My CoS review

[pippin_999]

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End Spoiler Space

***1/2* (that's three and a half stars) -- why? Because bringing a 
literary fantasy to the screen is an extraordinarily difficult task, 
and any film that can manage that and still be a coherent 
entertainment gets three stars from me. A lot of more stylish 
directors have fouled up on that simple-sounding but 
oh-so-difficult task. The half star is for the  things that were
utterly enchanting: the Weasley House, the dueling club scene, 
and Snape and McGonagall's good cop/bad cop act. Branagh's 
Lockhart kept a smile on my face the whole time he was on the 
screen--and I never thought Lockhart in the book was all that 
funny.

Jason Isaac's Lucius Malfoy was so elegantly nasty. I don't 
understand the controversy about him threatening Harry with his 
wand--that's in the book. Is there anyone who *doesn't* think 
Lucius is capable of murder? 

 I liked the contrast between Snape's concern over Draco's 
injuries at the Quidditch match, while Lucius just looks annoyed, 
and the really telling scene in which the Slytherin team huddles 
around Draco in the Hospital Wing while Lucius isn't even there.

I agree with Gail--as soon as I heard that "There's no Hogwarts 
without you, Hagrid," line, I turned to my seatmate and said, 
"He's toast." Those cheering scenes are just made to be 
revisited in flashback with a dewy coating of vaseline (or 
computer-generated blurring, these days).

I like the way Rupert Grint does Ron. Overplayed Ron is a 
necessary contrast to underplayed Harry--and Harry *has* to be 
underplayed. He's an enigma to those around him  in the books. 
That's not going to be credible if the audience can read 
everything he's thinking on his face. 

The same with Myrtle...in the books I feel sorry for her, but  it has 
to be credible that even sympathetic characters avoid her, which 
means her unpleasantness has to be played up on the screen. 
She put across the idea of a decaying psychic energy very well, I 
think.

The effects were much more consistent than the first movie. Only 
Fawkes was unconvincing at times...I think I wanted him to look 
*less* like a real bird. The spider sequence went on too long, but 
the basilisk battle was just right. 

Pippin