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My
CoS review Warning: this review contains spoilers Rating: 8/10 Introduction: Please note that this my review. It is just my opinions and views and nothing written here is meant to offend anyone. You're completely welcome to disagree with me and you can write your own review and submit it here. Even as an ever watchful Potter fan, every now and then pointing out that 'Hey! That's not how I imagined it!', I must admit that on the whole Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is absolutely superb. It is incredibly fast paced and thrilling and manages to grasp the audience's attention for the full 2 ½ hours + . I feel Potter 2 is truer to the book than the first film was. They don't miss out any major action scenes and I think this made a big difference compared to last year when everyone was moaning about them leaving out the Nobert 'up to the North tower' bit. Negatives (let's get them over with - but don't worry, they're not too bad this time round!): First of all, I didn't find this much of a problem but my friend mentioned it and now that I think about I can see that would bother some people. The pacing of the film feels too rushed in parts - they jump rather quickly from scene to scene. I thoroughly enjoyed this technique actually (it was kind of like a roller coaster ride of our favourites scenes) and I think that most Potter fans did. It's no problem for those who have read the books and know exactly what's going on in the story and how Harry's world works in general but for those who haven't read the books it's probably quite confusing. There's no real introduction to Harry's world and some of the characters (for example Penelope Clearwater and Ernie McMillan who we know is there since he's on the cast list but we don't know who he is!). I completely understand what Columbus was doing here however, and I know why he did it. Obviously as the movies progress, like the books, it's difficult to keep explaining things over and over to newcomers and it will only get harder the further we get into the series. Even JK herself admits that she may have to put a prologue in future books because of all the explaining she has to do. So I'm just a bit worried that new comers won't know what's going on (But I suppose that's their problem - if they want to see the movie before they read the book! Shameful!). I also felt that once again, they didn't quite capture the wonderful normal aspect of magical life - the thing that makes it so easy to relate to the books. The simple things, like sitting in the common room doing homework or showing the dormitories a bit more or just ordinary classes. Fred and George's jokes also would have been nice and would have given us a bit of a gap in the tension. In line with this, I thought some extended scenes were a bit unnecessary - for example with Aragog where hundreds of spiders chase the car for ages before it flies off to the edge of the forest to drop of Harry and Ron. I felt they could have just stuck with the original escape - where the car drives out of the forest, hitting spiders as they go. That would have saved them time to add on to other scenes. A scene which was omitted which I would have liked to have seen was Nearly-Headless-Nick's death day party. But I suppose they didn't have time to go to all the trouble of making a lot of new ghosts with all the other special effects they needed to work on. The Valentine's Day scene where the hall's decorated in pink hearts and the dwarves run around the school delivering Valentines to people (Harry included) would also have been nice as well as in the duelling scene when Snape whispers his spell to Malfoy and Lockhart shows Harry how to block spells and he does a funny twirling motion and drops his wand and Harry says, "Could you show that to me again please Professor?" and Lockhart says, "Just do what I did Harry." So Harry replies, "What? Drop my wand!". These things just would have lightened things up a bit and given us more of a balance. Another good scene which I think they could have easily added in was when Harry and Ron are looking through the window into the Great Hall at the sorting and they notice that Snape's missing. They both hope he's been sacked or has left but it ends up he's standing right behind them. There are some cool lines in that scene too. Also what happened to Lockhart's quiz?!! There are even movie pictures of him handing it out and Ron and Harry looking at it disbelievingly! On the actor side, I don't have many complaints except Dobby! I don't know how you guys imagined Dobby but I imagined him to look a bit like Dopey from Snow White. I didn't imagine him as ugly as he turned out, but even so, he seemed to look less ugly the further we moved on (even kind of sweet as he was jumping up and down on the bed) - maybe I was just getting used to him! Once again, I'm sad to say that the late Richard Harris didn't quite live up to my expectations as Dumbledore . He was just missing that X-factor that Dumbledore posseses - that twinkle in his eye, that radiating power. However, he was definitely better than the last film. That line he got at the end in his office was pretty ridiculous though: "…and only a true Gryffindor could pull that out of a hat!" (or something like that) Then the last point which I felt was the only really negative aspect was the very last ending scene where they'll all in the Great Hall. Dumbledore makes his speech and then Hermione comes in. Hermione gives Harry a really big hug but then stops quickly when she turns to Ron and they just shake hands awkwardly. I seriously doubt that Harry, Ron and Hermione would so something like that in public and it just came across a bit weird. The second thing is that then Hagrid enters the hall and Harry gives him a big hug too while Hagrid thanks him and Ron. Everyone start clapping and cheering and jumping up and down and gathering around Hagrid and that's where it ends. I think that what would have been really nice would have been to use the original ending. All they had to do was set up a 2 minute scene earlier on where Ginny's about to tell Harry and Ron something (this could even have been done in the common room after McGonnagal walks in) and then Percy stops her telling because he thinks she's going to blab about his girlfriend. For the final scene they could have been sitting on the Hogwarts express and Harry suddenly looks up and asks Ginny what Percy didn't want her to tell them (just like in the book). Then Ginny says that Percy's got a girlfriend and she walked in on him and Penelope Clearwater kissing. She turns to Fred who looks as if his birthday has come early and says anxiously, "You won't tease him will you?" Fred replies, grinning: "Would dream of it," "Definitely not," says George sniggering. And the camera fades away… Positives: I felt that the fact that the movie was darker and scarier made the movie so much cooler and more realistic. It was much grander and I could really feel my skin tingling when you hear the Basilisk's voice and when Riddle re-arranges the letters of his name to read: I am Lord Voldemort. It would be silly for the movies not to get darker because the books get more complex and sophisticated as you movie on and that's one of the things I love about them - the fact that they evolve realistically. As I mentioned earlier, the adventure side was incredible and I loved the non-stop action. But to me there were two things which stood out: the special effects and acting. The special effects were absolutely, totally, incredibly, amazingly (anymore adjectives anyone?) AWESOME! The CGI technology used, worked wonders. The flying car was brilliant - just how I imagined it and the Whomping Willow was wonderfully savage (even if it was a bit bare). Quidditch was amazing - much better even than the last movie's Quidditch scene. Harry and Malfoy racing along diving and dipping under the wooden barriers after the snitch while being chased by the rogue bludger at breakneck speed had me on the edge of my seat and then Lockhart removing the bones from Harry's arm! Moaning Murtle was very good too, her usual neurotic self. The Cornish pixies and Duelling scene was brilliant and I liked Parseltongue - it sounded really creepy. The petrified people were exactly how I imagined them too. Then there was Dumbledore's office and though the office itself was nothing like I envisaged, Fawkes was almost exactly how I pictured him (just a bit more beautiful). The Polyjuice Potion (oh no, I'm really running out of adjectives now…) was very realistic - with Harry's skin 'bubbling like hot wax' though Hermione's cat face was a little over the top! Riddle's diary was great too, I was so happy that they actually showed the scene of 50 yrs ago when Riddle found Hagrid. And then there was the Chamber itself!!! The Basilisk was great if a little too scaly, it looked more like an eel like a snake (I also imagined it with two large fangs not lots of small ones) but once again very realistic. And Fawkes carrying them all up again was absolutely exactly how I imagined it. The acting was superb. First of all, the three main actors have improved in leaps and bounds. They're all so much more relaxed and fit far more naturally into their characters. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) definitely had something over last year's performance which I found pretty disappointing - it's difficult to describe but it feels like he's closing in on Harry's soul which is what really controls the whole persona of the books. Dan doesn't really look like my Harry but he has a part of Harry that you can just feel, so that was much better. And his deeper voice really fitted nicely into the tone of the movie. Once again, Rupert Grint (Ron) was a wonderful Ron. He's always come across very natural and possesses a sense of humour which is very 'Ronish'. He manages to capture the perfect facial expressions too and mostly reacts how I imagine Ron to react. Rupert also plays the a bit left-out quality of Ron excellently, Ron never complains about Harry and Hermione's attention but it obviously builds up until we see it vented in the 4th book. The only quality which I felt wasn't quite captured was Ron's courageousness, just in general, when it comes to the crunch, Ron lives up to it. The Aragog scene was correct though because obviously Ron overreacts with spiders (not to mention giant ones) as he's got a such a phobia about them. Emma Watson was also far more natural as Hermione. In the first movie I thought she overdid the bossiness but in COS, she really had that under control and showed us the many facets of Hermione realistically. Tom Felton was once again very good as Draco. He has never really seemed to have a problem with the part and in COS he again slipped into the role perfectly. Keneth
Branagh played Lockhart to absolute perfection. He portrayed every Lockhart
emotion, action and line just how I imagined Lockhart to. He was as
JK described his performance, "delightfully loathsome" because
Lockhart is likable, amusing and incredibly irritating all at once.
What more can say except "bloody brilliant!" The same goes for Jason Isaacs who played Lucius Malfoy. He too didn't look like my Lucius, however he played the part so wonderfully and strongly that I soon found that as I listened and watched, I was really getting the aura of Lucius Malfoy no matter how he looked. Not that he looked bad as a Lucius Malfoy. If someone had told me when I first read about Lucius that he would have looked how Isaacs portrayed him, I would have found Lucius's personality really suited his appearance. He really personified the evil, slimy-ness of the Malfoys. David Bradley played Filch very well once more. He's not often mentioned because no one likes Filch but I suppose that's because we sort of took it for granted that Filch would be our Filch. He's been very consistent and he reacted just how I imagined him to when he saw Mrs Norris's petrified figure on the wall. Miriam Margoyles was good as Professor Sprout but I thought they didn't really show all the facets of her with scenes they chose. For example, the encounter between her and Lockhart where Lockhart's boasting about how he could heal the Whomping Willow in his sleep and then wants a word with Harry and Sprout's not too pleased at all. Where as in the movie we saw only the jolly side of her. Conclusion: So in general, as you can see, the positives definitely overshadowed the negatives. And I must commend Columbus, Production designer Stuart Craig for his wonderful sets, the entire visual effects team, music team (which I didn't mention specifically but it was perfectly suited) and of course the cast who performed excellently. I think it's important to think of the COS film as a movie and I am beginning to think that it's actually impossible to capture the full soul of the books. I suppose that's what's so wonderful about books, you're inside them and it becomes your unique world. There are just some things that movies can't show and that's probably always how it's going to be. In Philosopher's Stone last year they really tried to express the soul of the books, I felt that they didn't manage to do this. I think that had they done this in the first movie, COS would have been even better. But since they've tried to capture the soul and can't manage it, I admire them for going for something they can manage and certainly did - the action part of the books. They might as well go for this and make it a successful movie in this way. So taking that into account I think COS is an excellent movie and is well deserved of an 8/10 rating. I think JK would be very proud. And just to show that people loved it, I must mention that I was at the evening showing of the opening day of COS and at the end of the movie, everyone clapped and cheered - and that has to be a clear sign that everyone enjoyed it! PS (1 December 2002) : I waited to the end of the credits to see those extra things/footage that people all over the internet said were at the end of the movie. But it didn't come! Either they removed it from the South African copies or the person controlling the movie projector at the back was really stupid and switched off the projector as soon as the credits finished because he/she didn't know there was extra footage! Ah, very frustrating … -------------------------------------- PS2 (as in post script not playstation - 11 Dec 2002): Ok, I just saw the movie for the 2nd time today and it was SUPERB 2nd time round again! And you pick up some stuff you never noticed before. This time they didn't have an idiot behind the projector (except the lights went on before the credits were over - can't they get it right!) so I got to see the extra footage. It was only about 15 seconds long but it was still a nice touch to the end, I won't tell you exactly what happens incase some of you still want to see it but I reckon it's worth waiting till the end of credits for. To
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