HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

US/UK, 2002, 161 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Kenneth Branagh, Emma Watson, Maggie Smith, Richard Harris, Alan Rickman, Shirley Henderson, Jason Isaacs, Julie Walters, David Bradley, Robbie Coltrane, John Cleese, Richard Griffiths, Miriam Margoyles, Rik Mayall, Fiona Shaw, Julian Glover.
Directed by Chris Columbus.

While Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was entertaining and satisfied millions of young film-goers around the world, its successor is even more enjoyable. Perhaps, like avid readers of J.K.Rowling's novels, we now know the characters and the way of life at Hogwart's School, and we are ready, even eager, to share their new adventures.

It is clear that the young cast are now very much at home with their characters. Daniel Radcliffe is much stronger this time. A year ago Harry was being introduced to us and to the revelation that he was a wizard. He had to find and settle into his new home at Hogwarts. Finally, he did get into his stride confronting Voldemart in an exciting climax. This time he goes almost immediately into action, and is generally in control. Rupert Grint made an engaging Ron Weasley. This time he is firmly under Harry's leadership and has to spend a lot of the time looking surprised, amazed or afraid. Emma Watson's Hermione has mellowed a little - although she is the only one who is visibly disappointed when Professor Dumbledore cancels exams!

The wonderful special effects get going very early in the film when a slightly grotesque but comic elf, Dobbi, arrives at Harry's uncle and aunt's and causes chaos so that Ron and his brothers have to rescue Harry in a flying Anglia, a device so enjoyable the car makes two more appearances where it is battered by an aggressive tree and then rescues Harry and Ron in the nick of time from some ultrarealistic, menacing spiders.

Meanwhile things are much the same in Knockturn Alley and at Hogwarts itself. Most of the staff seem more genial this time, Richard Harris's Dumbledore, Maggie Smith's Minervia Mc Gonagle, Robbie Coltrane's Hagrid, although Alan Rickman does his best to look a little sinister as Professor Snape.

However, there is a major addition to the staff, the affably vain Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, who glows in the adulation of his readers but is a coward at heart. Kenneth Branagh somehow captures perfectly the seeming contradictory aspects of being charming and obnoxious. (Most of the audiences who rush out during the credits will miss a final joke with him right at the end.) There is also a funny grumbling student ghost, called Moaning Myrtle.

On the villainous side, Jason Isaacs is a nasty, evil Lucius Malfoy while Christian Coulson appears as a nicely clean-cut student, Tom Riddle, who enlists the aid of a monstrous basilisk to achieve his dastardly ends. As he does sword battle with the giant basilisk, we realise that Harry is now a latter-day St George slaying the dragon.

One hopes that the fruitless arguments about witches and wizards will not deter audiences from seeing the new Harry Potter. The words are there as is 'magic', but it is the magic of fantasy and adventure, a what if...? world that we know can never be the real world, the world of The Wizard of Oz or Camelot, where legendary heroes and heroines do battle with evil, grow up and give us likeable characters who reinforce the differences between good and evil.

1. An entertaining adventure? The second in the series? The improvement from the first film? Adaptation of the novel, the spirit of the novel, the popularity with readers and audiences?

2. The modern settings - yet the mythical overtones? Harry at his uncle and aunt's, the railway station, the flying car, the train ride, the countryside, Hogwart School, the spiders, the chamber of secrets, the basilisk? The atmosphere? Musical score?

3. The special effects and characters: Dobbi, Sir Nicholas's ghost, Moaning Myrtle, the spiders, the Screaming Mandrakes, the basilisk and its size, threats, fighting? The diary and the magic writing, the replies? The sword? The playing of Quidditch?

4. The atmosphere of myth, legend, magic, wizards and spells, magic and action, making things right, stopping harm? Harry at the end as a new St George?

5. Harry and his age, one year after the initial story, Hogwart School as his new home, settled there, accepting his status as a wizard, the summer with his uncle and aunt, their nastiness, his cousin, trouble at home, the visitors, Dobbi and his noise, hitting his head? His uncle putting up the grid, Ron and the Weasleys rescuing Harry in the car, trying to get on the train, failing, the pursuit of the train, on the railway lines, the tree and its attack on the car? The experience of the first year, the friendship with Ron and Hermione? Their changing after the holidays? Ready for the new year?

6. The staff and their types, familiar from the first film, the new staff members? Albert Dumbledore and his wisdom, his not expelling Harry and Ron, his favouring them, his past relationship with Tom Riddle, knowing the chamber of secrets, experiencing the threat to the school, giving Harry the sword? The achievement, and his cancelling all exams? Professor Mc Gonagle and her role as deputy head, discipline, concern, friendship with the children? Professor Snape, his house, the spells, the duel of spells with Lockhart? His discipline? The professor with the Mandrakes, taking them out of the pot plant, their screams, transferring them? The dwarf professor? The librarian, the infirmarian? The caretaker and his sinister presence, blaming Harry for what went wrong, the petrified people?

7. Knockturn Alley, going through the chimney with the help of Mrs Weasley, the threats? Harry alone in the alley, the shops, being rescued by Hagrid? Hagrid at the school, his popularity, his knowledge of the chamber of secrets, the past experience with Tom Riddle, urging the boys to go with the spiders, trying to protect them? The cheers for Hagrid in the refectory?

8. Gilderoy Lockhart and Kenneth Branagh's presence and style, his books, the moving photos, his vanity, exploiting situations, especially with Harry Potter? At school, his cowardliness, his classes and his ignorance, the duel with Professor Snape, the girls infatuated, going into the chamber, his wanting to cast a spell for the disappearance of memories, its working on himself - and the final joke after the credits with him in a straitjacket and his book, Who Am I?

9. The atmosphere of menace, evil, the Department of Magic, Lucius Malfoy and his appearance, threats, sinister manner, his son and his plotting against Harry? His two henchmen - and Harry and Ron transforming into them (by means of the potion - and their feeling ill)?

10. Tom Riddle, the fifty years past, the diary, Ron's sister finding the diary, Harry and his opening it, the ink and the clues, the conversation with Tom Riddle? Going into the chamber, discovering the truth about Tom, the anagram and his being Valdemort? His setting the basilisk on Harry? Harry's victory and the disintegration of Tom Riddle?

11. Harry as a boy, his age, special, his leadership qualities, with the other pupils, playing Quidditch, confronting the spiders, the car to the rescue? Friendship with Hagrid? The diary, the chamber of secrets, his finally being a knight hero?

12. Ron Weasley and his pleasantness, his brothers, his mother and her fussiness, his low-key father? Getting into mischief, being scared? His second-in-charge to Harry? The disguise, being sick, the invisible cloak? Petrified by the spiders? Hermione and her being sick, also being petrified by the basilisk? Her being upset when there were no more exams? Colin and the photos? The other pupils?

13. An entertaining children's film: the strength of the characters, the nature of the magic, the quality of the fantasy, action adventure, role models?