Yeah. Moaning Myrtle was annoying, but I think she was that way in the book too. It was necessary to include her in this film because she does play a part in Goblet of Fire.
I didn’t find her all that annoying in the books; I pictured her as sort of an Eeyore type. I don’t know what they were trying to do with her character in the film, but it sure didn’t work.
Overall, I thought it was decent – not up there with the books, but a nice piece of mental candy. They are going to HAVE to do something about Ron, though; he comes across as a crybaby without much character.
And I agree about young Biggerstaff. Mmmm…
It’s been a while since I read the second book, but did no one win the house cup at the end of the year? I thought with Harry there, Gryfindor won it every year.
BTW, this was my least favorite book in the series, so I’m kind of suprised I liked it better than the first. I think it was all about the pacing and the effects, although I have to give credit to Branagh and Isaacs for being terrific.
Actually, Ron and Harry stacked up enough points from saving the school that Gryffindor did win at the end of the year. And there was no big celebration for Hagrid in the book, either. They changed the ending up quite a bit.
I was quite annoyed that they dwelled on some pointless scenes (wrong flue powder exit, Hagrid’s return, transformation into Crabbe and Goyle) and left out just about every good thing I remembered about the book (Death Day, garden gnomes, Malfoy vs. Weasley fight in the bookshop).
Still, it was better (somewhat) than the first, which I thought was pretty awful.
Rupert Grint needs to get a new, non-“Little Rascals Scared Take” face.
Hagrid’s arrest was lame.
“Where ya gonna send me? Oh, Azakban? Darn. That’s just not right. Well, here I go, then.”
In the book, he was terrified and it was a major point relating to book 3.
Hagrid’s welcome back standing ovation was bizarre.
The kids who played Crabbe and Goyle were good in their scene, but they just aren’t Crabbe and Goyle. They need to be uglier and taller and menacing, rather than just fat and stupid.
[celestina looking at the mountain of work on her desk]
I have no business replying to this or any other thread, but anyway, I wasn’t all that impressed with this film. Yes, I’m biased towards the books because they contain far more depth, but the angle this film took just disturbed me. It’s not a movie I’d take kids to see. But what disturbed me was the very thing that disturbed me to a greater degree in “Star Bores: Attack of the Clonezzzzzzzzz”: the fact that all the characters have no life to them. They’re cardboard. There’s no depth to them, no room for them to expand and grow and move outside of what we know they’re going to do. If the movie’s supposed to be Columbus’ and the actor’s interpretation of the characters, then why don’t they give them some life? 
Of course it could just be that these actors who play Malfoy, Harry, Hermione, and Ron can’t act, but I even find Dame Maggie Smith’s portrayal of Professor McGonnagall and Alan Rickman’s portrayal of Snapes boring and one-dimensional. Perhaps it is just a problem with doing movie remakes of books. To what extent can the actors move beyond what we do know about the characters and imbue them with other interesting traits that we can extrapolate from what we do know? For example, Hermione is a fascinating character. There’s so much we don’t know about her beyond her bookishness. What drives her to study like she does? How does she so easily make the transition from Muggle world to Wizard world? The movie would be an opportunity for Emma Watson to give us a better sense of Hermione’s character, especially since I felt like one of the main points of COS was to explore the tensions between the Muggle and Wizard worlds. Isn’t the basilisk designed by Voldemort–who hypocritically enough is half Muggle–to eradicate Muggles from Hogwarts? What must it be like for Hermione as a Muggle to be in the wizard world? What kinds of cultural clashes must she and her family face? We get to see a few culture clashes with Harry who’s supposed to belong to the wizard world, but these are honed down to taking potshots at his uncle, aunt, and cousin and then a few minutes in the Weasley house in the first few minutes of the movie. There’s so much richness to the clash between Muggle and Wizard that could have been explored and wasn’t. Instead we get uninspired acting–except for Branagh, who did a great job with Lockhart, and the dude who played Mr. Weasley, whom I wished we could have seen more of–special effects (whoopee :rolleyes:), and boring dialogue.
Well, I’ve rambled long enough. Back to the grind. . .
I saw Chamber of Secrets with two good friends last night. I’m obviously not a movie critic, as is evidenced by the fact that I like Daniel Radcliffe’s acting. Kenneth Branaugh was brilliant as Gilderoy Lockhart, and I get the impression he was loving every minute of it! In particular, I liked seeing two old pros like him and Alan Rickman squaring off during the duel scene. By the way, I watched Dogma on Sunday night so Rickman’s performance in that was still fresh in my mind, but except for a similarity of voice, the two performances didn’t interfere with each other. We were also lucky enough to catch the little scene after the credits.
Now, the company I saw the movie with would make even Ghost Dad worth the money. On second thought, maybe not Ghost Dad. I wish the Whomping Willow had looked more like, well, a willow, and I would have preferred to see this movie ending with the points being awarded to the various houses rather than Hagrid’s return. I would think that most students at Hogwarts wouldn’t be all that aware of Hagrid. As an engineer’s daughter, I was also waiting for the stands to collapse during the Quidditch match as support after support got knocked out. I also agree that the horror of Azbakhan should have been played up more. Still, it was worth the money and the time. Bring on The Prisoner of Azbakhan, and Richard Harris, may you rest in peace after a life well lived!
CJ
Yes that scene was pointless in the movie. In the books, he lands in a dark artifacts shop, and Lucious and Draco come in and Harry overhears a whole lot of stuff.
The Valentine’s Day dwarf-cupids!
I missed them! They would have been friggin’ HILARIOUS! Plus they were an important Lockhart episode.
I know some things had to go, but this was unforgivable. The unforgivable omission in the first movie was Hermione solving the “containers” puzzle.
I agree with MrThompson – it was basically a series of events, and we could have done with some small vignettes, montages and plain mood-setting stuff, y’know?
Oh yeah!! The cupids! I forgot about those! That would have been funny 
The cupids! Of course! Plus, having the hall decorated in the hearts would have shown more of the distain the other professors had for Lockhart. I would have liked to have seen more of their less-than-impressed opinions of him more often. IMO, they didn’t show enough what the other teachers felt for him, or that they were all “on” to his fraud.
I saw the movie last night and came in just as the car was crashing into the Whomping Willow. I will be going to see it again.
I thought that the movie carried all the major points of the book, though Snape was virtually written out. The Weasley Brothers were nearly not there, except one line in before the Quidditch Match. Oliver Wood, hubba hubba.
I really enjoyed it, except for the lack of comedy from Fred & George, and I really wish they would show a dung bomb going off.
In the book that just sounds so funny and the reaction to Filch would be excellent. Filch is just so perfect in his role. ’ I remember when they use to hang the students by their thumbs. God I miss those days.’ George and Fred are always playing practical jokes and you never see it in the movies. Poop.
**Moaning Myrtle ** bothered me at first. I guess I was expecting someone more dumpy and fat. Sorta like Kathy Bates’ in school. Whomever Myrtle was, take away the glasses and peevish voice and she wouldn’t be nearly half bad. Kinda the Madonna/Whore thing going on. Her speech was really irritating, which is the point, but for some reason all I could think of was Judy Tenuta minus the accordion.
I also did not picture the bathroom being so elaborate.
Minor Nit Pick: When McConigle, Filch, & Snape confront Gilderoy to make his get ready to go into the Chamber of secrets , in the book, after Lockhart departs, the trio admit to doing it on purpose to get rid of his menacing buffoonery.
**Lucius Malfoy ** Best New On Screen Villian. The sneer. The condescention.
the Spiders were very suffieciently creepy. But the head spider did look like a cast off from a 50’s MSK3000 movie and the voice was rather odd,I thought.
Kenneth Brannagh was great as Gilderoy, but I thought Hugh Grant would be brilliant too, more foppish and eye batting.
Now this I don’t remember in the book **Dobby ** protecting Harry from Lucius Malfoy. Did he get special powers when he was freed ?
I give it a 9 out of 10, but you can’t dance to it.
My sentiments exactly!
What fun that scene must have been to do and to watch!
Actually, I thought that was one of the director’s better decisions; if I recall the first movie correctly, the guys playing the Weasley twins can’t act at all. (Which is not too surprising, considering how hard it must be to cast red-haired British teenaged identical twins, but still, they were almost painful to watch.)
I haven’t read the books, so I don’t know if this is from Rowling or the screenplay, but the one thing that really struck me was the scene where the elder Malfoy and Weasly met. Weasly wasn’t even remotely scared of Malfoy, which totally breaks the Disney-afterschool-special mold of the menacing father being able to push all the other dads around. Weasly was all, “Yeah? You’re a wizard. So?”
It’s in the books, too. Remember, Arthur Weasley is a wizard, too. And a high ranking one in the Ministry of Magic (he runs his own dpartment and is called upon in the opening of Book IV to taek on some powerdul wizards). Why would he be intimidated by Lucius Malfoy?
In fact, in the book CoS LM and AW start throwing punches at each other. Man, I’d have loved to see that.
**Fretful ** I agree that the screen version of Fred and George were wooden, to say the least.
Shirley Ujest, yes, to answer your question. One of the Weasleys mentioned earlier on in the book that house elves are very powerful. Remember, Dobby was no weakling before, he was able to do a few things to Harry that made Harry think he was trying to kill him. Also, if you read the book with Winky, she had a lot of magic as well. I won’t say anymore, or I’ll spoil it.
But, anyway, once Dobby was free, he was able to go fight his master and protect Harry.
That part was in the book as well.
Except that Gilderoy has to be at least passingly handsome.
I saw the movie tonight. I thought it was okay. I’m not a huge fan of the books, largely because I love children’s literature and am jealous that Rowling got the attention that I feel far more innovative writers deserve, but hey, what can you do? School tales have always been popular. I loved Enid Blyton when I was younger…
Anyways, I did enjoy the movie quite a bit. However, is it just me or did Lucius Malfoy not look at ALL like you thought he would? Maybe it’s just me. I pictured him as a sort of pudgy and balding business man, the typical “evil corporate white man” you know? Probably there is textual evidence to contradict this, but that’s the feeling I got from the books. (Not that this is a bad thing. I like eyecandy. Sexy evil man, hurrah!) I guess I’m just strange.
The same goes for Lockhart. I realize the guy playing him is a famous and skilled actor and all, but he’s not really that attractive (at least in the stereotypical Lockhart way, IMO.) And his hair is more red than blonde. Wasn’t Lockhart blonde? I pictured Gilderoy as younger and blonde and more “huge flashing smile” type’a guy, really.
Also, I have a Thing for Snape as well. Yum. The long hair does it for me. However, every time I looked at him I was like “oh my lord, it’s Davey Havoc 20 years older and with a bit of plastic surgery!” However, I am strange.
And I liked, heh heh, Mr. Biggerstaff as well. The accent is wonderful (Mind you, almost all of my mum’s side of the family lives in Scotland, so I’m used to it.)
Ahem, I’m afraid my teenage girl-ness is showing since practically all of this post discusses how the men in the movie look. I don’t really have any useful comments to make on the actual content.
However, the “We all love Hagrid” bit at the end was lame.
Now I need to go see the new Bond movie. I hope people don’t mind too much when I laugh at things blowing up. What can I say, the sheer joy of destruction…!
Tana
PS: I saw the preview for The Two Towers tonight as well. It looks like great fun, even though I don’t have any clue to the plot of this one. (I only read the first bit of the first book!) Lots of shots of the delicious Aragorn, mmmm 