COS SPOILERS - My Thoughts (*Very* Long!)

[erisedstraeh2002]

I wanted to formulate my own opinion of the movie, so I haven't been 
reading the posts since the movie opened.  Since I'm probably the 
last listie to see the movie, much of what I'm going to say is 
probably repetitive of others, but I wanted to formulate my own 
opinion without reading those of others first.  So I apologize if 
what I'm writing is largely repetitive of what others have already 
said, but hopefully you'll find something new here.

Hopefully, that was enough spoiler space...

Overall – I loved the movie.  I thought it was much better than the 
first movie.  The main reason I liked it so much was because it was 
so true to the book – the dialogue was nearly identical, and I found 
myself mentally reading along with the script (since I have the book 
basically memorized!).  Since I think the book is fabulously written, 
I like nothing more than when the dialogue is identical to what JKR 
originally wrote.

I knew I was going to like the movie when I saw Petunia in the 
opening scene wearing a salmon-pink cocktail dress.  That told me 
that the movie was going to pay incredible attention to the small 
details JKR provided in the book.

Dobby was just as I had imagined him.  Since I knew he was a computer 
image, I was amazed at how real he seemed and how Harry could 
actually grab him.  I would have liked to see Dobby give the "He Who 
Must Not Be Named" clue, though.

I also liked how Uncle Vernon fell out of the window.  The more 
horrible things that happen to the Dursleys, the better IMO!  I also 
loved having the pudding fall on Mrs. Mason's head instead of on the 
kitchen floor – it just made it all the more awful.  

This doesn't mean I didn't think of ways in which the movie could be 
improved...

For one, where was the owl delivering the notice that Harry had 
broken the decree restricting underage wizardry?  That was an 
important plot point that was missed.

I also missed being told that the Weasley's house is called the 
Burrow, and I did so want to see Ron's Chudley Cannon-bedecked room.  
I also missed the de-gnoming.

I think it would have been neat to accompany Harry on his Floo powder 
journey.  I think it was OK that they didn't include the Borgin and 
Burkes scene, but they needed to make mention of Lucius Malfoy's ties 
to Voldemort and his possession of Dark Arts materials somewhere else 
in the movie to make up for this omission, and they failed to do so.  
The point could have been made when Harry and Ron visited Draco under 
polyjuice, but it wasn't brought up there, either.

Knockturn Alley was just as creepy as I had imagined.

I was disappointed that Arthur and Lucius didn't brawl – it would 
have made great theater!  Lucius was extremely well cast – he just 
exuded evilness.

I was so happy when the Anglia ejected Harry, Ron and their 
possessions – it was just as I had imagined it.  The Whomping Willow 
didn't look anything like a willow tree, though, and it still looked 
menancing even when it wasn't whomping anything.

I wanted more Snape – I wanted him to catch Harry and Ron badmouthing 
him from outside the Great Hall when the Sorting was underway; I 
wanted to hear him say "The train isn't good enough for the famous 
Harry Potter and his faithful sidekick Weasley;" I wanted to hear him 
say at the Duelling Club, "Time to split up the dream team."

The Howler was much louder than it was in the previews, and met my 
expectations this time.

The mandrake scene was great – but the students acted as if they 
could hear them screaming even though their earmuffs were on.  And 
why were the Gryffindors with the Slytherins instead of the 
Hufflepuffs – this is where Harry finds out Justin is Muggle-born, 
and it was entirely missed.  In fact, if you hadn't read the book, 
you wouldn't have known that Justin was Muggle-born, or gotten the 
connection between Harry supposedly sending the snake his way at the 
Duelling Club.  In fact, it's only after Justin is petrified that 
Harry even mentions his name, and if I hadn't read the book, I 
wouldn't have known who he was talking about.

The slugs were just as gross as I had expected – even more so, for 
they were about three times larger than I had envisioned!  And Rupert 
looked just as green as a person who's really sick to their stomach – 
just perfect!

I thought the movie made a big omission by not mentioning that Filch 
is a squib.  If you hadn't read the book, you wouldn't know that his 
being a squib was the reason Mrs. Norris was attacked.  And I have a 
sneaky suspicion Filch's squib-ness is going to be a plot point in a 
later book.

The movie missed Halloween entirely!  And important things always 
happen in the books on Halloween.  I could do without the Deathday 
party (although it would have been neat to see it), but Halloween 
needed to be mentioned.

I thought they should have stuck with the book and had Dumbledore 
examine Mrs. Norris before declaring her petrified rather than dead – 
how could he tell from a distance?

The scene where the students were turning their animals into goblets –
Ron turns Scabbers into a hairy cup with a tail – but since Scabbers 
is really Peter Pettigrew in animagus form, how could a spell that's 
designed for animals turn him into a cup?

I loved some of the lines they added – when Draco says to Harry!
Goyle "I didn't know you could read;" when Lucius describes the 
Weasleys as having "vacant expressions;" when Harry tells Ron (when 
they're fighting the spiders) "Where's Hermione when you need her?"

I wondered where Gred and Forge were during the Quidditch match when 
Harry was struggling to avoid the rouge bludger?

They omitted the scene where Hermione steals the boomslang skin from 
Snape's private stores – since this is a plot point in GoF, it will 
be interesting to see how it's handled then.

The handling of the Parseltongue was a little troubling, since the 
voice in the walls spoke English but Harry and Riddle both spoke the 
hissing language.  Plus, it's inconsistent with how Harry spoke to 
the snake in SS (since he spoke English then).  And we had no idea 
what they were saying, since it wasn't translated.  I think it would 
have worked better to have all of the Parseltongue scenes be 
consistent – either all English (with a hissing accent), or all 
Parseltongue (with English subtitles).

My biggest issues were with the Duelling Club scene.  All of the 
spells simply blasted the opponent off of his feet, regardless of 
what they were.  Lockhart still possessed his wand after Snape's 
Expelliarmus, even though the whole point of Expelliarms is to disarm 
the opponent.  Since Expelliarmus is used again in both PoA and GoF, 
it will be interesting to see how the movie-makers handle it then.  
Also, Harry's Rictusempra is a Tickling Charm, but Draco certainly 
wasn't laughing.  And Snape is supposed to tell Draco how to do the 
Serpensortia spell – how could Draco dream that one up himself??  
Also, how does Hermione get the cat hair off of Millicent Bulstrode's 
robes when she doesn't wrestle her at the Duelling Club?  If you 
haven't read the book, would you have known who Hermione was talking 
about when she mentioned Millicent?

The scene where the Trio is studying and everyone is staring at them –
where was that supposed to be?  I couldn't tell.  It didn't look like 
a class or the library.

Was the stone statue in front of Dumbledore's office supposed to be a 
griffin?  I hope so, since there was no griffin brass door knocker 
and the Gryffindor connection with the office (and Fawkes, IMO) is 
important.

I thought it was interesting that they used the UK version of the 
book when McGonagall gave the password to Dumbledore's office 
("Sherbet Lemon" instead of the US "Lemon Drop").  Also, in the 
Chamber, Riddle asks Harry how a "baby with no extraordinary magical 
talent" defeated Voldemort, which is also the UK version – the US 
version says "skinny little boy" instead of "baby."  Also, when 
Lucius shows up to see Dumbledore at the end, Dobby isn't in the 
middle of cleaning his shoes, which is how the UK versions have it.

I hadn't envisioned Dumbledore's office being so cluttered.  Plus 
there's no mention of books being all over the walls in the book, 
although they didn't seem out of place (since Dumbledore says in SS 
that everyone gives him books for Christmas).

I would have preferred Harry to have put the Sorting Hat on his head 
when he spoke to it in Dumbledore's office, rather than talking to it 
on the shelf.  Also, I would have preferred the sword to come out of 
the hat while Harry was wearing it in the Chamber rather than to have 
it appear out of thin air.

Dumbledore tells Harry about the healing tears of the phoenix and the 
ability of the phoenix to carry heavy loads, but they left out the 
statement about phoenixes making "highly faithful pets."  Also, in 
Hagrid's hut before Hagrid is taken to Azkaban, Dumbledore doesn't 
say "You will find that I have only truly left this school when none 
here are loyal to me."  These two statements are so important to 
Fawkes' arrival in the Chamber that I was surprised to see them 
omitted, especially since the surrounding text was used verbatim.

Fawkes was less menancing than the production pictures I'd seen, and 
more like the peaceful bird I'd envisioned.  I would have liked to 
see him more scarlet and less orange-red, though.

Hagrid's appearing in Dumbledore's office doesn't make a lot of sense 
since they deleted the part where Harry runs into Hagrid right before 
Justin is attacked.  Also, while we see that Hagrid is carrying 
something, it's hard to tell that it's a dead rooster, and there are 
no references to the crowing of the rooster being fatal to the 
Basilisk.

The previews showed Harry and Ron dragging the drugged Crabbe and 
Goyle into the broom closet, but they must have cut this scene in the 
movie.

When Harry finds Riddle's diary, we're not told that it's 50 years 
told.  I think that omission makes it harder for a viewer who hasn't 
read the book to make the connection with the prior opening of the 
Chamber.

Why doesn't Fudge come to Dumbledore's defense in Hagrid's hut?  It's 
a much more evil (or passive?) Fudge in the movie than in the book.

The spiders were much scarier than the previews had led me to 
believe – Aragog was just the right size (huge!).  I wish they hadn't 
made up that spell that Harry used on them, though.  I can understand 
why they'd have to make up a freezing charm for Hermione to 
immobilize the pixies, but the Anglia could have just rescued Harry 
and Ron in the forest.  I also wish the car had driven Harry and Ron 
away itself rather than Ron flying it away.

Rupert's the best actor of the three, IMO – he was absolutely 
fantastic in the forest.  His fear was just so palpable.  They didn't 
tell us that his childhood memory of Fred (or was it George?) 
changing his teddy bear into a spider is why he hates spiders so 
much, though.

The actor playing Riddle was great – so innocent looking on the 
outside, but so thoroughly evil on the inside.  But I would have 
liked to see a blurry Riddle coming more and more into focus in the 
Chamber.

There's always been a question about why Harry didn't talk 
Parseltongue to the Basilisk – they handle this in the movie when 
Riddle tells Harry at the end that he (Riddle) alone can control the 
Basilisk.  In the book, Professor Binns also tells the students that 
the Heir of Slytherin alone can control the Basilisk – so is this the 
answer?  Harry is led to believe he can't control the Basilisk, even 
though he can speak Parseltongue?  But then Riddle only gives the 
Basilisk an initial command – not the repetitive commands that are so 
effective in creating fear in the book.

I had a hard time seeing Fawkes piercing the Basilisk's eyes.

I think it would have been more effective if they had stuck with the 
sequence of events in the Chamber that are in the book – where Fawkes 
heals Harry's wound while Riddle looks on.  I think it's important, 
as it demonstrates that Voldemort is fallible and can forget things 
like the healing tears of the phoenix (along with forgetting the 
protection provided by the Lily sacrifice and whatever it is that 
using Harry's blood in his recreation potion is to mean).

When Fawkes leads them all upwards – why do we see the moon?  
Shouldn't they be returning up the pipe to Myrtle's bathroom?

When Dumbledore talks to Harry at the end, he doesn't explain that 
Voldemort is the last remaining descendant of Slytherin, and he 
refers to Harry having qualities that Voldemort prized, rather than 
Slytherin.  I liked it better in the book, as the whole point is to 
prove that Harry is not Slytherin's descendant – Voldemort is.

Now, the hug – I was surprised by this.  Not so much that Hermione 
and Harry would hug, but that Hermione and Ron would not.  I suppose 
this is foreshadowing for GoF, but we really don't get a sense of 
something going on between Hermione and Ron in CoS (at least, not in 
the movie – there are a couple of hints in the book).  If anything, 
it's more a sense of something going on between Hermione and Harry, 
the way the movie portrays it (I'm thinking of how Harry caresses 
Hermione's hand while she's laying petrified in the hospital wing, 
and how pleased they are to see each other in Diagon Alley).

On a personal level, one of the highlights for me was when the little 
boy in the row in back of me yelled "Harry Potter did it!" after 
Harry killed the Basilisk.  Also, how my four-year old daughter 
commented on how deep Harry and Ron's voices had become!

In summary, I can't wait for the video to come out so I can watch it 
over and over again without paying a small fortune each time!

~Phyllis
who appreciates her husband taking the kids on 4 bathroom breaks 
during the movie so she could watch without interruption