Member review

I should probably mention that this film has a much darker tone than its predecessor. My dad mentioned a while back, that Harry Potter and the Philosephers Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets have essentially the same plot, while I mildly disagree, I see that The Chamber of Secrets doesn't really add anything major to the Harry Potter's story. With that said, it may not add any story or plot elements, but it does establish a more darker tone than its predecessor. Harry Potter 1, initially, had a whimsical tone but eventually delving into this darker tone I speak of. What I'm trying to say is that the second film solidifies the tone the first one leaves off on.

I feel the story should've made the Higglewarts houses (HOGWARTS Houses! I love our little rivalry, it's just like our honeymoon) more morally complicated, in the movies, it's mainly Slytherin - Evil, Ravenclaw - Smart, Griffendor - AMAZING!!!!! Huffelpuf - What? And it's left at that. While Rowling does later explain that there are some good Slytherins I feel that it never occurred to her while writing the books that she was writing an entire house dedicated to the baddies and perhaps it never occurred to the writers of the films either.

I think this could've actually been a pretty good opportunity to force Harry Potter into some character development. If Harry leads the start of the story with this idea that Slytherin = Bad, Griffendor = Cool good guys then we can explore that idea further by asking is it really that simple? Is it as simple as this group people are evil and our group is the best, and those over there are fine I guess, but we're better? This goes without saying that the philosophy I had mentioned is morally wrong. But it could've made interesting character development for Potter.

I notice that this film leans more toward practical effects than the last film, which I admire. I noted in my last review on Harry Potter and the Philosephers Stone that I didn't like the CGI in it. So seeing its sequel using CGI more discretely was interesting and more enjoyable.

Another thing I should note is that Harry and Ron go driving (or rather Flying) drunkenly through the skies of England, which eventually gets found out by muggles (humans, though I find the distinction between us and the humans meaningless), which is found out by the school of Hoogewarts (Are you trying to be funny? If I wasn't I wouldn't be doing it), I feel the scene where Snape scolds the pair for their said irresponsibility should've been used to explain why wizards have a huge taboo for interacting in the human world. Like maybe long ago a Cain and Able like figure could've had a fight, and since wizard communities were small, word got around and the wizards decided that muggles were bad and should be avoided. And while the wizards hid in the shadows of the globe, humanity brushed them into their fairytales, myths and legends.