Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
To recap, I've never read a book of the series. I haven't understood why millions of little kids have, and 300-400 pages at that. Even the latest one is 750 pages. But when roughly 15 million people in the first 3 days spend a collective $90 million to watch it, something must be up. The first one didn't make too much of an impression on me. In fact, I didn't remember much of what happened in the first movie coming into this one. But that's okay. As long as you remember that Harry Potter is the most popular wizard out there, then you'll be fine. Sure, there are other good things to know. He lives with a mean family before heading out to Hogwarts. His best friend Ron is scared of practically everything. His other friend, Hermoine, is the smart one of the bunch. All of these plus more are part of the Gryffindor clan while their rivals are part of the Slytherin, headed by Malfoy, who even has that mean look on his face. Professor Dumbledore, played by the late Richard Harris, heads the school, etc, etc, etc.

What's changed in this second installment? Well, Harry seems to be the same even if he's been told that he shouldn't be there but really, really wants to be there. Ron is scared of everything and gets the added element of incompetence through his broken wand. Hermoine is smarter and eventually figures everything out. Malfoy is meaner. The family he lives with is more controlling albeit briefly seen in this one. And the school gets a new professor in Gilderoy Lockhart, played by Kenneth Branaugh. He's a famous magician who's written many books but can't seem to get the right spell at the right time.

So what is the Chamber of Secrets? It's a chamber with secrets. Seriously, legend has it that Slytherin built it and kept evil spirits inside until somebody opened it and released them to kill anyone but the pure-bloods at the school. When weird messages in blood start appearing on the walls and people get frozen, everyone at the school gets scared and if the person who's doing it can't be found, the school may be closed. So the little trio start investigating this for themselves and do many things that eventually lead them to the truth of the chamber of secrets and stops it before it's too late.

Really, this movie kept me riveted. This whole thing was way more interesting than the first one. I'm guessing it's because they didn't need to be bogged down by introducing the Harry Potter world to us. As a sequel, it could get straight down to business. But that's no excuse to extend this movie to 150 minutes. My attention span is short enough, Some scenes could have been cut out without any sacrifice to the plot. Case in point: the spiders. What was the point in that? It really needs to get away from presenting the book sentence by sentence. That's why people see the movie, so they don't have to waste time to read the book. But what's the point if watching the movie takes as long as reading the book? But again, it's an interesting story with many twists and turns and the eventual most important secret of the chamber proves to be a little surprising if not unexpected. You really get involved in what the wizards are looking for and there are even some frightening scenes that induced some screams from the audience. Well-performed by all those involved.

After this, expectations for the third movie will be sky-high and it won't be easy. Many difficulties are arising already. They're taking a 6-month break. As a result, they're all gonna look way older when they get back as teenagers get to be. Richard Harris is now the late Richard Harris so they have to find someone to replace him. And a new director is taking over, one who had problems with the screenwriter in one film, Great Expectations, and directed a very excellent film, Y Tu Mama Tambien, a NC-17 flick about two Mexican boys exploring their sexuality; a complete 360 from Harry Potter. So good luck to them.

3 stars