Connie's Warwick Davis Fanpage and Leprechaun Center

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Released November 15, 2002
Directed by Chris Columbus
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson

This movie is based on the second novel in the highly popular Harry Potter book series, and it's quite a change from the first movie. The first film never quite captured the lighthearted spirit of the books. This one doesn't either, but the difference is in the way they do it. The first movie was slow-paced and a little too conscious of how cool everything was; this movie abandons the self-admiration and delivers fast-paced action that is surprisingly intense for a film about children. And it succeeds very well on those terms; it might be too overwhelming for younger children, but older kids and adults will have a great time.

The story, of course, deals with the continuing adventures of young Harry Potter and his friends at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Warwick Davis returns in the role of Professor Flitwick, one of the teachers at the school. In the first movie, Flitwick was front and center in a fairly long scene and had several lines of dialogue. Alas, there's no such luck in this movie; he has no dialogue at all and never directly participates in the action. Still, he can be seen several times: as a spectator at the Quidditch match, as a participant in an impromptu teacher conference held in the hallway, and sitting at the teachers' table during the final banquet. The character didn't fare too much better in the book, but he did have a couple of moments that would have looked great on screen. It's too bad they didn't put those in the movie, but it IS very long already and they simply couldn't include everything.

Likewise, the media blitz for the first movie included a lot of interviews with Warwick Davis, plus numerous publicity photos of Flitwick (and Warwick's other character, the Goblin Banker, who did not return in Chamber of Secrets). But I haven't found anything similar this time; the media focus is on the main characters and the new characters. The one exception is HBO's 15-minute Making of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets documentary, which provides a brief film clip of Flitwick in the teacher conference scene (see photos above). The presentation of the clip is a real teaser - watch all the way to the end of the documentary. The credits roll, it fades to black, and then the clip pops up to give the viewer one last little surprise.

I had some other problems with the casting and the handling of the characters. There wasn't nearly enough Snape, and the part of Gilderoy Lockhart really screamed for Hugh Grant, who was the filmmakers' first choice for the role. On the other hand, there were some excellent new characters: Jason Isaacs was great as Lucius Malfoy, and Christian Coulson made a fine Tom Riddle.

The CG special effects were better this time around. The basilisk reminds me a little of the Eborsisk dragon in Willow in the way he moves, but he's a lot faster and is quite a scary beast!

Overall this is an excellent movie, and I'm looking forward to number three.

The Articles section includes a number of Harry Potter-related articles.

The Pictures section includes Harry Potter photo galleries.

Here are some good places to find general Harry Potter information:

The Harry Potter Lexicon has a detailed description of Professor Flitwick.