Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - review

Okay, pour tar over me and cover me in feathers, but finally I`ve seen the second Harry Potter movie, in agreement with the Smurf and Chu.

The deal is that I would watch those with them, and they will see Star Wars.

Now in the past, I might have picked up the movies with half an eye, but usually while doing other stuff and never intensively following them, so now I`m following them with my attention span on `focussed`.  It also has something to do with Lego, but that is something I`ll be talking about tomorrow.

Okay, so the movie isn`t recent anymore, but I don`t get it that they are regarded as good as The Lord of the Rings so far, and especially after the second one of the series.

Okay, my knowledge of the Potterverse so far is limited to having platinumed all the Lego games, and knowing that Ginny Weasley when grown up is, let me say, `nice`, but here I was with a heap of 10 year olds running around in a castle being terrorized by a strange being that petrified those who saw it.

Special effect wise, it was `okay` but not great.  Like with the blue flying car, I rank the SFX department on the level of for example Narnia from around that time, but nowhere near the WETA Workshop masterpiece.  Heck, even the Xenomorph from 1986s Aliens looked realisticer then the big snake.

On the other hand, I loved the Tom Riddle character.  He was a game winner in the Lego games, and he is really cool with his english accent and a strong performance, a vibe I ain`t getting so far from the actors playing the leads, bar Ron.  But Hermione and Harry, not oscar material (yet).

The story itself had it`s holes and bugs, things like jumping to and fro in a not to coherent manner.  Mighty wizards spending 50 years finding said chamber, but never did one notice a slitherin knob on a toilet?  Harry not knowing he speaks snake-tongue, yet always knowing exactly what to say in said language?  Good friend Hagrid sending two children of to certain doom with a large, evil spider?

But those are just details, overal the movie was good entertainment to watch, to I couldn`t yet get into the `hype` of the franchise, which I noticed at conventions isn`t about to die out soon neither.  Chu assures me the movies get better and better as the children grow up, and I`m thinking of getting the books one of these days to see if they are indeed better then the movies, but for now, I`m `Amused, yet not Overawed` with the wizard student.