While being the lengthiest of the Potter films, Chamber of Secrets captures the magic of the first film and dives into an entertaining Hogwarts mystery.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets might just be the most underrated movie of the Harry Potter series. Chris Columbus returns and brings audiences a very close adaptation of the second novel of author J.K. Rowling’s famous book series, much like Sorcerer’s Stone. Since Columbus returned for this one, Chamber of Secrets and Sorcerer’s Stone are pretty much identical in terms of style and tone, although Chamber of Secrets is surprisingly a lot darker than it’s predecessor.
What makes Chamber of Secrets a great sequel is that it takes everything from the first movie in the series and expands on it. It doesn’t need to spend time worldbuilding and introducing characters because we already met our heroes in Sorcerer’s Stone. Now that all of that is out of the way, the movie has time to venture into a dark and engaging mystery at Hogwarts, which is perhaps the strongest aspect of this story. Harry and friends have to identify the culprit responsible for opening the legendary Chamber of Secrets and what lies within.
Harry is faced with tougher challenges in the magical world as the other students begin to suspect that he is the person responsible for opening the chamber, the Heir of Slytherin, which is another thing this movie does well. Chamber of Secrets dives deeper into the lore of this world, and shows us the prejudices of the wizarding community. We begin to see this divide between pureblood wizarding families like the Malfoys and the way they perceive “muggleborns”, or wizards who are born from nonmagical families. We as the viewers begin to see that for some people in this world, if you are not born into a respected family with a long history of witches and wizards, then you are beneath them in terms of status and skill. This conflict in the Harry Potter series becomes a major struggle in the future installments, and in revisiting this movie you can see the seeds begin to be planted. It’s clearly an allegory for our world, and the way human beings judge others simply because they are different from them, and it’s something that you wouldn’t really expect from a “children’s” story.
The CGI in this movie looks a lot more polished and is a big step up from Sorcerer’s Stone, especially in the quidditch sequence. They definitely learned from the previous movie and made the animation and movements look cleaner and look as though they were actually finished. The acting has also improved for the child actors. They look a lot more comfortable in their roles, and you can tell they’re really grasping on to who their respected characters are.
This movie is the longest in the series, and there are definitely slower moments throughout, but it all comes together in the final hour to deliver what is one of the best finales in the entire franchise. My VHS tape of this movie when I was a kid was constantly being used, as my younger self couldn’t get enough of Harry finally uncovering the mystery of the Heir of Slytherin and proving his loyalty to Dumbledore as he comes face to face with young Tom Riddle, who we learn more about as the books and movies continue to be released. This final act of the book could not have been executed better and I would say is even better in some aspects. Once again, Columbus gives audiences a feel-good family adventure that will leave you satisfied and fulfilled when the final scene closes and we finish another year of danger and mystery at Hogwarts. I mean honestly, how do parents still keep sending their kids to a school where one of the founders built a secret chamber underneath and put an ancient monster inside?