Apparently, I'm something of an anomaly these days - a person who has never read the "Harry Potter" books. Part of that is that I just have a built-in tendency to not want to read, see or listen to things that "everyone" else is. The more popular something gets, the less likely I am to be interested - at least as a general rule. There are, of course, exceptions.
One thing that will help create such an exception is boredom. When I'm bored, if the only thing that sounds even remotely interesting is also something that is exceptionally popular, I'll probably go ahead and check it out, just to see what all the fuss is. So it was last fall that I stumbled across "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", and was completely bowled over.
It's always scary, though, to start watching a movie you know is part of a series - because so often quality seems to go downhill once the first one is made. Thankfully, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" lives up to the promises made in "Sorcerer's Stone", and even manages to build on it.
Because we've been introduced to all the characters and places in the first film, the second movie is freer to focus on the story, which allows the filmmakers to get more in-depth with the plot, a very nice touch.
The story, this time, is much darker than in the first film. Harry is warned not to go back to Hogwarts, but knowing it is his only true home, he is determined to return. Once there, he soon discovers a message written in blood, that bigotry exists even in the wizard's world, and that within the halls of Hogwarts, there is a Chamber of Secrets that contains a horror that threatens the future of the school.
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione) and Rupert Grint (Ron) have grown between the films - as is to be expected - and it helps with conveying the respective growth in their characters. At first, it was a bit disorienting to hear Ron and Harry's new, deeper voices, but because the story shows how the characters have matured, its a feeling that passes quickly. The only real complaint I have is that, on occasion, Grint seems to perhaps go a bit overboard in how much he exaggerates Ron's facial expressions, but it's doesn't detract, really, from the enjoyment of the film, and hopefully it's a tendency he'll quickly outgrow.
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Article comments
1 - The Theory
yeah, i have not read the books... and i have not seen the movie... and i do not plan on doing so. hehe.
peace.
2 - Jim Carruthers
Oh, all of you, really, you've got to read the books, since they are much better and textured than the movies. Plus there are four (soon to be five books) and they have a consistent arc, characters and style. There is a reason they have become instant classics akin to Lord of the Rings or the Madelaine L'Engle books.
I've rented Chamber of Secrets for viewing tonight, but I am sure the book is better. And it's the Philospher's Stone.
3 - Kriselda Jarnsaxa
In most of the world, it's "Philosopher's Stone", but in the US, for some ungodly reason, it's "Sorcerer's Stone". We have to make everything difficult :)
4 - The Theory
it's cuz Philosopher is too darn hard to spell. haha.
peace.
5 - Jim Carruthers
No, it's because Philosopher is too hard to understand.
You made Dobby cry.
6 - Jim Carruthers
I saw "Chamber of Secrets" last night and enjoyed it (but then, almost anything with Robbie Coltrane is enjoyable). However, J.K. Rowlings has painted the filmakers into a corner with the inflation of the Harry Potter books. CoS was 161 minutes.
Here is the page count for the books (Raincoast editions):
Philosopher's Stone: 223 pages
Chamber of Secrets: 251 pages
Prisoner of Azkaban: 317 pages
Goblet of Fire: 636 pages
Order of the Phoenix: 768 pages
Considering the rule of thumb that 1 script page is 1 minute of screen time, the Harry Potter movies have a problem stuffing the books into a reasonable screening time.
7 - Dew
Actually OotP is 896 and Goblet of Fire is 734, maybe thats just for the American Versions...
8 - Jim Carruthers
I got the page count for OotP from Amazon.ca, and as I said, the page counts were for the Canadian editions. Perhaps Scholastic prints in a larger type for you Yanks. After all if they change the book titles, who knows what dark arts they might be up to?