Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) Review

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Chamber of Secrets follows Harry Potter, who after a daring escape to leave home, arrives at Hogwarts to find that the mysterious Chamber of Secrets has been opened, forcing Harry, Ron, and Hermione to find out it’s secrets before it claims it’s first victim and unleashes a decades old threat. 

Believed to be one of the weaker entries into this series, Chamber of Secrets is a tricky movie because while it tries something new, with a delightful horror element, you can’t help but feel that this is the most disconnected from the story, with a real one-off feel to it that keeps it fairly detached from what’s come before and what’s to follow. And that’s because Chamber of Secrets is a supernatural murder mystery…where no one dies. So while there’s some urgency to the situation, the stakes never feel high enough to really warrant as much panic and mystery as the schools lays down upon Harry. 

That said though, when this film dives headfirst into its action & horror, it is beyond eerie and you can feel the darkness permeate off the edges of the screen with each passing scene, from the giant spiders, killer trees, or the impressively massive basilisk that lurks in the Chamber of Secrets. We also get one last final pressing from the late Richard Harris onto Harry as well, and it’s that a person’s value is not about their destiny or lineage but rather about the choices they make in good times and bad, a core theme that goes onto define so much of who Harry is from here on out. 

We get a solid cast once again, starring Christian Coulson, Bonnie Wright, Toby Jones, Tom Felton, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Harris, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Daniel Radcliffe. The bond between Grint and Radcliffe is really strengthened this time around, and while both are great, Radcliffe really gets center stage as the sole excellent performance, with a special nod to Branagh and Harris. 

Based on the novel by J.K. Rowling, The Chamber of Secrets, directed by Chris Columbus, had the unenviable task of following the first, and while it builds some important connections and lore behind Voldemort, and establishes Harry as something special, its seclusive ‘mystery of the week’ story holds it back significantly. 

7.1/10