By Graham Osborne
Today, we continue with our journey through the magical world of Harry Potter with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The second film in the franchise features the introduction of Dobby the house elf and gives us some backstory for Voldemort. But again, as with the first, there are a few incongruities between the films and the books that could be sorted out.
Today, we continue with our journey through the magical world of Harry Potter with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The second film in the franchise features the introduction of Dobby the house elf and gives us some backstory for Voldemort. But again, as with the first, there are a few incongruities between the films and the books that could be sorted out.
To start with, the lighting in this film feels too bright, and it’s the same in the first film as well. From Azkaban onwards the lighting falls into more natural levels and it works really well, though maybe it’s a thematic thing, whilst the first two films are fairly bright and (relatively) happy. The third film takes a much darker tone and the rest of the films follow in that vein. Changing the lighting levels in the first two films would bring them more in line with the rest of the series and just help everything link together a bit more visually.
Moving on, the layout of Privet Drive has changed between the first and second films. This is really rather jarring when you’re watching the films in rapid succession. This sort of thing could easily be explained away if it were Hogwarts due to a fairly simple handwave of “it’s magic” (though even then, it shouldn’t be allowed. There is no reason for changing the geography of a defined place between episodes/series unless something cataclysmic has happened!). The Dursley house itself appears to have stayed the same, although Harry has now moved into the spare bedroom, though this should have really happened in the first film as an attempt at appeasement by Vernon Dursley for Harry’s wizarding abilities.
Continuing in the vein of the plot for a little while longer, is it just me or does Dobby seem older in this film than when we see him in later ones? It may just be the advancement of computer graphics that makes this the case, but it is a little disconcerting. Also his speech pattern seems to fluctuate between the first and third person slightly. In the books it was third person, and while it is fairly easy to miss during this film, it becomes a lot more obvious later on (I’ll get to that later). Finally on speech patterns; the use of the phrase “of course” was pointed out to me by my housemate during the re-watchings. It gets said at least once during each film, normally by a Weasley, and it gets very annoying when you start to notice it, of course.
Moving on, the layout of Privet Drive has changed between the first and second films. This is really rather jarring when you’re watching the films in rapid succession. This sort of thing could easily be explained away if it were Hogwarts due to a fairly simple handwave of “it’s magic” (though even then, it shouldn’t be allowed. There is no reason for changing the geography of a defined place between episodes/series unless something cataclysmic has happened!). The Dursley house itself appears to have stayed the same, although Harry has now moved into the spare bedroom, though this should have really happened in the first film as an attempt at appeasement by Vernon Dursley for Harry’s wizarding abilities.
Continuing in the vein of the plot for a little while longer, is it just me or does Dobby seem older in this film than when we see him in later ones? It may just be the advancement of computer graphics that makes this the case, but it is a little disconcerting. Also his speech pattern seems to fluctuate between the first and third person slightly. In the books it was third person, and while it is fairly easy to miss during this film, it becomes a lot more obvious later on (I’ll get to that later). Finally on speech patterns; the use of the phrase “of course” was pointed out to me by my housemate during the re-watchings. It gets said at least once during each film, normally by a Weasley, and it gets very annoying when you start to notice it, of course.
During Harry’s brief sojourn into Knockturn Alley, he misses the opportunity to encounter his rival Draco Malfoy. Harry’s hiding in the Vanishing Cabinet in Borgin and Burke’s is a great way of foreshadowing the sixth film where Draco is working on the other Vanishing Cabinet to bring the Death Eaters into Hogwarts for the assassination of Dumbledore. Okay, nothing is mentioned at this period in the books, and the sixth book was barely a blip on the horizon when the second film came out, but still, that little touch is a nice throwback. Also, they changed the meeting between Harry and Draco in the first film (on the Hogwarts Express) as well as this one, which just feels like cheating character development between the two.
Moving to Hogwarts, I’ve discussed the alterations to the geography regarding Privet Drive, and will probably bring it up again as we continue with this series. But I digress. This is the final film to star Richard Harris as Dumbledore before his untimely death in 2002. The necessary change of actor to Michael Gambon allowed the directors to change the personality of the character to a slightly more eccentric style, in many ways more akin to the books. The only problem with the change is that Gambon doesn’t look like Dumbledore in comparison to Harris. The ideal compromise would be to somehow combine the looks of Richard Harris with the vibrance and personality of Michael Gambon, but unless science has managed to implant the brain of someone into another host, it’s unlikely to happen any time soon.
The class where Hermione interrupts a teacher to ask them about the Chamber of Secrets is a very important part of the book, to give the audience the necessary explanation on what trials the characters would be experiencing later in the story. However, it seems hard to believe that Professor McGonagall would allow a class to be derailed in such a way. It admittedly is pointless to add in a random teacher just for the purposes of exposition, but it’s also rather hard to find a teacher who would likely wish to talk about school rumours from the faculty at the time. The most likely would be Lockhart, although he’d probably be more inclined to work himself into the story in some way. Flitwick may be a good choice too, but it still takes a bit of suspension of belief (no pointing out the obvious please).
Moving to Hogwarts, I’ve discussed the alterations to the geography regarding Privet Drive, and will probably bring it up again as we continue with this series. But I digress. This is the final film to star Richard Harris as Dumbledore before his untimely death in 2002. The necessary change of actor to Michael Gambon allowed the directors to change the personality of the character to a slightly more eccentric style, in many ways more akin to the books. The only problem with the change is that Gambon doesn’t look like Dumbledore in comparison to Harris. The ideal compromise would be to somehow combine the looks of Richard Harris with the vibrance and personality of Michael Gambon, but unless science has managed to implant the brain of someone into another host, it’s unlikely to happen any time soon.
The class where Hermione interrupts a teacher to ask them about the Chamber of Secrets is a very important part of the book, to give the audience the necessary explanation on what trials the characters would be experiencing later in the story. However, it seems hard to believe that Professor McGonagall would allow a class to be derailed in such a way. It admittedly is pointless to add in a random teacher just for the purposes of exposition, but it’s also rather hard to find a teacher who would likely wish to talk about school rumours from the faculty at the time. The most likely would be Lockhart, although he’d probably be more inclined to work himself into the story in some way. Flitwick may be a good choice too, but it still takes a bit of suspension of belief (no pointing out the obvious please).
There is very little difference between the Quidditch matches throughout the films. The first match was exciting and interesting, the second not so much, suffice to say there’s probably a reason why Quidditch doesn’t get brought up much after the fourth film. There are some parts of the story that can only be told whilst Harry is playing Quidditch, the bewitched bludger in this film wouldn’t make much sense if it was just following him down a corridor in the school, and the Dementor attack in Prisoner of Azkaban would be less dramatic without the fall from Harry’s broom. There’s nothing that could really be changed to make the Quidditch matches more entertaining, but there needs to be an attempt of some sort.
The drinking of the Polyjuice potion causes one’s appearance to change into that of the person one wishes to imitate, except their voice. Throughout the films, the only person whose voice changes is Barty Crouch Jnr in Goblet of Fire, the rest of the films that feature the potion being used result in the characters keeping their voices. This may be an aesthetic choice to avoid confusing the viewers, but it still seems a bit of a cop-out. Filmmakers should have more faith in their viewers when it comes to following a plot. That’s not really something that needs to be mentioned in regards to this film specifically, but just in general.
Whilst on the subject of the Polyjuice potion, Harry only realises that he is wearing his glasses when disguised as Goyle after he’s had it pointed out to him by Malfoy. Surely, if his eyesight were so bad he would have noticed earlier (as he does in the books), it seems as if that sort of thing would have tipped off Malfoy if he wasn’t being stupid for the sake of the plot.
The drinking of the Polyjuice potion causes one’s appearance to change into that of the person one wishes to imitate, except their voice. Throughout the films, the only person whose voice changes is Barty Crouch Jnr in Goblet of Fire, the rest of the films that feature the potion being used result in the characters keeping their voices. This may be an aesthetic choice to avoid confusing the viewers, but it still seems a bit of a cop-out. Filmmakers should have more faith in their viewers when it comes to following a plot. That’s not really something that needs to be mentioned in regards to this film specifically, but just in general.
Whilst on the subject of the Polyjuice potion, Harry only realises that he is wearing his glasses when disguised as Goyle after he’s had it pointed out to him by Malfoy. Surely, if his eyesight were so bad he would have noticed earlier (as he does in the books), it seems as if that sort of thing would have tipped off Malfoy if he wasn’t being stupid for the sake of the plot.
Finally, how does Ginny know that Harry is the one to find Riddle’s diary? The book explains it by his bag splitting after being tackled by a singing valentine. There’s no indication given as to how she works it out in the film, maybe Riddle was still able to possess her due to how much time she spent writing in the diary? Though this doesn’t tie in with the book where Riddle talks about how he despised listening to her problems and was excited when Harry found the book. All it would need is a quick line from Ginny after Harry has rescued her from the Chamber of Secrets about how she worked out he had it.
And there we have it, another Harry Potter film fixed. Next week, we’ll start on the third film, the last of the short books. As always, let me know what you think in the comments and don’t be afraid to recommend some films that I can try to fix. I look forward to the challenge.
And there we have it, another Harry Potter film fixed. Next week, we’ll start on the third film, the last of the short books. As always, let me know what you think in the comments and don’t be afraid to recommend some films that I can try to fix. I look forward to the challenge.
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