author_by_night | Chamber of Secrets Rewatch (Reply)

Link to PS/SS Rewatch here.

Full disclosure, I actually saw Chamber of Secrets last weekend, but forgot to post my review. Spoilers across the board (i.e. all seven books).

I actually didn't enjoy CoS as much as I have in the past. But it may be that it's been the one I've re-watched the most. I hadn't seen PS/SS in a very long time, so there were more surprises. CoS is also very meme-tastic, meaning I've pretty much seen the entire film in various .gifs. :P

This isn't to say I didn't like it; I still did, very much. But I remember even liking it better than the book. I'm not sure I still feel that way, honestly. I don't think it set up the Ginny twist as well, because Ginny is barely there, although there's a GREAT moment where we see her looking at Harry while she's writing on something. Tom's diary. ZOMG!!!!

Draco had the best facial expressions in this film. Like when he looks as though he's about to slug the mandrake.

And speaking of Malfoys, I forgot how... luscious movie!Lucius is. He's supposed to be evil. He's totally evil. But also not bad looking. (Also, he looks a little bit like an elf from the LOTR movies.)

Ron was flanderdized to awkward levels. I have no idea how Ron went from playing a chess game meant to throw off grown wizards to making goofy faces 87% of the film. Bloody hell.

I also forgot how many lines Hermione steals. Whoever wrote her lines gave Cassandra Claire a run for her money there. Should I know who wrote the films? I know Columbus was still the director at this point. I think Kloves was the main writer, but in my head he's also the director? Wow, I'm... rusty on my film knowledge. But the films were never really as important to me as the books. I was a huge fan of the books (in case you haven't noticed), a more casual fan of the films.

I used to consider how well each movie held up to non-fans, giving PS/SS 100% and PoA 10%. (But let's be honest, 2004!me really wanted Marauders: The Tragic Demise of a Quartet, not a movie about Harry. Just saying.) CoS... I'd say it would be easy enough for non-fans to follow. Of course, my rating was always iffy anyway, because I know people who only saw the movies and followed each one just fine. (Albeit with probable help from people who'd read the books.) I think it might be one of those things where if you know what you're supposed to see, things seem "off", but if you don't know X is supposed to happen here, it's not necessarily as confusing. The bigger issue is continuity, since the movies came out while the books were still being released.

As far as how it held up to the book goes.... again, I didn't think it was better (the way I had before), but I didn't think it was worse either. It was a solid adaptation. I DO think it holds up well for HBP, given that it's so important to HBP, although of course Tom's actor changed. (Apparently the original Tom wanted to be in the film, but they thought he was too old).

Next up is PoA. This will be the real test. Is it as awful as I thought it was? (Okay, I've already seen it since and decided it wasn't, but now I can see if it's as less of an awful adaptation as I decided it was when I rewatched it.)

Until next time...