Potterheads have had this debate a thousand and one times and have never agreed on the best film in the saga of the most famous wizard. But there is one that is particularly maligned, even hated, and yet, on many points, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is ahead of the rest.
The return to Hogwarts did not go as planned in Chamber of Secrets . Young Harry Potter, winner of Quirrell in the first game, struggles to return to his school to learn how to cast spells and protect himself against You-know-who . However, regularly criticized, some do not hesitate to place Chris Colombus' film as the worst in the saga. Let's restore the reputation of this film, which is as misunderstood as it is brilliant.And don't forget, it doesn't matter if you don't like this opus! Tastes and colors... in short, you know.
If Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone offered us colors, melodies and festivities, this is not the case of the Chamber of Secrets . The work of Chris Colombus, already on the strength of its success with the first part, improves here. If its predecessor was aimed at children, the second understood it. He will speak as well to toddlers as to adults and it is his darker side that will play the hyphen between the two generations. Forbidden forest, murders, kidnapping, manipulation, cave, snake, spider, rivalry... Characteristic elements of the Chamber of Secrets .
If there is a film for young people who have read the book with passion, parents are also happy to find horror plots. Few films of the genre show a child killed, others petrified or hunted by giant spiders. And what about the main monster, the basilisk? Much better done and more scary than the three-headed dog of the first, the fight against the XXL snake is really scary.
Yes the chase in the Prisoner of Azkaban is terrifying. Yes the Deathly Hallows are hard to do with the many deaths. But what we must not forget is that the characters remain children in The Chamber of Secrets , which makes their adventures even more terrible even darker. The suspended and petrified cat, the body of the late Moaning Mimi, pale Hermione... Images that still stick in your mind.
If the first film looked like a kindergarten entry where the choice of future relationships is still in its infancy, the second will, more than any other film in the saga, create their basis. This is where the legendary trio of Harry , Ron and Hermione forms and fuses. And it is also here that the rivalry with Drago and his father anchors. We then understand that this family is viscerally the enemy of the scarred youngster, more than in any other film. It is also this film which shows the first meeting between Ginnie and Harry , and we quickly understand what will happen between the two.
If he is a charismatic villain, his past is only evoked and shown in the films compared to Harry Potter. In The Chamber of Secrets , the young Tom Riddle, future Voldemort, is shown thanks to subtle flashbacks and with, thereafter, with a human face, which reinforces his features, showing him, suddenly, more impacting.
The connection with our hero through the diary is simplistic but brilliant. His partial death, with the destruction of the orcrux that was the little book, remains one of the most significant.
A Harry Potter movie , it is also a world of magical and terrifying creatures. If the dogs/werewolves in the third installment and the dragons in the fourth and seventh are successful, they did not necessarily offer the same realism as those seen in The Chamber of Secrets . Basilisk and the Giant Spider offered thrills that other films rarely offered.
Are the arguments starting to run out to defend one of the most criticized in the saga? We draw the house-elf card, Dobby . A real favorite for Harry Potter fans , the small being with the big ears is surely one of the most appreciated characters. His death was a real stab because in The Chamber of Secrets , his role, his character, his humor scored the necessary points.
Other reasons also make the Chamber of Secrets a film apart:the unique humor of Professor Lockart, the arrival of fundamental characters such as Ginnie and Draco's father, Richard Harris' last film as Dumbledore...
