Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Directed by Chris Columbus
Cars fly, trees fight back, and a mysterious house-elf comes to warn Harry Potter at the start of his second year at Hogwarts. Adventure and danger await when bloody writing on a wall announces: The Chamber Of Secrets Has Been Opened. To save Hogwarts will require all of Harry, Ron and Hermione's magical abilities and courage.
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What critics say influenced Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Director
Steven Spielberg
Critics compare Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to 4 of Spielberg’s films.
Darker, funnier and more action-packed than the first film, "Chamber" seems inspired as much by Steven Spielberg's galloping "Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Naturally, Harry and company go mano-a-mano with Harry’s arch-nemesis, Lord Voldemort (the evil wizard who murdered Harry’s parents), in between homages (which feel more like grand theft) to “Star Wars”, “Gremlins”, “E.T.”, and “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
The film only builds in chills from that point on, and throughout the rest of the movie Potter discovers bloody messages on walls, bodies frozen in perpetual fear, and, in one incredibly inspired, well-directed and giddily fun scene, about three million creepy-crawly spiders that are about as forgiving as the Raptors were in Jurassic Park.
Naturally, Harry and company go mano-a-mano with Harry’s arch-nemesis, Lord Voldemort (the evil wizard who murdered Harry’s parents), in between homages (which feel more like grand theft) to “Star Wars”, “Gremlins”, “E.T.”, and “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
In other words, it’s this series’ equivalent to “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”
Director
Alfonso Cuarón
Critics compare Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to 2 of Cuarón’s films.
Directors like John Boorman, who made the exuberant, superbly mystical “Excalibur,” or Alfonso Cuarón, whose “A Little Princess” is one of the greatest adaptations of a children’s book ever made, have already proven it.
Yet it's probably just as well that the third movie, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," due out in 2004, will have a new director, Alfonso Cuaron ("A Little Princess," "Y Tu Mama Tambien").
Cuarón, who directed the modern children's classic A Little Princess (1995) and the horny teen classic Y Tu MamáTambién (2001), won't start from high above the sets and find his way to the characters.
"Chamber of Secrets" seems even more an impersonal studio project than the first--a trend that perhaps Alfonso Cuaron ("A Little Princess," "Y Tu Mama Tambien"), the next installment's gifted director, can buck, if Warner Bros. lets him.
With the franchise off to such a promising start, it will be fascinating to see what happens when Alfonso Cuaron ("A Little Princess," "Y Tu Mama Tambien") takes over the directing chores for Columbus on "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," scheduled for release in 2004.
Which still leaves a lot of airspace available for when ''A Little Princess'' director Alfonso Cuarón -- a real master of jewel-like enchantment -- takes over the magic in ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.''
More than the exits, what Chamber makes you impatient for is the day when Y Tu Mamá También’s Alfonso Cuarón takes the helm with movie no. 3. Now that should be something to see.
Hopefully, when director Alfonso Cuarón ("Y Tu Mama Tambien") takes over for the next installment, he will be a little more generous in the editing room.
Yet it's probably just as well that the third movie, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," due out in 2004, will have a new director, Alfonso Cuaron ("A Little Princess," "Y Tu Mama Tambien").
For the next Potter film, Columbus will be replaced by Alfonso Cuaron, the Mexican director of the lyrically sexy Y Tu Mama Tambien .
"Chamber of Secrets" seems even more an impersonal studio project than the first--a trend that perhaps Alfonso Cuaron ("A Little Princess," "Y Tu Mama Tambien"), the next installment's gifted director, can buck, if Warner Bros. lets him.
With the franchise off to such a promising start, it will be fascinating to see what happens when Alfonso Cuaron ("A Little Princess," "Y Tu Mama Tambien") takes over the directing chores for Columbus on "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," scheduled for release in 2004.
Heck, Columbus even goes one further and tosses in the tree from Poltergeist.
This time around, Kenneth Branagh joins the cast as the pompous, vain Gilderoy Lockhart (funny how well Branagh can play an arrogant prick) and The Patriot’s Jason Isaacs steps in as Lucius Malfoy, father of the bratty Draco.
Harry also meets Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs, who mastered the art of the contemptuous sneer as a British officer in The Patriot ), a racist, classist wizard whose son Draco (Tom Felton) is Harry’s chief rival at school.
Also making his "Potter" debut is Jason Isaacs ("The Tuxedo," "The Patriot") in a wonderfully teeth-clenching turn as the nefarious, affluent, white-maned warlock father of Harry's cruel school rival Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton).
Harry's school supply trek with the Weasleys to Diagon Alley gives Julie Waters a chance to shine as no-nonsense Mrs. Weasley giggles like a schoolgirl in the presence of Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branaugh), an egoist promoting his biography 'Magical Me.' The enmity between the Weasleys and snobbish Voldemort follower Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs, "The Patriot") also comes bubbling to a head when Draco (Tom Felton) takes an opportunity to chide Harry.
New additions include Shirley Henderson ("24 Hour Party People," "Bridget Jones's Diary") as the girls room ghost, Jason Isaacs ("The Tuxedo," "The Patriot") as Draco's equally snide and sneering father, and Kenneth Branagh ("Love's Labour's Lost," "Wild Wild West") as an egotistical professor.
A few new characters are also introduced, including Jason Isaacs (2000's "The Patriot") as Lucius Malfoy, Draco's Machiavellian father, and Kenneth Branagh as the self-centered professor of the Dark Arts, Gilderoy Lockhart.
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Shirley Henderson ("Topsy-Turvy," "Bridget Jones's Diary"), her voice sounding like she's inhaled a very British type of helium, joins the cast as Moaning Myrtle, a pigtailed ghost who lurks in the girls' bathroom.
Stuart Craig, who was nominated for an Oscar for "Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone," returns as production designer; Lindy Hemming (who won an Academy Award for "Topsy-Turvy") created the costumes; and the special effects were stunningly designed by Jim Mitchell, Nick Davis and John Richardson.
But the story's anagrammatic revelation will prime youngsters for the similar eureka in Rosemary's Baby, to say nothing of those in Les Vampires; and Kenneth Branagh cures to perfection the ham Gilderoy Lockhart, bestselling author and second-rate magician, who loves nothing more than to stand by a self-portrait of himself painting a self-portrait, all three representations working his audience.
Harris' role is greatly expanded here, and Branagh, as the preening, pretentious Lockhart, is hilarious -- far better than he's been in any film since his own "Hamlet" in 1996, reminding us what an entertaining and versatile actor he is.
And while the film spends far too much time on the tricks -- CGI blue Cornish pixies, giant spiders that aren't so nifty as those in 8 Legged Freaks, screaming mandrake roots, and a humungo and not very well realized snake that makes poor Harry look like he's suddenly been transported into Jason and the Argonauts -- it does provide several choice moments for stalwart Hermoine Granger (Emma Watson), as she learns about prejudice.
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A "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" style journey to Hogwarts ensues, albeit one with far more danger, after Ron and Harry are denied access to Platform 9 3/4.
Naturally, Harry and company go mano-a-mano with Harry’s arch-nemesis, Lord Voldemort (the evil wizard who murdered Harry’s parents), in between homages (which feel more like grand theft) to “Star Wars”, “Gremlins”, “E.T.”, and “Raiders of the Lost Ark”.
When Harry and pal Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint, an even more vivid name than "Ron Weasley") miss the Hogwarts Express, the Weasley auto takes to the skies like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang; an outbreak of pixies bears liposucked resemblance to the troublemakers in the Columbus-scripted Gremlins.