Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG Runtime: 161 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Harry Potter is back, and this time he knows how to use his wand… and a sword. Ok, perhaps that was a bit of a stretch, but he has at least gotten better with his wand.

We join Harry back at home with the Dursley’s during his first summer away from Hogwarts. Harry no longer has to live under the stairs as he’s been promoted to Dudley’s “spare bedroom”, but life with his Aunt and Uncle still isn’t a pleasant experience. Harry hasn’t heard from his friends all summer long and about the only thing getting him through the experience is the knowledge that he’ll be returning to Hogwarts in the fall. Then Dobby shows up.

Dobby is a house elf who shows up in Harry’s room one day telling him that it’s too dangerous for Harry to return to Hogwarts and that he must stay away this year. Harry doesn’t agree of course, so Dobby makes a bit of a ruckus around the house to get the Dursleys mad enough at Harry to put bars on his windows in an attempt to prevent him from returning to school. (On a side note here, this never made sense to me. The Dursleys don’t like Harry and keep him locked up and out of sight all the time, so why would they try to keep him from going to Hogwarts? Wouldn’t they rather get rid of him for 9 months out of the year?)

Anyway, the Weasley brothers rescue Harry and everyone eventually makes it to school. Hope I didn’t ruin anything for you there. Once back at Hogwarts things start going terribly wrong around the school with “mudbloods” getting petrified. (A mudblood is a non-pureblood wizard). Apparently this all has something to do with the Chamber of Secrets which was supposedly hidden in the school when it was built over 1000 years ago. Harry, Ron and Hermione jump into the mystery and try to figure out who’s behind all of this, and exactly what is the Chamber of Secrets.

None of this really matters of course, you’re either going to see this movie because you, your S.O. or children like Harry Potter, not because of the plot. There are a few key differences in this second outing for Harry and the gang though. First, the special effects are better. Not that they were shabby in the first movie, but they seem to have turned up the notch on the monster effects this time around. Speaking of monsters, there’s more of them this time… and there’s enough creepy stuff to give younger kids nightmares. If your child has a problem with either spiders or snakes, you might want to reconsider taking them to this movie.

Chamber of Secrets is also quite a bit more violent. There’s actual blood in this one, not the least of which is a message written on a wall using a cat’s blood. Also, the spiders are large and hungry, and Harry actually kills something with a sword in a rather bloody fashion. None of this is a complaint of course, but just remember it if you’re taking a 6 year old to the movies.

The other thing to look out for is the length of the film. At 2 hours and 41 minutes, some kids won’t be able to sit still for it and can become too much of a distraction for your fellow movie-goers. When you add in about 15 minutes worth of previews at the beginning of the film, length does become a concern for the youngsters.

On a final note, I’m catching a little bit of flack around here for giving this movie 4 stars since it’s perceived as a children’s movie. Well, I’d give both Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story a full 5 star rating, and those are much more geared towards children than Harry Potter. In fact, the only thing keeping Chamber of Secrets from a 5 star rating is it’s length. I found myself checking my watch a couple of times, which immediately takes a star off a rating in my book. If you liked Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, you’re gonna like this one even more. If you hated the first, then don’t bother with this one as it’s more of the same.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets