Harry Potter and the chamber of secreats

[Sween]

went to watch the movie last night i thought it was excelent again very well acted (apart from some of the lesser younger peoples roles) and fitted together nicely.

Not as good as the book as been a movie it has to flip past much of the inbetween stuff so it moves from scean to scean without that much explination.

the balask was very good nice cg there. dobby looked real enought the quididich game was better than last years.

what did everyone else think of it?

[GandalfTheWhite]

it doesnt come out in the US till friday:(

[Sween]

Originally posted by GandalfTheWhite
it doesnt come out in the US till friday:(

unlucky

[Goldberry1]

Well, since I live in the US I haven't seen it yet, but I think it will be better than the first one. Movies and books seem to get better as they go along in a series, at least I think so. My expectations for the first movie were too high I think and I was a little bit disappointed by the CG animation, but I hope their better this year. Only four more days, I can't wait!

[Varda Oiolosseo]

I havn't seen it yet but i'm going tomorrow and i can't wait!!
I love the books!!!! So I expect it's going to be really good! :D

[Hanza]

I saw it last Saturday and thought it was brilliant. The acting was a lot better and daniel radcliffe has improved immensly. I got a tad scared by the spiders but thought the basilisk was great.

Yey!! england got a film before the USA

[IronParrot]

I unfortunately won't be able to see it until the Sunday after its Friday opening, due to a debate tournament... I feel left out. Oh well.

I'm sure I'll have lots to say, though.

[crickhollow]

don't feel bad, IP, I'm not going until Tuesday (famous players cheap night :D ).

[Sylvee Estel]

I probably won't go until next weekend or the next, because last year my friends and I went on opening night, and some "cool" people saw us there, they were seeing a different movie, anyway they still make fun of us for it. I don't really car but my friends do, and they've already said that we are definately NOT going as soon as it opened. And I don't wanna go alone, or with my parents so oh well.

[Varda Oiolosseo]

WOW!!!
It was soooooo much better than i expected!! This one was actually really funny and i was laughing all the way through!! Lockhart (I think that's his name) was very funny!!!!!
All the spiders really freaked me out though!! there was hundreds of them!!
The acting had impoved a lot compared to the last film!!
It was great and definately worth seeing!!! :D

[galadriel88]

I saw the earliest showing today w/ my parents. (Yeah yeah, I'm a geek....who cares? My parents are great!) It was really good! Better than the first one, I think. Moaning Myrtle was PERFECT! So was Lockhart, he's hilarious! :D Of course, the book is still 10x better, but this one came closer to the book than the first one. Overall a great movie. Highly reccomended. :)

[Sylvee Estel]

Well I got over myself and went to see it with my mom today, and it was a lot better than I expected. It was also a lot better that the last one. It was really really good. The spider part freaked me out too. The thing I really liked about the movie was everything looked exactly how I'd pictured it when I read the book. My favorite part of the movie was the Quidditch match. I wish that was a real sport, it looks like so much fun.

[Arathorn]

I saw it last wednesday. It was better than the first one. The child actors were more at ease with their acting.

I wish I hadn't read the book before this one, though. Although they were very faithful to the book in that they didn't add anything not in the book, I wanted to be pleasantly surprised moving from one scene to the next. I had that last yr since I read the books just after watching the movie.

Now that this appetizer' done, gimme TTT! :D

[Starr Polish]

Did any of you see the TTT trailer when you went to see it?

[Arathorn]

I saw the latest TTT trailer when I watched HP. I still get excited everytime I see treebeard (or another ent) picking up Merry (or was it Pippin?). :D

[BeardofPants]

We're not getting it 'til the 28th. This is SO not fair! :mad: This, combined with the fact that we're not getting TT for ages either means I'm gonna have to put up with you lot gloating. Grrr.

[Sween]

tought s*** kiwi

[Silverstripe]

Originally posted by Sylvee Estel
My favorite part of the movie was the Quidditch match. I wish that was a real sport, it looks like so much fun.

It could be done -- well, not EXACTLY Quidditch, but something close (picture ropes and grids). It would be a rough game though.

I went to see the movie yesterday. It was good, but it made me become disgusted with the "magicals" of that world yet again. A couple of places in the movie, my friends and I were grumbling, "Snoodies!" or "Snoodie Elorrans!" a them. (made up words: Snoodie, a word for the HP magicals; Elorran, one-worlder)

As for the TTT trailer, I saw it, and it was the best part of the movie! (I'm saying this as someone who LIKED the movie, too.)

[Starr Polish]

Originally posted by Arathorn
I saw the latest TTT trailer when I watched HP. I still get excited everytime I see treebeard (or another ent) picking up Merry (or was it Pippin?). :D

It's Merry, you can tell by the yellow vest.

I'm not a huge HP fan, and I hated the last movie, but I've heard this one is better. I'm bored today, if I can get ahold of one of my friends I'm going to go see it.

[Starr Polish]

Just got back. It was far better than the first one, but eh, still not a very good movie. The effects were nice, and Dobby didn't bug me as much as I thought he would. I laughed a lot, surprisingly. I think Rupert Grint was the best of the trio, he definitely has a future in acting. :D

Moaning Myrtle WAS perfect!

The ending was corny. Bleh.

Did any of you stay until the end of the (endless) credits? There was a short but cute little scene.

On the way into the theater there is a television that shows previews, and the long version of the TTT one was showing, and I squealed. :o I never squeal! I was quieter in the theater when the shorter trailer came up, but my friend (who is a movie-fan) was breathless.

[galadriel88]

How did you guys get the TTT trailer?? My dad was late meeting us (as usual :rolleyes: ) so I walked in late and missed the previews, but mom said they didn't show the TTT preview. Oh well....*shrugs* Starr, squealing isn't bad when it's about LOTR! :D I squeal quite a bit (or go "Ooh, ooh!") whenever I see LOTR stuff. But I was like your friend when I first saw the preview - totally breathless. My first words after it was over were "Wow!" and then "I wanna see that again!" :D

[Starr Polish]

Well, I say I was silent, but my heart was beating like a hummingbird's. There were cheers of 'Yes!' coming from people around me, including littler kids. Very cool :D

I wore my One Ring to the theater, to show where my loyalties lie ;)

[Khamûl]

I went and saw the movie this afternoon. It was better than the first one. Lockhart was great. And they followed the book faithfully. I'm impressed. I can only hope that the movies get more mature and darker as the books have.

[IronParrot]

Okay, some brief comments regarding this film, which I caught at a very very very late show on Sunday night.

- My greatest gripe is not with the film, but with the fact that I kind of wish I'd had the opportunity to see it in a kid-packed theatre on opening day (or the first Saturday matinee)...

- My other non-film gripe is that I have yet to see the TTT trailer in theatres.

As for the film itself:

What I liked

- Scene that left me with the best impression: Harry's journey into Tom Riddle's diary, where everything except Harry was sepia-toned, in a Schindler's List-esque way (except it was more sun-faded than actual grayscale). But this was, cinematically, the best scene I've seen in any Chris Columbus film, the one with the most regard for actually using the motion picture medium to a storytelling advantage. And it was certainly as enchanting as my favourite scene from Philosopher's Stone, the Mirror of Erised.

- The escape from the spiders was a thrill to watch, and made the Forbidden Forest on the whole far more terrifying than it was in Philosopher's Stone. Will go down as one of the legendary spider scenes (and will be subsequently pushed down the list come The Return of the King, right?).

- The whole climactic set piece of the Chamber of Secrets was executed quite effectively. I love how it was designed, especially the homage to North By Northwest. The Basilisk was an exciting monster to watch. It's good that what I think is the strongest part of the book, the rousing climax, was definitely taken care of in a satisfying way. I do have one gripe with this whole sequence that I actually remember, but it's a minor one... more to follow.

- Moaning Myrtle wasn't very well superimposed, but was probably the most spot-on portrayal in the film... followed, of course, by Kenneth Branagh's all-too-brief appearance as Lockhart. There is no doubt in my mind that Branagh was perfect for the role.

- The Duelling Club was another of the film's highlights for me, just on its own merits.

- Lucius slipping the diary into Ginny's cauldron I of course noticed, having read the book, but it was executed more subtly than all the Quirrell clues in the film of Philosopher's Stone. (Not that it's much of a standard to beat.)

- Dobby making himself disappear was a nice touch. And he wasn't annoying.

- The official at King's Cross who looks on as Harry and Ron fail to pass the barrier was the same as the one in Philosopher's Stone... I thought that was a nice touch.

- Musically, there really isn't much to say about the score, except for one very nice new theme for Fawkes, which I think warrants a mention.

- The film did not feel nearly as long as it was - 2h40 flashed right by. Maybe because I was familiar with the material.

What I didn't like

- The biggest problem in the first film still plagues the second: the editing is choppy and almost abysmal at times. They obviously scripted and filmed way, way more material than they could cram into a reasonable running time for distribution... seeing a bit of this, a bit of that, etc. is not preferred over actually seeing anything developed, at the expense of other subplots if necessary. We see a bit of Malfoy, a bit of Quidditch, a bit of the Burrow, a bit of Lockhart, a bit of Dumbledore, a bit of Snape, and not really much of anything. In essence, it didn't cohere as a dramatic work - more like a sitcom where various segments are just slapped one after the other. It works in the book, but it doesn't work here, especially in truncated form.

- Fawkes was a disappointment... not sure how I'd elaborate on this.

- The gripe I have with the Chamber of Secrets segment - as I said, a minor one - is Gryffindor's sword... the way it just, well, appeared, didn't quite work for me.

- Other than the Fawkes theme, the scoring seemed a bit of a rehash of the first film. However, the music wasn't nearly as intrusive in Chamber of Secrets as it was in Philosopher's Stone. It's almost as obvious a Williams rip-job as the adaptation work in Jurassic Park 3, and the re-editing of Phantom Menace music in the end battle of Attack of the Clones, but falls just short.

- If one thing was significantly a step backwards from the first film, it would be the role of Snape as a whole.

- The film can't seem to decide if watching or reading Philosopher's Stone is a prerequisite or not. In the beginning of the film, half the time it's trying to re-establish everything from scratch, and half the time it's just allusion, and it doesn't commit to any certain perspective. Establishing all the names all over again near the beginning is far from subtle.

That's all for now. If I come up with more stuff to say I'll say it.

[Charlotte]

can someone please help me as im pulling my hair out trying to discover, is the woman that plays Professor Sprout the same women that plays Nursie from the blackadder films? I went to see Harry Potter last Friday and i saw her and my sister asked if it was and i couldnt stay for the credits.
Thanks
love Charlotte
xxx
xxx

[Hanza]

no it was...Patsy Byrne
Miriam Margolyes played Queen Victoria in Black Adders Christmas Carol.

[Starr Polish]

Originally posted by IronParrot
If one thing was significantly a step backwards from the first film, it would be the role of Snape as a whole.

Hear, hear! Alan Rickman was the best part of both movies.

[Liviaine]

Well, Snape wasn't too important in it, but Lucius Malfoy was great.

No TT trailer!

[Radagast The Brown]

I still didn't go to HP. It just that I had no time in the last Friday and we celebrate Chanuka (Hanuca?) with dinner on this friday... well, anyway I think i'll see the movie moreee few weeks.

[Varda Oiolosseo]

YAY!!! I get to see Harry Potter again!!!!!!
I'm doing The Duke of Edingbourgh Award through school and as my service i'm helping at Brownies and we get to take them to see Harry Potter!! Actually taking 24 seven year olds to see a film could be a bit worrying!!!

Something that is really funny is we had to give the kids different foods to try from around the world and the leader gave them some ginger to try and they all thought they were sweets so they put loads in their mouth and when they realised that they weren't there faces were sooooo funny i couldn' stop laughing i was actually crying it was that funny!!!!!!!

[galadriel88]

I'm seeing it again tonight with friends. I'm glad to be able to see it a second time around, because now I can watch it with a more critical eye. I'll post my observations tomorrow!

[crickhollow]

finally saw it last night. Lockhart was the perfect moron. Lucius (didn't he play the bad guy on _The Patriot_?) was perfect. I thought that I would dislike Dobby (I guess I was afraid he would become the Jar-Jar of HP) but he was great, too.

Snape: I must say that I cheered for Snape this episode, because it was so much fun to see him make a mockery of Lockhart (the wizard's duel, etc). When He and McGonegall tell Lockhart that they'll leave him to deal with the monster, you can almost hear them both thinking , "I hope the monster kills him"

btw--I want a sweater like the one Molly Weasely wears at the beginning!

[Renille]

I saw it opening night, but just discovered this thread.

Guess what? I discovered I was arachnophobic!!! I started hyperventilating during the spiders. I was extremely scared. I screamed at one point, I believe. (Luckily, no one except my friend heard me.) I didn't really approve of the basilisk! It looked like a long, slimy crocodile with huge fangs. Not snakey enough! :p Oh well, I'm nitpicking. Like someone else said...MYRTLE WAS PERFECT! She was wonderful! I wish I could have been that part. It would be fun! Anyway...I LOVED Ron's squeaks. It's so funny how his and Harry's voices have begun changing between movies.

Anyway. I loved the movie, even though some parts freaked me out completely!

[Varda Oiolosseo]

At first when i saw it advertised i didn't like Dobby!! But i love him now he's soooooo adorable!!!

[BeardofPants]

Originally posted by Sween
tought s*** kiwi

Now, that I've finally seen it, I would just like to tell you that you can stick that comment where the sun don't shine. :mad: :rolleyes:

[Khamûl]

Originally posted by crickhollow
Lucius (didn't he play the bad guy on _The Patriot_?) was perfect. Yeah, that was him. Colonel Tavington. Jason Isaacs is wonderful at playing villains because you just love to hate him.

[Sween]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
Now, that I've finally seen it, I would just like to tell you that you can stick that comment where the sun don't shine. :mad: :rolleyes:

were we not impressed?

[crickhollow]

Originally posted by Renille
I didn't really approve of the basilisk! It looked like a long, slimy crocodile with huge fangs. Not snakey enough! :p I agree. It wasn't snakey enough. Nevertheless, even though I expected it to pop out of nowhere at any moment, I still jumped so high that I almost ended up in my sister's lap

[sun-star]

I finally saw it, and I was pleasantly surprised. Much better than Philosopher's Stone, as everyone has said. The only problem was that although it was so long, there wasn't enough of everything - they were trying to fit it all in, and not quite managing. All the beginning until they got to Hogwarts was fantastic - I liked the opening shot of the suburbs, the Dursleys are pretty good, and the Weasleys and their house were perfect, especially the parents. But Ron! What have they done to Ron? The actor's not bad, but why is he such a weak, whimpering, whining coward? I can understand a fear of spiders, but a fear of nearly everything? He's not Neville Longbottom! Personally, that's what annoyed me the most. I have a soft spot for Ron, the Sam to Harry's Frodo.

There were lots of nice touches. It all looks great (with the possible exception of Fawkes - too red, too real-looking) especially the scene inside the diary. I liked Harry's relative incompetence with the sword in the ending too - I'm glad he didn't turn into a superhero. Ginny and Tom Riddle were good as well (why is Tom so familiar? What else has he been in?) And as everyone has said, Lockhart was brilliant.

So overall, very good :D

[Elf.Freak]

I saw the movie, liked it, but thought it fun to shout out TTT trailer with my sister! :D

and it's secrets by the way :rolleyes:

[Khamûl]

Did anyone stay until the very end of the credits? I did. It shows a camera pan of Diagon Alley and it comes to rest on a bookstore window. On display is a book called "Who Am I?" by Gilderoy Lockhart. The picture on the cover is a wizard's photo of Lockhart in a straightjacket. It was funny.:D

[Varda Oiolosseo]

Oh I didn't see that! :( I'll have a look when i go again on Tuesday!
I thought that this was sooooooooooooooooo much better than the last one by miles!! The actors didn't seem as wooden!

[BeardofPants]

It kinda sucked how they wussified Ron though. He's not such a wuss in the books.

Edit: I see sunstar has already commented on this... :rolleyes:

[Hanza]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
It kinda sucked how they wussified Ron though. He's not such a wuss in the books.

I lov the 'wussfied' ron. His voice cracked me up the whole way through. And i love it when he says
"follow the spiders, why couldn't it have been follow the butterflies"!!!:D :D

[BeardofPants]

Originally posted by Hanza
I lov the 'wussfied' ron. His voice cracked me up the whole way through. And i love it when he says
"follow the spiders, why couldn't it have been follow the butterflies"!!!:D :D

Okay, that bit was funny. :D

[crickhollow]

on the wussified Ron: "follow the butterflies" was priceless, but while they were tramping through the forest, maybe Ron could've explained why he has such a fear of spiders...I recall something about a nasty prank being played on him...

I also didn't like how they gave all of Ron's smart lines to Hermione. How the heck did she know what a mudblood was, if it isn't the type of thing you hear in polite conversation? Do you think she read it in Hogwarts, a History?

[jerseydevil]

I was impressed with the improvement in the CGI in this film versus Sorcerors Stone. They obviously put a lot of the profits from the first one into the CGI for this one. Dobby was great and Lockehart was hilariously funny (just like a primadonna movie star :)).

[Blackboar]

I really liked Moaning Myrtle!! I thought she was really funny.!
Well I don't know I was distraught

I also liked the plant teacher (I've forgotten the name)
when Neville faints! LOL!

Ron was really good. His facial expressions with the spiders
were spectacular!!

[Elfmaster XK]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
It kinda sucked how they wussified Ron though. He's not such a wuss in the books.

Edit: I see sunstar has already commented on this... :rolleyes:

I agree. It annoyede me a bit, but overall the film was so much better than the first one. Tom Riddle was good. Moaning Myrtle was supposed to be ugly though, and she wasn't particularly. Lucius Malfoy was cool, except...THEY PUT A BOW IN HIS HAIR! how can he be evil with a bow? eh? Wrong. Very very wrong. *shakes head*

[Coney]

Finaly got to see it tonight:) (took a while for the tape to get delivered).

Well what can you say?............It was the film of the book, no huge surprises and no big dissapointments.

The characters were gloriously overacted (not a bad thing).

The special effects were great.

And once again Hogwarts looked just like Hogwarts should (although I'll never get used to seeing places I've walked around on film).

Yep, a nice enjoyable film.

Lockehart (Brannagh) does, of course, deserve special mention....brilliant character:D

[Silverstripe]

Originally posted by Coney
And once again Hogwarts looked just like Hogwarts should (although I'll never get used to seeing places I've walked around on film).
[/B]

LOL! Me neither. Though in the case of "Hogwarts," it's fun to show certain pictures to some of my friends who've seen the movies but don't know where I really was.:D

[Varda Oiolosseo]

I lov the 'wussfied' ron. His voice cracked me up the whole way through. And i love it when he says "Follow the spiders! Why couldn't it have been follow the butterflies!"

That was funny and then his face when he says "Can we panic now?" by this time i was falling off my seat!

[englishnerd]

Loved the movie, particularly Gilderoy Lockhart and the new Lucius Malfoy was awesome...re: Lucius Malfoy can be evil and macho with a bow just as the same actor could be macho and evil with the fuzzy hat-thing in the Patriot! His presence totally even uses the bow and the fuzzy hat-thing to make his menace even more evil!

I have to say though, I was once again superbly bummed not to see Peeves in this movie. Yes, I agree also about Ron's "smart lines' being given to Hermione. But I didn't notice him being too wussified. Next movie should redeem his character even more.

Loved professor sprout, also, and Poppy Pomfrey. Beautiful CG in Fawkes and the Basilisk. yikes!

Did anyone think the Whomping willow was different from their mental picture?

[BeardofPants]

Originally posted by englishnerd

Did anyone think the Whomping willow was different from their mental picture?

Yup. I kinda imagined something more... willowy.

Why aren't they putting Peeves in the movies?? :confused: Rik Mayall would be awesome as Peeves.

[Khamûl]

Peeves needs to be in the next movie. After all, doesn't he play an important part involving the Marauder's Map? Or at least make an appearance in a bit involving the map? Forgive me, it's been a while since I've read The Prisoner of Azkaban.

[Varda Oiolosseo]

Yeah they can't leave Peeves out!
I'm surprised they didn't put him in the first two films!!

[Hanza]

Originally posted by englishnerd
Did anyone think the Whomping willow was different from their mental picture?

Definetely. It was too like a normal tree. I imagined its willowy branches to be like loadsa arms that would shake it about.

[Blackboar]

I can't wait till the 3rd movie!!!!!!!!!!!

[Varda Oiolosseo]

I know even though wev'e got another year to wait!! The same for LOTR . The waiting for TTT is nearly over YAY! Iv'e been going mad waiting for it I can't wait! :D

[Ërendil]

I thought this film was better than the first, as I was VERY dissapointed with the philosophers stone, but the kid who does Harry is the worst actor ever. He might as well wore a mask for all the emotion he showed, even in the most frightening (Come on, a Basilisk is going to kill you for crying out loud) and painful scenes (He broke his arm and he showed a mild look of surprise).
Dobby was brilliant though, very well done, and Ron was funny - I was smiling and laughing, especially during the spider scene :)