Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

A year after the first instalment of the adventures of the young wizard along comes the second of the Harry Potter films. And truth be told, it's a far more satisfying affair than its predecessor, darker in both tone and atmosphere, while maintaining the high energy of the first film.

Despite being warned to the contrary, Harry Potter (Radcliffe) returns to the Hogwarts to continue his training. Pretty soon, Harry and his pals, Hermione (Watson) and Ron (Grint), hear of a terror which lurks in the recesses of the school, involving a terrifying monster whose very gaze turns people to stone. Needless to say, it's left to our Harry to do battle with this strange creature and the dark figure who is orchestrating everything.

Of course, there's a lot more to it than that, but for those of us unfamiliar with the texts, Chamber of Secrets is a lot looser and more welcoming than its predecessor (which, it seemed, was far too concerned with making introductions). And though the kids in the central roles are a lot better than they were in the muddled Philosopher's Stone, the film really belongs to the adult actors (Brannagh, the late Harris, Isaacs, Coltrane all do excellent work), and the array of special effects assembled by Columbus. Fiercely enjoyable stuff, the only major problem is its outrageous running time. Just shy of three hours in length, Chamber of Secrets is, not to put too fine a point on it, an ass numbing excursion. Less would have been more.