The Chamber Of Secrets

Intuition, (and honest trailers) tells me that i'm supposed to detest this movie, that this is the worst film in the series and that this is 'the one everyone hates', but i can't help it, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets is one of my favorites, i adore the source novel and the film is equally as good, released in 2002 and, like the first film, directed by Chris Columbus, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is based upon JK Rowling's book of the same name, and the second film in the series.

The film follows Harry and his friends in their second year at Hogwarts School, as Harry meets for the second time, his arch enemy Lord Voldemort, and attempts to unravel the mystery of The Chamber of Secrets, a mysterious cavern built deep underneath the school, under the black lake, by one of the schools founders, Salazar Slytherin who expected that the chamber would be reopened when his heir returned to the school and unleashed the monster within, purging the school of muggle borns and creating a solely pure blood school. What immediately stands out about this film is the production design, the design of the chamber is spectacular, a long echoing room lined with giant snake heads hissing, and filled at the end with a huge medusa-like statue of Salazar Slytherin himself, out of whose mouth the basilisk crawls.

The film is also the first in which we meet Lord Voldemort as anything other than a crazed embedded face on the back of someone's head, Voldemort is shown as a real character, a real figure, a memory or a piece of Voldemort's soul hidden in the pages of a diary, a memory of a teenage boy, before the modifications and the years of soul splitting and murder left his body mutilated and ugly. We finally learn more about who Voldemort really is, what drives him, and what his connection with Harry is, Harry's psychological connection to Tom Riddle is also uncovered with his ability to speak Parseltongue revealed.

The acting in this film is generally much stronger than in the first, and the young actors seem to finally be finding their feet, their performances feel more confident, more lifelike and in this film as child actors go, their performances are pretty darn good. The supporting cast of acclaimed british thespians is as fantastic as expected, and this film features the addition of Miriam Margolyes as Professor sprout, the herbology professor, in a fantastic bit part. But what is most fantastic about this film, is it's story, mysterious and winding this films plot is original and dark, and for that we must give full credit to JK Rowling, author of this opus.

I love this film, not so much for the film itself although the cinematography and set design are pretty incredible, the plot is what is so amazing, and the story is a fantastic invention. The film offers us juicy tidbits about Harry and Voldemort's shared past, present and future, and allows us to truly be sucked into this magnificent creation. Rating: B

Dumbledore: It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.