The second installment in the Harry Potter series surpasses the first. The story finds Harry Potter, the famous boy wizard, in his second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This time, Harry and his two friends Ron and Hermione must solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. This chamber hidden within the school contains a dangerous monster that can only be loosed by the Heir of Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts. After years and years, the chamber has been opened, the whole school is in serious danger, and a lot of people are suspecting none other than Harry Potter as the culprit.
The Chamber of Secrets while improving on the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, still retains some of its drawbacks. Although the movie pretty much stays true to the book, it leaves out parts of the book that I for one was sorry to find absent. Most notably, some of the more memorable supporting characters sadly take a back seat. Particularly Fred and George Weasley. These two supply some of the books' funniest moments and lines, but they are not given enough on-screen time in the movies. And when they are on-screen, their best moments are gutted. This definitely contributes to the movies' being less funny than the books.
I also missed a couple of scenes in which Professor McGonagall shows a little more of her soft side. This I think is really a drawback in portraying her character because we so often see her acting as the strict and serious teacher, but we don't see as many of the special moments in the book that show her as more soft-hearted and sympathetic towards the students. Of course, a movie can't possibly retain everything that's in a book; but at two hours and forty minutes, a mere three more minutes to rectify these drawbacks would not have hurt.
But despite these weaknesses, the movie remains faithful to the story; and the story remains very entertaining, exciting, and mysterious. The Chamber of Secrets has more of a creepy, suspenseful feel to it than The Sorceror's Stone; and as a result it makes for a more intriguing and exciting movie (though be forewarned: it is also scarier and more violent than the first movie). The Quidditch, a wizard sport played on broomsticks, scene was also more interesting to watch than the one in the first movie.
The new characters are overall well done. Dobby the house-elf looks great in computer graphics and is both amusing and likeable. Kenneth Branagh is appropriately comical as the egotistical Gilderoy Lockhart. But Moaning Myrtle, the ghost of a girl who haunts a girls' bathroom, is a little annoying and isn't really as funny as she could be.
On a moral level, Harry and his friends still do a certain amount of lying and rule-breaking. Although, the rule-breaking is often done more out of a desire to help the situation than to merely indulge in the pleasure of it. It is also implied that Harry was wrong to with-hold what he knew when he was asked. Also to its credit, the movie contains themes of courage, loyalty, and the evil of prejudice.
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