We all know about the law of diminishing returns, the one that states that movie sequels are never as good as the originals, but as with any rule, there are exceptions: The Empire Strikes Back, Aliens and The Godfather Part II are just a few of the filmic follow-ups that either equal or surpass their predecessors.
And now Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets can be added to that short list. Whether this second chapter in the Harry Potter saga (following last year’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) is actually slightly better than or slightly inferior to the first film is the sort of inconsequential argument best left to either Potter fanatics, anxious studio heads or philosophical potheads who’ve run out of more meaningful topics to discuss. More accurately, it’s best to state that Chamber of Secrets is an almost seamless continuation of the tale kicked off in the previous picture. With practically everyone involved with Sorcerer’s Stone returning (including director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Steve Kloves, adapting J.K. Rowling’s bestseller), the transition is a smooth one: Had both pictures been presented together as a TV miniseries, it would have been hard to ascertain where one ended and the other began.
Running even longer than the first flick (160 minutes versus 150 minutes, both unusually long for “family films”), Chamber of Secrets concerns itself with Harry’s sophomore session at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There’s an evil presence lurking in the halls of the venerable institution, and, needless to say, young Mr. Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and best buddies Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermoine (Emma Watson) find themselves smack in the middle of the mystery. As before, groundskeeper Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) offers the kids friendship, schoolmaster Albus Dumbledore (the late Richard Harris) offers guidance, Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) offers discipline, and Professor Snape (Alan Rickman) offers opposition. And there’s even a new teacher on the premises: the vain Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), who’s more interested in promoting himself as a hero-celebrity than in actually teaching the kids anything of merit.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets cuts no corners as far as the visual effects are concerned: There’s a Quidditch match about as exciting as the one in the first film, and among the various creatures brought to life are giant spiders that put to shame the ones in Eight Legged Freaks, an enormous basilisk with deadly Medusa-like powers, and the Whomping Willow, an enchanted tree that goes ballistic on Harry and Ron (the only disappointment in the FX department is the house elf Dobby, which remains an obvious effect and is annoying, to boot).
Yet the real magic in the Harry Potter films rests not in the high-tech razzle-dazzle of the special effects but in the interaction between its human players. Most of the returning adult characters, such as Hagrid and Snape, are given too little to do, but Harris (how we’ll miss him!) has some nice scenes as the kindly Dumbledore, while Branagh comes close to stealing the film with a very funny performance as the preening Professor Lockhart (sit through the closing credits for an amusing coda featuring this character). Yet the heart and soul of the series remains with its young stars — neither Radcliffe nor Grint nor Watson could be more perfectly suited for their roles. The passage of time — and the curse of puberty — will surely dictate that different actors will need to be cast in the later films in the series; needless to say, the replacements will have sizable shoes to fill.
This article appears in Nov 20-26, 2002.
