I am going to be perfectly honest here and say that I am not the biggest fan of Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone. Sorry I believe that it's called The Sorcerers Stone in America isn't it. Anyway whatever you call it the fact is that the first Harry Potter movie really disappointed me. The reason was (and believe me when I say that I hate to say this) that it was just a little childish. Not a complaint I feel comfortable making as it always angers me when a grown up complains about a childrens movie being for children, it's just that The Philosophers Stone was advertised as much more than just some childrens movie. You had all the critics claiming that it was one of those films that the parents would enjoy as much as the kids, and they were wrong. Still the film couldn't really be blamed for this because it didn't have much time for grown up action as it was busy trying to create strong characters, and credit where credits due, I got more involved in Harry Potters children then in most characters from the more adult films (not talking about porn). This is the reason that I was willing to give Chamber Of Secrets a try because if there's one thing I've learned from the films I've seen it is to never judge a franchise based on the opening film. The writers of any successful franchise will use the first film to craft characters that you genuinely care about so that they can focus on the action for the rest of the series.
OK then so now you must all be wondering whether or not I was disappointed again, or far more likely you've sneaked a peak at the score I've given it and now want to know what's so good about it. Just in case you still haven't peeked, yes I did like The Chamber Of Secrets, in fact I liked it a lot. The reason is that this time it really is a family movie. There is a lot in the film for children, but this is not at the expense of the adults enjoyment. This time the film's action scenes are genuinely exciting. The films adventure feels real rather than just the backdrop for a bit of character development, but far more important is that this adventure now has something that the original was sorely lacking in. This time you really do get the feeling that the characters are in real life threatening danger. Yes The Chamber Of Secrets is a far darker film that The Philosophers Stone ever was, and this has the result of making their adventure far more gripping. You are never exactly sure how the characters are supposed to get out of a situation and even though you know that they must survive the story is so well made that you can convince yourself that you are not sure how it's going to end.That's about the best complement that I could give the film but it's not the only compliment.
You remember how I was complaining about The Philosophers Stone, well now I'm going to admit that if I could have changed anything about it then I would have changed nothing. The Philosophers Stone may have been kind of slow, but as I've already mentioned it had very strong characters. These strong characters have now been transferred over to the sequel. So now we have the best of both films, namely a dark action packed film featuring fantastic characters. Whenever these characters were in danger I found myself caring about the out come. Unusual for a childrens movie but these were characters that I cared for, and this only benefited the story. You see now not only do the characters get into danger a lot, but that danger now made me scared for them, because I genuinely cared about these characters.
Unfortunately despite all of that The chamber Of Secrets was not a perfect movie. There was one major problem in particular that really did spoil certain parts of the movie for me. That problem was with a really annoying character in this film. I'm not talking about Dobby as I didn't find him that annoying. Like I say with Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars, Since at the end of the day the film is for the kids then it's only right that there be a character there for them. Like i said before I hate it when critics demand that the childrens films be made for adults. Besides I actually liked Dobby, I smiled at a few of his antics and I felt sympathy for his plight. Something Jar Jar never achieved. Anyway back to the point at hand, the character I didn't like was their new teacher. He was just so annoying, especially when he first steps into the classroom with a big cheesy grin, and describes himself as "The owner of the most dashing smile". I know he was written to be annoying but that doesn't make it forgivable. I mean it would have been easy to write him as a character that we could hate without him being annoying. Like they did with Malfoy a character that i love to hate, with the teacher though I just hate him. Oh and please remember that British people don't really talk like that.I had planned on ending this review there but there is one last thing that needs to be said. Due to the darker nature of the film certain scenes towards the end may be more violent than you are expecting. Just a little warning because parents may want to use a little caution with particularly sensitive children.
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"A whimsical journey of fantastic porportion!" ByBrian Balchack
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