First off, let me say this: DO NOT PAY MONEY TO SEE HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS! (hold on... let me bold that...*pause* that's better)

I saw the first movie only after it had been out a while and was plesantly surprised by it. The second movie is probably 80-90% trash. The humor points ARE funnier, the dark points are WAY darker. No child under 7 should see this movie. I would say that no movie has ticked me off this much in a very long time.

Lets throw aside everything plot/story related for a second and just talk technical. 3D animation was beautiful. Think AMAZING, work of art. Now, that having the only good thing to say I'll continue. The director, should not be allowed to touch another movie EVER again. It seemed like someone went into the editing room with a DULL machete and edited the movie. The script was horrible and the acting was also pretty bad. I don't know what happened, they seemed like they could act in the first movie. But for some reason the 3 main characters couldn't seem to pull it together in this movie at all. Makeup, I normally do not notice makeup in a movie at all. It has to be BAD for me to catch it. Because if it's good, I won't see it. Harry kept changing his age. From scene to scene he would go from looking like he was 16 to looking like he was 10.

Technical things aside, story time: I haven't read any of these books so I have no idea how each book is from book to book, but this movie seemed to basically follow the same pattern as the last one. And the "fate" card ("Oh look who showed up out of no where! With a magical tidbit/ forgotten clue") was played WAY too often.

Witchcraft plays a bigger role in this movie than the other one, as another note.

The thing that disturbed me a lot about this movie was the little house elf (Dobby). I think they should have toned down this character a little bit. He felt the need to punish himself whenever he did something wrong, and yeah it's funny when he's banging his little 3D head against a wall, but at one point he shows up and holds out his hands (which are covered with bandages) and says something to the effect of, "I was very bad so I had to iron my hands." Woah! Hold on a second, this really isn't something we should be trying to get a laugh out of, people have serious problems with masochistic tendencies and self mutilation. I think they should have kept to him banging his head against the wall. The ironing thing went too far and edged the movie into the "disturbing" realm in my mind.

Ok, Kenneth Branagh, played a good part in this movie. He aided in the humor department a lot.

To sum this up I would say this: This movie is poorly written, poorly put together (edited), animation is beautiful, acting is poor (Except from Kenneth Branagh, Jason Isaacs, and Richard Harris), and overall I think this series is rapidly going from the realm of children's movies, to adult movies. If the next one is darker than this one and any more disturbing It's going to need a PG-13 rating.

I have to admit I am disapointed with the director, J.K. Rowlings and the whole cast in general (except those noted above). They had a lot to work with and I think they failed to make a good family movie. I think something that bothers me is that people will just go see this movie because the first one is so much better and not realize that this series gets dark quickly and has some things in it that might not be suitable for younger children. (Can anyone say Ballisk?)

I'll try to be a little more upbeat in my next post.

~B.