a review after only one viewing

[Deidre]

I'm posting a review, might be longish, of my thoughts after seeing the 
movie once and re-reading the book over the weekend.

I nipped out for a matinee showing on Friday. Going to see it again on 
Tuesday with my movie group. I liked the film whilst watching it, but 
afterwards, began to wonder about some things. Hence a re-reading of the 
novel, and going back, and re-reading all the spoilers that I had skipped 
before the weekend.

*Don't read any further unless you want Spoilers!*

H
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There, there is some spoiler space. :)

I've read a lot of reviews by now and really think that a lot of the fans 
have it right, that this movie is a quick change or *charge* (as in the 
Charge of the Light Brigade) from set-piece to set-piece, thus allowing for 
little character development. Rupert Grint's Ron Weasly is stuck with two 
facial expressions: horror/fear/terror OR grinning in amusement. There's a 
lot more to Ron than this in the book! And Emma Watson's Hermione Granger 
gets many of Ron's lines from the book. WTF?

*Things I like*:

Daniel Radcliffe seems to be doing a bit better in the acting department as 
Harry Potter. I like how he stands up to the Malfoys, father and son.

Dobby the House-Elf. I knew from the trailers that he looked pretty good, 
though not quite as I pictured him, but very good nonetheless. No annoying 
Jar-Jar Binks here, but a being who means well. Like Hoggle in Jim Henson's 
"Labyrinth" or Yoda in the Star Wars movies, I could accept him as a real 
person or character.

Kenneth Brannagh as Lockhart. Just a terrific casting and acting job all 
the way again. I did miss the pastel capes, but his clothes were quite 
divine anyhow. I had wished for Roger Daltery (my dream casting) in this 
part, but now having seen the movie, I'm awfully glad that KB was cast over 
Hugh Grant (too pretty, shy, and mumbling in many of his roles), and Alan 
Cummings (too over-the-top in many roles, and not pretty enough for 
Gilderoy Lockhart). KB is handsome, not pretty, and can do over-the-top 
acting rather well.

Seeing the Burrow, although we didn't see enough of it. Meeting Arthur 
Weasley at last (though Mark Williams is not thin), but he and Julie Waters 
as Molly Weasley portray a great married couple blessed with so many 
children, albeit they are so poor.

Loved the Ford Anglia! Very believable as a flying car, although the 
falling out of the car scene over the Hogwarts Express wasn't in the book 
and contributed nothing to the movie. Knowing that J. K. Rowling's friend 
Sean, to whom the second book was dedicated, had a turquoise Ford Anglia 
that he and Jo used to ride about in when they were teenagers made these 
scenes with the car even more poignant and sweeter. I suspect the two of 
them often wished they could fly away. <g>

Alan Rickman's Snape: always, nicely done acting by AR. but just not enough 
of him. Because of the deletion of the whole Valentine's day subplot, we 
don't get to hear his famous line about him still being the potions master 
at Hogwarts, said to Lockhart. *sobs* And it's Filch who discovers Harry 
and Ron sneaking into Hogwarts, not Snape. AR did his best with what he was 
given to work with. Btw, I've been a fan of his for many years, at least 
since that Robin Hood movie, and it was hearing that AR had been cast as 
Snape that finally convinced me last year that I must go see PS/SS.

Tom Riddle: a good choice of actor for this role. Great wavy hair, 
old-fashioned clothes, classic sculpted good looks, etc. As someone else 
said, no wonder Ginny fell for him. <eg> All the scenes with him were 
believable and spooky, esp. the black and white (nice touch there) flashback.

The Malfoys: Lucius (Jason Isaacs--going to have to see "The Patriot" now) 
is perfect, very menacing. Wasn't sure what to make of the long hair, as I 
had always seen Malfoy Sr. in the books with short businessmen hair, but it 
suited perfectly, esp. when he had it tied back in a queue in Hagrid's Hut. 
Draco: Tom Felton continues to do a good job in the role, but his accent is 
all over the place. He needs to stick with that upper-crust drawly 'I'm 
much better than anyone else here' accent to go with his 'tude. Where was 
the accent/dialect coach?

Moaning Myrtle is perfect, just perfect. It's obvious from the beginning 
she has a crush on Harry.

The actual Chamber of Secrets scene. Harry is a true Gryffindor, brave, and 
loyal to Dumbledore. Me, I would have found it hard to go on, but Harry 
always does what he has to do, putting fear aside.

The dueling scene: Snape and Lockhart are just too funny. Harry speaking 
Parseltongue was scary and believable. But the kids didn't move away like 
they did in the book, and that directing surprised me. I like snakes just 
fine, but having one appear out of thin air would have me running backwards.

The Quidditch match: even better special effects than the first one, but no 
real sense of the game. Chris Columbus and Steve Kloves were obviously 
assuming that everyone seeing this movie will have seen the first one or 
have read the books, which isn't a good assumption to make. As someone said 
in a review or here on the list (sorry, seemed to have lost the exact 
reference) Harry and Draco chasing the Snitch under the grandstand whilst 
being chased by the rogue Bludger reminded me of the chase scene through 
the unfinished Death Star in "Return of the Jedi". It also went on much too 
long; Harry catches the Snitch rather quickly in the book. Harry and Draco 
both falling flat on their butts/faces at the end was priceless, however. 
The boneless arm scene looked incredibly real. GL is such a ninny.

All the animals, from Hedwig the Owl to Fawkes the Phoenix. Bloody 
brilliant, although I could do without all the drool on the Basilisk's 
teeth. The spiders were very very fearful, and I hope that when we see 
Shelob in "The Two Towers" she will look more like these than the things in 
"8 Legged Freaks". Nice to see Fang again. Scabbers being changed halfway 
into a furry goblet with a tail was precious. It's strange, but I don't 
remember the pets being brought to class in the books, but I am re-reading 
CoS, and haven't found a ref one way or the other. In later books, we find 
out about the Owlery, but the other familiars seem to stay in the dorm 
rooms. Rupert really liked the slugs, and they did look real enough to 
gross me out. *shudders*

The sets: wonderful and all that I could hope for, esp. in the classrooms 
and offices. I just wanted to see more of them. Was it just me, or did the 
lighting throughout the movie seem to be lacking, ie, too dark? The opening 
credits through the cloudscape were quite beautiful.

Things I didn't like:

The pacing. The first movie we got a sense of pacing from the various 
holidays and weather changes. In this movie, only the one quick Christmas 
scene in the Great Hall, and a snow scene with one horse and sleigh 
obviously computer copied over and over, although both scenes were pretty. 
I missed the Deathday Party, but it's not needed for the plot, nor is the 
Valentine's Day mess suggested by GL (but see below), but vague references 
to these in the movie would have helped the viewer get a sense of forward 
motion over a school year, from September to May. The movie went by so fast 
that one could easily get the feeling that all these events happened in 
just a few days! I didn't get that feeling in the first movie. Lucas and 
Spielberg do transitions nicely in the Star Wars and Indy Jones movies; CC 
could have learned a trick or two from the Masters. I still think his 
direction of "The Goonies" is one of the worse jobs that I have ever been 
subjected to. CC did okay with SS/PS, but not with CoS. I'm looking forward 
to seeing what this new director will do with PoA.

The Whomping Willow: the whole scene was very scary, but that tree did not 
look like a willow! And I'm always been disturbed about the idea of a 
willow tree in Scotland. That's just too far north for them to grow 
naturally, I would bet. Oh, right, it's magic! <g>

The Plot: there's lots of ickle little changes, but I don't object so much 
to those, as I do to the major plot changes, additions and subtractions. 
The nitpickers, here and elsewhere, are having a field day with CoS, but 
those things, yes, they do bug me, but the major plot problems are so much 
more important.

Why is Ron basically the comic relief? Why does Hermione get most of Ron's 
good lines, esp. the whole bit about Mudbloods? This scene should have 
followed the book more closely.
Leaving Ginny out of so much of the movie leaves a big hole in it. She's 
the one Tom Riddle goes after, and her character should have been more 
important. She's way too calm through the whole movie, the few times we see 
her when she's supposed to have a crush on Harry, she's scared and upset 
about all the strange happenings, and there's very little sense of her 
being part of a close family. Leaving out that crucial scene of her about 
to Reveal All is a major sticking point with me.

A thought about the Valentine's Day subplot lacking: without the dwarf 
tugging on a Harry frantic to get away, there's no tearing of Harry's 
school bag, and hence no scene where Harry finds out by accident that the 
diary he is carting around is "weird" since in the book it's the only item 
of Harry's that doesn't absorb the spilt red ink. Hence, in the movie, no 
further references to the diary until we see Harry write in it. This is yet 
another plot hole big enough to fly a dragon through.

The timing in the actual CoS: Harry should have been dead in a minute, and 
yet it's three minutes before Fawkes heals him. I always pay attention to 
this sort of thing. (The atomic bomb  countdown in Fort Knox in the movie 
of "Goldfinger" is a Classic Bad Example of Hollywood thinking that normal 
people can't tell time.) Must mention how poorly Ginny was acting in this 
scene when she woke up, not really scared at all. Dazed and confused, I 
guess, but still.

The end scene in the Great Hall: Hagrid didn't look like he had spent a few 
months in the horror that is Azkaban. Also, I don't think that he is not 
loved by many students, and all that cheering at the end was just so 
*shakes head* bad. The cheering should have been for Gryffindor winning the 
House Cup again. At least the cancellation of exams was mentioned, with 
Hermione's reaction shot, just priceless.

As another reviewer here said: 'Well, we didn't get to keep Gred and 
Forge's "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin!  Seriously evil wizard coming 
through!" ' Pity about that, as it would have given them a little character 
development as the jokesters and pranksters they are.

Another quote (blast it, all my attributions are gone! :( )from this list: 
"The nuances, humor and details that JKR puts in her writing that make the 
stories so wonderful are missing from the movies. However, that can be said 
about most movies made from books." I totally agree. And this one: "Also, 
some of the script.  Why does Kloves like to change lines for no 
reason?  Leave things be and bugger off.  Grr." What really got me was the 
change on the line about abilities that the Headmaster says to HP in his 
office after the whole CoS bit. Grr, indeed. And HP handling the bloody 
sword--it's pretty obvious that it's a thrusting sword, but that wasn't 
common a thousand years ago. Swords in the early Middle Ages were usually 
slashing swords with sharp edges, but not sharp points -- the thrusting 
swords with sharp points didn't come into vogue until late in the Middle 
Ages or the Renaissance, when the art of the duel came into fashion and 
what we now know as fencing was taught as swordplay in various schools. The 
sword did indeed look a wee bit too fancy for a sword from say 1066 AD, but 
at least it did resemble somewhat a sword from that era. (Note: I was a 
history major for a while in college, was a long-time member of the SCA, 
and have always been fascinated by all things medieval.)

Another problem with the last scene in Dumbledore's office: Arthur and 
Molly Weasley aren't there, frantic with worry over Ginny. No great line 
about not trusting something that thinks if you can't see where it keeps 
its brain, alas. But that's the least of the problems with the lack of 
Ginny's parents here. This scene in the book also served to show that Albus 
and the Weasleys supported each other, and that for all of Lucius Malfoy's 
pontificating aside, the Weasleys are a highly-respected and very important 
family in the wizard world.

Once again, this movie is but a Cliff Notes of the book, but even the PS/SS 
movie was a better job of retelling its story than this . At the same time, 
I can't wait for the DVD, as there will be at least 18 minutes of extra 
film footage, including the Borgin & Burkes scene that didn't make it into 
the movie. I can't help but wonder what other goodies we will see in May.

Deidre

Albus Dumbledore in the book of *Harry Potter and the Chamber of 
Secrets*:"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more 
than our abilities."