1950

Harry Potter prepares to return to Hogwarts University when mysterious things begin to occur, onset by the appearance of the house-elf Dobby. Upon reaching the school with old friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, Harry and the other students are shocked when danger sets foot within the halls of Hogwarts and dark secrets are uncovered about the past.

Where the first film shined in its wonder and brilliance, the second installment in the series flashes with its deeper forays into the darker world of Harry Potter. The stakes are ratcheted up fairly quickly, and we once again are thrown into the grand cast of characters that populate this franchise, including new additions such as Dobby the house-elf and Ron's younger sister Ginny in her first year. The acting, effects, story, and music build off of the predecessor wonderfully and only leave me all the more excited for the future films of the franchise.

Content Concerns: The Chamber of Secrets is certainly a tad darker than the previous film, with allusions to and scenes of death being a bit more prevalent and "real." There are some glimpses of blood in battle, and there are also quite a few grisly creatures (those with arachnophobia, be warned!). There are also three uses of the term "bloody h-ll" by Ron.

(March 9, 2023) ( )

It's hard to be fully objective about a film series which is so well-known and which has been so surrounded by hype. But, trying to look at it fairly with the benefit of hindsight, it was hard to find anything wrong with this film. There's an excellent cast who play their parts well, great direction, and some light humour to temper the drama.

We even remembered to watch the few seconds of 'extra' at the end of the credits, and liked being able to 'fast forward' through them, which of course was not possible at the cinema.

Definitely recommended, other than to small children who might find it over-scary. ( )

Each year these books/dvd's get darker. In this one there is an attempt to kill Ginny Weasley. It's very difficult to set an age for watching these because they are scary. I read and watched them as adult which is a different thing. I have a crust young ones don't have. And yet the stories are so good it is very tempting to just let them have at it. However, I did not advise this for Kate's kids, nor do I for Serenity and Finn. I would say 11 at the earliest. ( )

Modified to fit a standard-aspect-ratio TV screen Region 1 (NTSC) ( )