Edwin Pereyra
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 1998
- Messages
- 3,500
Based on some discussions held here a year ago between Harry Potter and a certain other fantasy film, there are those who might think that I prefer the journey of a boy wizard to that of a certain Hobbit named Frodo. That would hardly be true at all. In fact, the first installment in a series of films about kids who aspire to be great wizards was such a letdown that my enthusiasm to see the next installment was virtually nil.
In the first Potter film, I went ahead and read the source material before seeing it. This time, I thought I’d take a different approach and not read the book beforehand hoping that it would be a better experience. Having now seen Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the young actors have definitely matured on their own and so has the entire film. But very much lacking in this installment is the element of surprise including the suspense and tension needed to sustain its action sequences.
Things appear out of nowhere and not because of the protagonists’ own doing that ultimately save them out of tight spots. I guess one can call these machinations as “elements of surprise” and indeed they are but not in a positive way and very much to the detriment of the story and the entire film. Why can’t these wizards-to-be come up with their own way of saving themselves? As such, some of the action sequences just fall flat on their own.
In the end, I’m still not quite sure if Chamber of Secrets is any better than The sorcerer’s Stone. While it does gain in certain areas such as better special effects and a more assured acting and directing, these are things that are normally expected when working with the same cast and crew. And somehow, these gains are cancelled to a certain extent by a few elements that weigh down on its story.
Definitely, its target audience would not mind these problems I talk about but to others, and most especially this viewer, they do cast a negative spell.
~Edwin
In the first Potter film, I went ahead and read the source material before seeing it. This time, I thought I’d take a different approach and not read the book beforehand hoping that it would be a better experience. Having now seen Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the young actors have definitely matured on their own and so has the entire film. But very much lacking in this installment is the element of surprise including the suspense and tension needed to sustain its action sequences.
Things appear out of nowhere and not because of the protagonists’ own doing that ultimately save them out of tight spots. I guess one can call these machinations as “elements of surprise” and indeed they are but not in a positive way and very much to the detriment of the story and the entire film. Why can’t these wizards-to-be come up with their own way of saving themselves? As such, some of the action sequences just fall flat on their own.
In the end, I’m still not quite sure if Chamber of Secrets is any better than The sorcerer’s Stone. While it does gain in certain areas such as better special effects and a more assured acting and directing, these are things that are normally expected when working with the same cast and crew. And somehow, these gains are cancelled to a certain extent by a few elements that weigh down on its story.
Definitely, its target audience would not mind these problems I talk about but to others, and most especially this viewer, they do cast a negative spell.
~Edwin
