Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Release Year: 2002
Review: Once again it's difficult to get past the liberties the film takes with the film plot. After just reading the book even subtle discrepancies seem glaring. However, putting this aside and only taking the film in as an entity in of itself I'm still left wanting. My biggest gripe is with the acting which, given the young actors experience, is unsurprisingly poor. However, each has established themselves firmly as their character. It's very hard to think of Harry Potter and not think of Daniel Radcliffe at this point. In the first film there was very limited acting given to the Hogwarts students, undoubtedly because of their inexperience. Instead, the first movie felt like a picture book, where most of the story telling was done through imagery rather than dialog. This film gives a bit more trust to the actors and the scenes are beginning to feel a bit more complete. Overall it was a good attempt to condense the book into a film under three hours, but it still felt a little cheap and a bit empty.
Rating: 3/5