Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Directed by Chris Columbus

Everyone's favorite novice wizard, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), continues his high flying adventures at Hogwart's in this sequel to the smash hit Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, based on the best selling books by J.K. Rowling. This time around, Harry ignores warnings not to return to school - that is, if he values his life - to investigate with Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) a mysterious series of attacks.

Having read this book over a year ago, I didn't notice any small details that had been changed, but in general this movie was enough like the novel to not throw me off or annoy me in any way. Much like the first movie in this series, it seemed to stay as true to the novel as a film can.

This time around, Harry is warned by perhaps one of the most annoying characters of all time (yes, even close to Jar Jar Binks of Star Wars fame in just how annoying he is) - Dobby the House Elf - not to go back to Hogwart's. Even though Dobby does his best to keep Harry from school through various means, Harry does indeed go back to school where the Chamber of Secrets has been opened by the Heir of Slytherin. Something is on the loose that has the power to kill off the students one by one, but so far, the students have only been frozen/paralyzed.

Much like in the novel, the appearance of Tom Riddle makes this movie rather interesting and even though it does tend to drag in some places, the ending is worth the watch.

For as good as this film is, I just couldn't get over how annoying and pointless Dobby was. In fact, that character was so grating that I actually understood when his master, Lucius Malfoy, treated him poorly and kicked him around. Had I been near this whining and self-destructive House Elf, I probably would have done the same. I would have liked this movie (and probably the novel as well) much better had there been no Dobby.

As with the other film, the acting was top notch, the characters were well cast, and the film was, overall, something I would recommend. Just be warned that one of the most annoying characters of all times is in this movie.

My rating: Four out of five snails.