"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is more of the same from Chris Columbus, the man who brought the first Harry Potter book to film: dutifully committed to pleasing fans of the book resulting in completely uninspired filmmaking.
Though if Columbus had to direct any of the Potter films, I'm glad he was assigned the first two, before the series turned dark. Columbus's style fits the bubble-gum kiddie movie tone of the first two books, but would have been completely mismatched with the later installments.
The fun of all the Harry Potter movies lies in seeing what big-time British talent will pop up as the various adult characters, and in this one it's Kenneth Branagh as the preening Gilderoy Lockhart who gets most of the fun.
Grade: B
Though if Columbus had to direct any of the Potter films, I'm glad he was assigned the first two, before the series turned dark. Columbus's style fits the bubble-gum kiddie movie tone of the first two books, but would have been completely mismatched with the later installments.
The fun of all the Harry Potter movies lies in seeing what big-time British talent will pop up as the various adult characters, and in this one it's Kenneth Branagh as the preening Gilderoy Lockhart who gets most of the fun.
Grade: B