Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

I mainly went to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets because I needed the ticket stub to qualify for Odeon Cinema’s two-for-one January offer so, perhaps, I am not the best person to be commenting on the second instalment of what, it seems, will be an annual event to rival Bond films on ITV and cold turkey sandwiches on Boxing Day.

Also I hadn’t seen the first one – although I had attempted to read the book. The Philosopher’s Stone was the first book in a very long time that I have not been able to finish reading. So, again, my perspective may be a little warped.

However, I was sad that I did not enjoy it more. Unlike The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers, this film seemed to drag endlessly. I felt there were parts that served no purpose in the film and didn’t add anything to your understanding of the characters or progress the tale. Why, for example, was the whole spider sequence in there? It may work very well in a book but it didn’t translate to the film and just kept me wishing for the end which, when it eventually arrived, was also something of disappointment. When we finally meet the bad-guy he stands around like a wet fish.

There are some redeeming special effects which I thought were, in the main, superb but sadly the whole experience made me realise that, above all, these really are movies for kids.

On this day…