Released: 2002
Version: Film
Length: Approx. 161 minutes
Rated: PG
Main Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson (II), Robbie Coltrane, Tom Felton, Richard Harris, Kenneth Branagh, Harry Melling
Harry has another movie! It's amazing!!! And this one is quite a bit better then the last one.
If you haven't read the book or seen the movie yet, then don't read this review unless you WANT to have it spoiled for you!
Anyway, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) is back at the Dursleys getting ready for some guests. How does he do this? By pretending not to exist in his room. Unfortunately, that is not an easy task when there's a house elf in there. The elf's name is Dobby and he wants to warn Potter not to go back to school as it'll be too dangerous. After some masochistic tendencies on the part of the elf, Dobby admits to intercepting all of Harry's mail in hopes of making Harry think that no one likes him and thus won't return to school...this ticks Potter and he chases the elf down to the Dursleys where Dobby gets Harry in trouble.
There, now you all know how it starts! There are little differences to this sequence and the one in the book, but they don't matter that much.
So, Harry is in trouble and ends up locked in his room with bars on the window. His friends, the Weasleys, come to rescues him and take him to their house in a flying car.
Rather then go over the movie scene by scene, I'll just give an overview of the rest of this flick.
For some reason, it was decided to stick Malfoy (Tom Felton) in ALL of the Gryffindors' classes. This was dumb, but it works out ok. However, it's odd that the only Slytherin representatives are Malfoy, Crabb and Goyle. I suppose I missed the rest, right?
Back to the story though. Harry ends up trying to find out who the "Heir of Slytherin" is due to the fact that there are bloody words on walls and people are being petrified in the castle by some monster. To find out more about it, Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson II) make a potion that will change them into someone else.
Of course, everything works right and they trick Malfoy into giving them more information, although not the information they expected.
Well, you all know what happens in the end. Harry wins and everything is hunky-dory once more. On to the "Stuff" cartegories:
The Good Stuff:
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This movie followed the book quite well |
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Marked improvement in the acting and special effects since the 1st movie |
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Well-paced...until the end... |
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Lucius Malfoy's scenes |
The Bad Stuff:
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Cursing for no reason... |
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Hacking up slugs is not a nice thing to watch |
The Dumb Stuff:
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Argh! Why did they drag out the end sooo long...no one cares about Hagrid except the principal characters... |
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The book explained the car rescue better, but the book's version was duller then the movie version... |
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Lucius calls his son "Jacob" in the movie in the bookshop, or so it seems...his correct name is "Draco." What the?! |
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Hermione does everything...somehow she manages to stun a room full of pixies with one zap...which makes no sense...she rescues Harry from a rogue bludger too...is everyone else stupid? And she makes the potion and figures out the monster... |
I thought this movie was pretty good...it had some dark stuff, like having a girl die slowly to resurrect a memory (messed up garbage if you ask me!), but it had some positives in it too...like friends will do anything for one another and a rather inspirational talk with Prof. Dumbledore (Richard Harris).
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