Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

[Remo D]

I think the books are great, and I think the movies continue to be excellent adaptations. RIP Richard Harris. And all the things you'd probably expect me to say about this one.

Forget the critics who complain that this one is too long, talky and boring. Sure didn't strike my daughter that way... ah, but you see, she loves to READ these books and plenty of others. That means that plot and exposition aren't automatically boring. That watching a film adaptation doesn't simply mean waiting for the effects scenes and grumbling impatiently in between them.

HARRY POTTER is no flash in the pan--it's a lovingly crafted, thoughtful and detailed family fantasy literary series on a par with, for example, the Oz books and the Narnia series. It captures the imaginations of young readers--but it doesn't condescend to them, either... it credits them with the ability to handle the (very necessary) dark and scary material, as well.

As for my three-year-old son? Yep, he was there with us at the drive-in, too. But I wasn't worried, even though this film was rumored to contain an extremely frightening giant spider attack scene. And you know what? It does! EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS, my ass--the spiders here make no attempt to be funny or cute, and the results speak for themselves. But (for some strange reason) my son already loves giant spiders, dinosaurs, monsters of various descriptions, etc.--and he had nothing less than a blast with this sequence.

But I'll tell you again with the straightest of all possible faces. I would read these books even if I didn't have children to read them to. I would watch, love and collect these movies even if I was a swingin' bachelor. Don't think "kid stuff"--think fantasy, think imagination, and think material that credits YOU with intelligence.