The Digest
Another summer has come to an end and Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is anxiously waiting to go back to Hogwarts school for Withcraft and Wizardry where he is learning to because a powerful wizard. He hasn't heard from his two best friends Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) all summer and he is extremely worried, but not surprised since his evil Uncle keeps him locked in his room. All that changes when he gets a visit from a precocious house-elf named Dobby. Dobby has come to warn Harry that his life is in grave danger if he returns to Hogwarts. Dobby has been causing mischief to keep Harry in trouble so Harry won't have access to the outside world, thereby keeping him safe. Dobby's latest ploy has managed to get iron bars put on Harry's window so he can't escape. After a daring rescue staged by Ron, Harry is freed and heads to Hogwart's for the school year.
Once at Hogwart's, weird things begin to happen. Most notably, students begin to turn up petrified and dire warnings appear on the wall indicating that everyone is in grave danger because the monster that lives in the Chamber of Secrets is back and wants blood.
Harry and his friends are determined to solve the mystery and it becomes personal when on of them is petrified as well. Can the remaining two solve the mystery and in the process save all of Hogwart's?
The Dish
I've read all four books of the series several times. I even managed to fall in love with the first book before the craze hit the U.S. thanks to my husband's habit of ordering books from Amazon.com UK. Those books grab you and won't let you go. I can't say that about the screen adaptations. The movies are ultra faithful to the books, which is a good thing, but causes a problem because this makes the movies so god-awful long which poses a bigger problem because sometimes the movie story is slow and/or uneven.
The acting turned in by the kids was okay but given that they are for the most part amateurs and children, I loathe to criticize them. The adults were wonderful, especially the late Richard Harris as the quiet and understated Dumbledore and Robbie Coltrane as the guiding hand of Hagrid. Alan Rickman was superb as the snotty Professor Snape. The two performances that left me wanting more were that of Kenneth Branagh and Jason Isaacs. Branagh wasn't cheesy enough and Isaacs wasn't devious enough. Neither impressed me at all.
There was some trimming done to the story and some people will complain about what was let out, but the movie was damn near close to 3 hours as it is.
The length and the uneven story made this for a slightly tedious viewing.
The Directive
Parents as tempted as you may be, think before taking kids under the age of 9. There are a few scenes that may scare younger children and I found that quite a few of the younger kids started to get restless after 2 hours.
The magic of the books seems to be having trouble making the transition to big screen.
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Copyright Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, 2002
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