Watch the full movie online.
Cast & Crew
- Director
- Harry Potter
- Ron Weasley
- Hermione Granger
- Gilderoy Lockhart
- Nearly Headless Nick
- Rubeus Hagrid
- Professor Flitwick
- Vernon Dursley
- Professor Albus Dumbledore
- Lucious Malfoy
- Professor Severus Snape
- Petunia Dursley
- Professor Minerva McGonagall
- Mrs. Molly Weasley
- Moaning Myrtle
- Professor Sprout
- Mr. Arthur Weasley
- Ginny Weasley
- Draco Malfoy
- Mr. Angus Filch
- Madam Pomfrey
- Tom Riddle
- Dudley Dursley
- Aragog
- Dobby the House Elf
- Producer
Information for Parents
Information on Purchasing This Movie
Link your DIRECTV account to Movies Anywhere to enjoy your digital collections in one place.
Link your DIRECTV account to Movies Anywhere to enjoy your digital collections in one place.
Rentals are not eligible.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Ultimate Edition Blu-Ray
Year: 2002
Rating: PG
Runtime: 2 HRS 41 MIN (Theatrical), 2 HRS, 54 MIN (Extended)
Directed: Chris Columbus
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Robbie Coltrane, Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, and Kenneth Branagh
Film Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Video Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Audio Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Extras: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
The Film
As much as I hated Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone upon my first viewing I hated it's follow-up even more. In the year following my first viewing of Sorcerer's Stone I hadn't bothered to re-watch the film so I went into the sequel with very little recollection of the events of that film. To say I felt lost was an understatement, I didn't understand how the events in the Sorcerer's Stone tied to the Chamber of Secrets and by the end of this film I swore to never watch another Harry Potter film again.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets picks up during Harry's summer holiday from Hogwarts. His neglectful Aunt and Uncle are continuing their quest to try to stifle Harry's magical ability and force him to live a normal life. Then one night Harry is visited by a strange creature named Dobby (who is a House Elf) who informs Harry he must not return to school or terrible things will happen at Hogwarts. Harry of course disregards this warning from Doobie (I find it a lot more fun to call him Doobie rather than Dobby, I'm not sure why) and heads back to school anyways. Of course, terrible things do begin happen at Hogwarts, most of which have something to do with the "Chamber of Secrets". Shockingly enough, our hero and his faithful friends must solve the mystery and of course, save the day. There's also more Quiddich, a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and a few new characters are introduced that will play more integral parts in the series later on.
In my review of Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone I went into detail about several issues that I thought hindered the film from being great. Those issues included the film's director Chris Columbus, the child acting being less than amazing, and some shoddy CGI work by 2001 standards. Chamber of Secrets improves on two out of three of those issues. Chris Columbus is still in the director's chair for this installment and unfortunately not much has changed concerning his handling of the film. Chamber of Secrets is bland and lacks the visual flare you'd expect to see from a film on this scale. Far too often dramatic scenes are followed up with scenes that are filled with juvenile humor that robs the film of any real sense of danger or foreboding. CGI work is improved on and doesn't show it's age quite as much as Sorcerer's Stone. If you watch Sorcerer's Stone and Chamber of Secrets back-to-back you'll see a clear difference in the quality of the CGI, a great example comes in the form of the Quiddich match. The first film's match looked pretty damn lousy whereas Chamber of Secrets looks somewhat decent by comparison. Where the film does clearly outclass its predecessor is in the children's performances. While they're are still some issues with some of the youth cast, most make at least moderate improvements. Emma Watson finally learned that she didn't have to over enunciate every other word in the script which made her less annoying over the course of a 2 1/2+ hour runtime. Overall, most of the kids seem to feel a lot more comfortable in this film and that's important when they're the focus of the film.
The "big" name addition to the cast is Kenneth Branagh (who recently directed Thor) as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Lockhart. He replaced Hugh Grant who dropped out due to scheduling conflicts and I'm glad he did because Branagh's performance is often scene stealing and is one of highlights of the film. Chamber of Secrets also introduces us to a few new adult characters that we'll see a lot more of in future films. Mark Williams plays the Weasely's muggle obsessed father Arthur and Jason Isaacs plays Lucius Malfoy, the smarmy father of Harry Potter's school rival Draco Malfoy. Throughout the books and to a lesser extent the films, fatherhood is an important underlying issue and these two characters represent the polar opposites on how to be a dad. I'd be remiss not to mention the character of Doobie (I know it's Dobby but again, I like Doobie better) who I absolutely despised during my initial viewing of Chamber of Secrets. After reading the books my feeling changed a bit for the character so if you're anything like me you might find yourself saying "@#$% this movie, Doobie pisses me off." Go ahead and take a deep breath and say to yourself, "I won't see this character again for quite a few movies" and move on. He can be a bit much to handle but if you read the books your feeling for Doobie might change some and you might even find yourself liking the little bastard.
Overall, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a better film than Sorcerer's Stone. It's not leaps and bounds better but I think to those that are still Potter novices this film will be more accessible to them since they've already been exposed to the world of Harry Potter. As with the first film, Chamber of Secrets stumbles some thanks mostly to it's director Chris Columbus and his wishy-washy direction and pacing. Hardcore fans will argue that this is the purest film in the franchise due to how closely it follows the novel but what works on the page doesn't always translate well to the screen, so I wish the film would have deviated slightly from the book to make a involving film.
The Blu-Ray
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secret's Ultimate Edition Blu-ray comes in an almost identical case as Sorcerer's Stone. The main difference between to two aside from the artwork is the color of the cases and the numbering. Sorcerer's Stone is blue and is labeled Year One and Chamber of Secrets is red and is labeled Year Two. Inside our sturdy cardboard slipcover you'll find both the theatrical and extended cuts of the film, a second Blu-ray loaded with special features, a standard-def (SD) DVD of special features, a digital copy of the film (theatrical cut only), a collectible book, and two character cards (Rubeus Hagrid & Severus Snape)
Just as in the case of Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets features both the theatrical and extended cut of the film. The extended cut is approximately 13 minutes longer than its theatrical counterpart bringing the film dangerously close to three hours long. Most of the added footage isn't that exciting and amount to a few small moments of interest or are just extensions of existing scenes. Book purists will be pleased that these moments have been added back in but if you decide to watch the theatrical cut you won't be missing much.
Chamber of Secrets features the same Hi-Def transfer used for the previous Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Only a year separates the first and second films but Chamber of Secrets has a better looking transfer than the first film. Colors pop more, black levels are inkier, and detail is improved and more consistent. Grain level is always appropriate and thankfully I didn't notice any use of DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) which if applied heavily can make people look like plastic or appear waxy.
Featuring a DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 track for the theatrical cut of the film and a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track for the extended cut Harry Potter sounds great no matter what version you watch. Dialogue is always crystal clear even when the score or on-screen action picks up. Large chunks of this film are dialogue driven but when the action kicks into gear you'll notice impressive bass and good activity from the surround speakers. One scene features hundreds of spiders crawling down from the surrounding trees to attack Harry and Ron and it's an extremely well done moment that made me check over my shoulder to make sure that no creepy-crawlers weren't about to pounce on me either.
Disc one only offers up one special feature which is the PiP (Picture in Picture) commentary track with director Chris Columbus. Some of what he has to say is interesting and the visual aids are mildly entertaining but there are long gaps in between segments and when the movie is almost three hours long that gets a little tiresome especially if you just watched the film all the way through.
As with the previous Potter Ultimate Edition, the Creating the World of Harry Potter documentary is the premiere special feature in this set. Part II: Characters is an 80 minute long installment covering every character of mention in the Harry Potter series, not just those in Chamber of Secrets. There's a good mix of interviews both new and old that delivers some great insight into not only how the characters have grown but how the actors have as well. The documentary is filled with lots of behind the scenes footage and candid interviews from both the youth and adult cast. This documentary series should be reason enough for some die hard fans invest in Ultimate Edition sets, they are right up there with the best documentaries I've seen offered on any Blu-ray or DVD set. Next up is 12 minutes worth of screen tests of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint which are presented in HD. I'm surprised these were not included on the Sorcerer's Stone set but because of the "Characters" documentary, they thought the screen tests were a good companion piece. Also included in HD are a selection of deleted scenes, most of which are included in the Extended Cut, total runtime of the deleted scenes is 17 minutes. The last special features on the disc is the teaser (SD), trailer (HD), and 17 TV spots all presented in (SD)... as usual, if it's not in HD I hardly considerate worth watching which brings me to disc three. The third disc in our set is full of non-HD extras that have been ported over from the old DVD releases and therefore I have once again avoided filling my Blu-ray player with such filth.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a stronger entry than the Sorcerer's Stone but the franchise still hasn't hit its stride yet. The kid actors have improved and the CGI is holds up a lot better but the film still suffers from Chris Columbus' overly family friendly style of film making. If you made it through Sorcerer's Stone and are still interested in knowing what happens next to Harry and his friends then I think you'll enjoy Chamber of Secrets. If you find yourself struggling through keep in mind that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is coming up next and that's where the film series takes huge leaps forward.
Conclusion
I highly recommend Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets especially if you're a Potter fanatic. If you're not interested in the wonderful Creating the World of Harry Potter documentaries or are a little more price consensus you can always pick up the single disc Blu-ray for about $10 and still get great video and audio minus the extended cut and documentary. Either way you've got less than six weeks till Deathly Hallows Part 2 is released to get up to speed... Get to watching!