Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Kenneth Branagh, Richard Harris, Maggie Smith and Robbie Coltrane Rated PG for some language and intense fantasy images Cinesight Rating * * *

Director Chris Columbus has managed to follow up the humongous success of the first Harry Potter movie with something of equal magnitude in HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS. While it may not beat the first movie's box office numbers, SECRETS excels in terms of story. Young Harry (Radcliffe) returns to Howarts School for a second year of wizarding wonders. This time he and friends Ron (Grint) and Hermione (Watson) find themselves embroiled in a disturbing mystery involving a secret room deep in the heart of Hogwarts. Built by the dark wizard Salazar Slytherin when the school was founded, the Chamber of Secrets has been re-opened; and a seemingly invisible monster is roaming the school, petrifying any who come across it. Since only a descendent of Slytherin could have opened the chamber and loosed the creature, suspicion falls on Harry due to his unusual family background. Add to the mix an ineffectual but self-important new teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart (Branagh), and you have all the ingredients for a magical movie spell. SECRETS wastes no time in setting up Harry's world - pretty much anyone under the age of 25 knows it inside-out by now. We are thrust straight into the story as Harry is warned of impending doom by a not entirely trustworthy house elf called Dobby. Dobby is one of a run of recent all-CGI (computer generated) characters to hit the big screen. Thankfully he fares much better than the universally despised Jar Jar Binks from STAR WARS, but is still a little way from being fully believable as a character. The animators seem to keep him in constant movement, as though he is strung out on caffeine. After a while his constant nervous jitters started to get to me, but his screen time is limited so he doesn't drive you crazy. Once again, Columbus and writer Steve Kloves have stuck fairly closely to the book, but have seen fit to take a few more artistic liberties than they did with THE SORCERER'S STONE. These minor departures actually help the movie. Apart from one expository slump in the middle, they manage to keep the audience continually engaged. Some credit for this must go to Kenneth Branagh as the pompous Lockhart. He seems to relish the character, hamming him up to the point where I wondered if he had tapped in to some hidden reservoir of his own ego. As in STONE, the mystery culminates in a spectacular climax in the chamber. Harry alone must take on the heir of Slytherin, a talking diary and the monster if he is to save Hogwarts and his own future. Young Daniel Radcliffe has matured considerably in just a year. His performance and understanding of the character continues to grow, making for a convincing showdown. The same can also be said for Grint and Watson, who seem much more relaxed in their personas. Watson's Hermione still knows everything about everything, but she is much more a part of the trio this time around. And Grint continues to charm as the faithful comedic sidekick. Apart from all the action and big effects sequences, one of the greatest pleasures is that we get to explore much more of Hogwart's mysterious and gothic beauty. The set designers have done a wonderful job of blending existing location footage seamlessly with the studio sets. Also, whatever complaints people had about the Quidditch game in STONE have been fixed. This time the broomstick sport is fast and frantic, with little time for the audience to catch its breath. CHAMBER OF SECRETS is somewhat more intense that STONE, so I wouldn't recommend it for small kids. But for older kids and those young at heart, it is a great bit of escapist fantasy drawing on Greek mythology and the likes of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.