, they disguise themselves as Slytherin students, Crabbe (Jamie Waylett) and Goyle (Josh Herman), hoping to learn from Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) the identity of the Heir. Malfoy, they learn, does not know who the Heir of Slytherin is, but he inadvertently provides Harry and Ron with an important clue about the Chamber of Secrets.Unfortunately, the hair that Hermione took from Millicent Bullstrode's uniform was from a cat, and as the polyjuice potion is only intended for human transformations she assumes a feline appearance; it takes a little more than a month to restore her normal human form. She is released from the hospital wing in early February, her normal appearance restored.The attacks increase throughout the year, petrifying more students, including Hermione. Most horribly, a message written on a wall declares that Ginny Weasley has been taken into the Chamber, where "her skeleton will lie forever".With the help of Ron and Moaning Myrtle (Shirley Henderson), Harry discovers the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. They force Gilderoy Lockhart, a fraud who wipes clean other wizards' memories and claims their achievements, to go with them. Once they find the entrance to the Chamber, Lockhart attempts to use Ron's broken wand to erase Harry and Ron's memories, but the spell backfires on to himself and brings the ceiling caving in, separating Harry from Ron and Lockhart. Lockhart revives, but has now lost his own memory.Harry makes it to the Chamber where he finds an unconscious Ginny. He also meets a young man named Tom Riddle, who claims to be a "memory". Harry learns that Ginny, under the control of Lord Voldemort, opened the Chamber. Voldemort, whose real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle (the anagram of which is "I am Lord Voldemort"), imprinted his memory in an enchanted diary, in order to one day continue the work he began when he reopened the Chamber fifty years ago ridding Hogwarts of non-pureblood witches and wizards. It was Hagrid, a Hogwarts student at the time, who was blamed for the attacks and expelled.Tom Riddle's memory grows more powerful as it steals life from Ginny's body, and it tries to kill Harry by setting loose a basilisk (the monster responsible for petrifying the students). But Dumbledore's (Richard Harris) phoenix, Fawkes, arrives carrying the Sorting Hat, from which Harry draws out the sword of Godric Gryffindor. Fawkes blinds the basilisk, destroying its fatal gaze, and Harry slays it with the sword. In attempting to slay the basilisk Harry's arm has been pierced by the creature's fang. Harry stabs the diary with one of the basilisk's fangs, and the memory of Riddle is destroyed, while Ginny revives from her near-death state. Harry seems to be dying quickly from the venom but Fawkes comes to heal Harry with his tears (phoenix tears have healing power). Ginny and Harry both recover fully, along with those who were petrified: Hermione, Mrs Norris, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Nearly Headless Nick (John Cleese), and Colin Creevey.Harry realizes it was Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs), Draco Malfoy's father, who slipped the diary into Ginny's cauldron when he encountered the Weasleys in a Diagon Alley bookshop, but he is unable to prove it. Dobby reveals he is the Malfoys' servant, and knowing their treachery, had been trying to protect Harry all year. In gratitude, Harry sticks one of his old socks into the diary and hands it to Lucius. Lucius throws away the diary, but Dobby catches it and finds the sock hidden in its pages. This constitutes, in Dobby's eyes, a gift of clothing the traditional manner in which a master frees a house-elf from servitude. The freed Dobby declares he is eternally grateful to Harry and protects him from an attempted reprisal from Lucius. The word "Avada" is used as the beginning of Lucius Malfoy's curse, suggesting that it is the Avada Kedavra (the killing curse).Dumbledore dispels Harry's fears that he could have been put into Slytherin rather than into Gryffindor when he tells Harry that it is his choices that define him and not his abilities, and that Harry could not have wielded the sword of Gryffindor if he did not truly belong to that house.

Tags: good versus evil, cult, fantasy, action, mystery

Review:
Just the movie "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" became more sinister, frightening and full of dangers.Characters have not changed.
His choice."Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" - a magical, mysterious, full of magic, amazing and terrible creatures canvas director Chris Columbus.
Apparently J.K. Rowling has hit upon the fact that kids love to be scared stiff along with being entertained by touches of humor and excitement--although I think her imagination works overtime on scenes like the vomiting fit for Ron, one of the more tasteless sequences.And apparently the makers of this Potter film have met the challenge of providing spiders and snakes that are hideous enough to have Ron and the audience in a fit of hysterics.
Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy has a commanding presence and an amusingly wicked final scene involving the computer created Dobby who steals every scene he's in.Should keep Potter fans happy--and for a movie two-and-a-half hours long it moves along at a brisk pace from one adventure to another with what by now appears to be mechanical skill, thanks to artful direction by Chris Columbus who knows how to keep this sort of thing moving.
Sure, some things were left out undoubtedly due to time constraints, but overall, it conveyed the story well.Chamber of Secrets did this even better.As an avid reader, I am quite hesitant to see my beloved books displayed on screen only to have the directors do them no justice.
There's a darker atmosphere this time around and more characters are introduced including Gilderoy Lockhart (hilariously played by Kenneth Branagh), Draco Malfoy's father, Lucius (a great performance by Jason Isaacs, exactly how I imagined the character from the books!), Ron's father, Arthur, and the mysterious Dobby the house elf (fortunately he isn't anywhere near as annoying as other CG characters in other movies, but I won't name any names...
*cough*JarJarBinks*cough*)The movie sticks closely to the novel, but as in the last movie we miss some of those scenes where we start to learn a little more about the characters, especially the hate-hate relationship between Harry and Professor Snape (who was seriously underused in this movie!)All in all it's definitely worth checking out, the running time of 160 minutes may seem a little long but it doesn't seem that long when you're watching it.
It is much darker and sinister than the first film and Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint give good performances and give us a glimpse of the fine actors they are becoming.Kenneth Branagh and Jason Isaacs are perfectly cast as Gilderoy Lockhart and Lucius Malfoy and truly bring the characters from the book to life.
In fact the CG character of Dobby is very similar looking to Gollum in Lord of The Rings and the CG Asgard in television series Stargate SG-1 (speaking of textures) which which speaks well for Stargate SG-1 if it can do just as good as a top movie like this...and top it is.
Well, it's Harry's (Daniel Radcliffe) second year at Hogwarts, and everything should be fine, given he defeated Voldemort in the previous film and there are no other threats lurking in the magical world.
All this seems to be connected to the Chamber of Secrets, but that isn't of much help, especially considering the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, famous writer Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), is a complete idiot.Darker and faster, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets repeats the Philosopher's Stone's mistake of being slightly too faithful to the literary source, but Columbus manages to compensate this flaw with better visuals, some really creepy set-ups and improved acting from the younger cast members (Emma Watson in particular).
He has also made interesting choices when it comes to the new faces in the adult group: Branagh is very, very funny as the ego-fueled Lockhart (a role originally intended for Hugh Grant), but the most interesting addition is Jason Isaacs (whom I can't wait to see again in the fourth film) as Lucius Malfoy, an intriguingly sinister wizard who is as racist and arrogant as his son, Harry's arch-nemesis Draco.
As for Dobby, a CG creature voiced by Toby Jones, he is interesting at first but rapidly becomes annoying, his masochistic antics being repetitive and a little dull.Finally, a special mention for Chamber's best element: Richard Harris, who sadly passed away a few weeks before the movie's premiere.
I thought this was better than the first Harry Potter movie because it didn't overdo the action scenes as the first film did, and the special-effects were better.
He was excellent.Hogwarts itself really comes to life, largely due to the camera shots sweeping in through a window or over the castle - it feels a lot more 'rounded' and the Quidditch match benefits from a makeover and improved SFX.Unlike some other fantasy films the CGI is not over used and doesn't smother the screen.If you've read other reviews you'll know Kenneth Branagh is wonderful as Lockhart (and you have to stay to the end credits to see what happens to him)Jason Isaacs is great as Lucius Malfoy, and overall the film is scarier and darker then the first film, and there is a very touching moment involving Hermione and Ron which was performed with wonderful understatement by Rupert and Emma.Throughout the whole 2 hours I don't think I stopped smiling.
The Whomping Willow, the flying car, the duel between Draco and Harry - every scene was a joy to behold.To those critics who keep on comparing Potter to Lord of the Rings and finding the former wanting (one person even laughingly suggested Christopher Columbus was ripping it off)bear in mind that Philospher's Stone is the second biggest film of all time behind Titanic - beating Rings.
At times I find the Harry Potter world has so many wonderful things happening at the same time that you tend to overlook the smaller things (ergos the Weasley's residence and the great Hall) The Chamber of Secrets is a darker tail but is well within the tolerances of most children's ability to handle.
Chamber of Secrets is about Harry Potter's (Daniel Radcliffe) second year in Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry and something is attacking the students.
He and Tom Felton not only look like father and son but in a minute-long scene they were able to portray Draco's hero-worship of his father and Lucius' impatience with his son.The main problem with the film is that it has been produced in a very dull, bland manner.
Instead of focusing on Harry's uncomfortable realisation that the wizarding world has problems and his shock at how quickly the school turn against him at the barest of evidence, scriptwriter Steve Kloves and director Chris Columbus seem intent on making the film a magical version of an Enid Blyton boarding school where kids merrily skip around solving problems.
Character development hasn't improved much either with Ron continuing to be dumbed down for comic relief while we have Hermione getting Ron and Dumbledore's lines (and in the case of the latter, it just sounds odd hearing words of wisdom said by an powerful, elderly wizard in the book being uttered by a child of twelve in the film).CoS also drops a number of points, in my mind, for the crass, cheesy overly-sentimentality of the ending.
Columbus's style fits the bubble-gum kiddie movie tone of the first two books, but would have been completely mismatched with the later installments.The fun of all the Harry Potter movies lies in seeing what big-time British talent will pop up as the various adult characters, and in this one it's Kenneth Branagh as the preening Gilderoy Lockhart who gets most of the fun.Grade: B.
In fact as the closing credits rolled I felt like I had seen it before...This isn't a criticism at all, the film-makers have done a great job of translating this book to the big screen, far more thoroughly than Philosopher's Stone.
Problem is, rather than write a new score that kept the main spirit of the original (which John Williams did brilliantly in the Star Wars trilogy), they seemed to have lifted entire bits of music used in the first film, particularly the dramatic parts that you associate with a certain scene from Philosophers Stone, and transplanted it into Chamber Of Secrets!
I had to run out myself once, cursing, just when they were about to "follow the spiders"...)I found the casting to be clever and appropriate; of special note is, of course, the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore (and I wonder if they will make the obvious choice to replace him in the next movie with Max von Sydow, who could be made to look and sound exactly the same?) as well as the return of Robbie Coltrane and Alan Rickman.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was a wonderful movie, just as good as the first.
One might imagine that because Chris Columbus pulled off a faithful, yet exciting, movie adaptation of the first Harry Potter adventure that he would be able to it a second time.
And he suffers from the incompetence of the new Defence Against The Black Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh, totally miscast), who is not as funny as in the book.Five minutes after we are re-introduced to the students and teachers, the film slips into a clumsy mishmash of poorly staged scenes and bad acting.
Maybe it was keeping on Chris Columbus as director- he helmed the first Harry Potter and did an OK, if not that terrific, job at it- or in making it about as long as possible (whether or not everything in the book, as someone who's seen the films but not read the books, I can't say, though it feels like they crammed it all), or in making it a wee bit too corny, but Chamber of Secrets is a bulky kids movie.
I consider myself a good critic of fantasy/children films...Mostly due to my attention span never developing beyond the age of 7 and my hunger for magical things being so alive I kept the stupid window to my room open for Peter Pan at the age of 14...Oh I knew he was not real, but what is the point of rubbing that in...Therefore, me falling asleep during the first Harry Potter film and fighting with sleep during the second one definitely means SOMETHING...I must admit I didn't really expect much in the first place; creating a huge movie from a popular book ON DEMAND can never spell art, but I thought maybe, MAYBE, it could be fun...Not only was I disappointed by the fact that bits and pieces were cut out completely (Ok, I understand the necessity) but why add USELESS parts then that could be found nowhere in the book and add cheapness to the already bad movie??
What art?) Not to mention the fact that if we hadn't read the book we would not care at all about the characters of the film since they are never really developed in the movie...It is hard for us to notice this fact since we do heavily rely on our memory of the book to follow the movie; yet the fact that there is very little connection between the audience and the kids does subconsciously ruin a great deal...Bland conversations, overdone special effects (was Dobby really THAT freaky and unlovable looking??
Basically, it is sad to note that this may be the fantasy children movie of the new generation...No memorable original moments, humor or truly magical scenes (ET, Goonies, Time bandits, Mary Poppins etc)...Basing it all on computer animation, special effects, plot and mooooney...Brainwashed kids will like it, adults will forget what to look for and we can all be convinced that since the media tells us it is grand, then it must be so...A good fantasy movie is not supposed to make us bored, not even for a minute; it is supposed to keep us wanting to see certain scenes again and again, making us remember the movie as something we find special and original, and I just cannot wait to see that scene where Harry is walking and then he stops and says something!!!!!
Being the second book of Harry Potter better that the second one I couldn't believe how bad the movie was.
Director Chris Columbus has actually made a very good film!This film follows Harry Potter in his second year at Hogwarts with a much darker tone than the first film.
"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is an ultra-long, boring mess of a movie.
Heck, I'll even smile at the thought that she's managed to turn the image of sorcerers, witches, and such evil, into a pleasant little happy-go-lucky book that thins the line between Good and Bad. Christian fundamentalist groups originally held anti-Harry Potter ceremonies after the initial novel and film's release a few years ago.
Watching this movie will do that to you.Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), now in his second year at Hogwarts, is faced with the reality that recent student paralysis may be attributed to a dark lord who killed his parents and gave him a lightning bolt scar across his forehead (which mysteriously disappears between shots).
And of course I'm not talking about *the* Christopher Columbus, but rather Chris Columbus, who is the writer of "Gremlins" and who directed the John Hughes-scripted "Home Alone." Columbus was very good during the '80s and early '90s, but it seems he's lost his sense of utter imagination that he used to have."Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" might have made a good 90-minute kiddie movie.
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione and Rupert Grint (which could be a great character name itself) as Ron Weasley act like they are true friends to the end.
At least the first movie was fun to watch.The guy who plays Harry Potter is a bad actor.
I will wait for it to come out on video so I can fast forward or turn it off when I like, which judging by the first two movies won't be long after it starts.Harry Potter will be FORGOTTEN in the next 10 years thanks to these movies, Thank goodness for The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, A fantasy movie that even with one movie released has become a MASTERPIECE.
This adventure sees them tackle another quidditch match, a flying car, giant spiders and the like.Made at a time when the Harry Potter book series had been fully recognized for what it was - an unstoppable literary phenomenon - Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets, the movie, embodies a disappointing lack of courage and compromise from its ,makers: adapt as much as you can from the increasingly long books seems to be the motto du jour.
In 2001 I saw Harry Potter 1 and that movie bored me,my wife and my son.I went to see the second one and it is better than the first one but it could be way better.Kenneth Branagh made a great performance as a professor.Like I said before,this is better than the first one but it could be great and some scenes are boring.But some scenes have sense of humor and they are fun.It could be shorter and not so slow.Rupert Grint made a great performance and I think he is one of the best young actors.This is better than the first one but I thought that it was going to be better.The kids will love it,but I think that the adults will not love it and they are going to be a bit bored..
For as I held my breath alongside my friends and fellow fans, I couldn't help but keep thinking: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was being made into a film!Within a few minutes I was hooked.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is coming soon - I felt like I was sentenced early with 'Chamber'.This film is a painful 2.4 hours long.
Never once during either Harry Potter film have I felt like I am watching a fantasy come to life: all I see are bad child-actors interacting with poor-quality special effects.
Due to this, and the exhausting running time, Chamber of Secrets is the worst of all 8 films.Still stuck with his horrible adoptive parents (Richard Griffiths and Fiona Shaw) for the summer while he awaits another year at his beloved Hogwarts, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is visited by house-elf Dobby (voiced by Toby Jones), who warns him that he must not return to the school of wizardry this year.
In my opinion Harry Potter is a very very good movie because the specials effects are beautiful.
If you like fantasy movies, you should buy Harry Potter on DVD or you should buy the books.
There is no need to explain the entire contents of This film as so many have but to say that it's entertaining, magic and with some great actors both old and new...even the score is pretty good.If you've not seen the Harry Potter series get it, it's not just for kids, its fun.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets may be one of the weaker movies, but it's still a good adaptation of the novel.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a film directed by Chris Columbus.
After watching it I can say that I enjoyed this particular part too.Plot: Harry Potter is warned by Dobby, a House elf not to attend Hogwarts School of Magic as danger awaits him.Story and direction: This film is one of those rare sequels which improve upon the first.
The first Harry Potter movie broke some big records and started one of the biggest and beloved film franchise of all time.
This is Chris Columbus second Harry Potter movie, and the direction is, like in the first one, good.