Ranking the Harry Potter Films

As just about everyone is aware, the Harry Potter franchise, one of the most successful and entertaining in cinematic history, came to an end last week. In my review of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," I mentioned the nostalgic and sentimental reactions most audience members have had recently, so I won't do that again. Instead, I would like to provide a simple list and explanation ranking all eight of the Harry Potter films.

8. The Sorcerer's Stone

Also known as "The Philosopher's Stone" in strange foreign lands, the initial film was rumored to be directed by Steven Spielberg, who reportedly wanted to direct it as an animated film with Haley Joel Osment to star in the title role. After those negotiations fell apart, Chris Columbus, who had worked with young actors in films like "Home Alone" and "Mrs. Doubtfire," was chosen. Columbus got together a magnificent team--art and set designers Stuart Craig and Stephanie McMillan, cinematographer John Seale, costume designer Judianna Makovsky, composer John Williams (none of whom won an Oscar that year due to tough competition from "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" and "Moulin Rouge!"), and a magnificent cast of British who's-who actors like Maggie Smith, Richard Harris, Robbie Coltrane, John Hurt, Alan Rickman (after Tim Roth turned down the role of Severus Snape to be in Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes"), and three new actors named Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.

"The Sorcerer's Stone" isn't necessarily a bad film, but there's such a long explanation of who Harry Potter is, why he's special, and what happened to his parents before there's any adventure at Hogwarts. Even though it's arguably the most wondrous because it was introducing audiences to something so novel, it's the silliest and most child-like of all the films, with effects that looked aged even then (remember Fluffy and that troll?). Still, I was at least impressed by it.

7. The Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Warner Bros. made a win-win decision by splitting up the final installment into two individual films, thereby giving the director David Yates and screenwriter Steven Kloves (who wrote all the adaptations) more breathing room to adapt Rowling's story but also making the company an even sweeter load of money. The problem is that all the slower, more talkative parts to "The Deathly Hallows" seemed to have been shoved into this one. I don't even remember most of it; I remember liking the character Rhys Ifans played, and the animated segment (maybe Spielberg's idea wasn't so bad after all). Yup, that's about all I remember.

6. The Half-Blood Prince

This is an "on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand" type of Harry Potter movie. One the one hand, I liked the gloominess of the film. I think the zenith of the darkness in the later Potter films was with "The Half-Blood Prince," and the result is that it's very stylish, earning an Oscar nomination for its cinematographer Bruce Delbonnel. But on the other hand, this is a Harry Potter film, isn't it? At times it feels more like "The Exorcist" than a Harry Potter film.

One of the things I liked most about "The Half-Blood Prince" was Voldemort. Ralph Fiennes did not appear in this film as the character, but his nephew Hero Fiennes-Tiffin did, as a young boy, alienated and angry. He's afraid, lonely, vulnerable and dislikes that he's "different." Whereas Harry knew how to put his being different to good use, young Tom Riddle never discovered how, and so the seeds of his wickedness were planted. But the young actor's portrayal of the terrible wizard is proof that Rowling's characters have so much depth to them; not even Voldemort is perfectly evil. There are reasons for his feelings, and he finds them to be just.

(There were three young actors who played pre-Voldemort Tom Riddle in the Potter films: Fiennes-Tiffin, Frank Dillane, and Christian Coulson, and they were all terrific.)

5. The Goblet of Fire

It's my understanding that the novel "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was twice the length of its immediate predecessor "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," which itself was longer than the first two novels. The result is that a considerable portion of scenes and information were stripped from the final movie, and it shows. But what's really odd is that even with those scenes removed, the film still feels considerably slower and duller compared to the previous Potter films. Also, the death of Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson), changing the tone of Harry Potter films from "Oh, look, love. 'Ere we are in 'ogwarts and look at that fun thing o'er there" to "Oh, look, yet anova characta died," thereby introducing a generation of young Harry Potter fans to Prozac.

But the best part of this installment is that we finally see Voldemort in a non-teenage, non-back-of-another-guy's-head form, played by Ralph Fiennes, in what was arguably the best casting in the entire series. (Also keep in mind that rumors were spreading that John Malkovich and Rowan Atkinson were in negotiations to play the role.) Fiennes is perfectly villainous, frightening as he is funny and totally in command of his scenes.

4. The Order of the Phoenix

I never found much politics in the Harry Potter series as others did, but I did in "The Order of the Phoenix" through the character of Dolores Umbridge, played by Imelda Staunton in the films (yet another flawless casting decision). Umbridge is an education "reformer," and what that meant to me was not necessarily an attack on No Child Left Behind but an attack on education reform in general, the kind that insists politicians, with their vast education experience, legislate the classroom. Those who can, teach; those who can't, write laws about teaching.

3. The Deathly Hallows: Part 2

You can read here for my review of the final film, but I will add once again how thankful I am that it was such a terrific movie.

2. The Prisoner of Azkaban

Columbus left the series to spend more time with his family, and so Alfonso Cuaron took over (fortunately, I'm sure, for most parents, this movie was more "A Little Princess" than "Y tu mama tambien"). (I remember reading that Cuaron joked that he was going to add "sex, lots of sex" to the Potter franchise, a joke at the expense of the worry of him being the director.) Cuaron makes this film much more Brothers Grimm-like in his depiction of the wizard world, with a giant clock and large pumpkins everywhere. As with the other films, he chose wisely with his cast, adding Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, Michael Gambon to replace Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew. This is also a terrific Potter film for its perfect balance of the youthful novelty of the first films and the darkness of the later films. It was also the final Harry Potter score by John Williams, who earned an Oscar nomination for his work.

1. The Chamber of Secrets

I am possibly the only person on the planet who considers "The Chamber of Secrets" to be the finest Harry Potter film. I can't help it. It's simply the most entertaining and enthralling of them all, with the eerie yet captivating detective situation Harry finds himself in, trying to piece together creepy spiders, a giant snake, a diary, and a bumbling professor all while exceeding academically. There's an exciting car ride and a thrilling Quidditch match and an annoying house elf (voiced by Toby Jones). It also featured the final appearance of Richard Harris as Dumbledore before Harris passed away, Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy and Kenneth Brangh as Gilderoy Lockhart were added to the cast. (For the record, I liked Michael Gambon basically just as much as Harris, especially with Gambon's powerful baritone voice.) All the actors helped demonstrate what extraordinary acting has been employed in this wonderful series.

I solemnly swear that it has been a great ten years of Harry Potter films.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Something wicked this way has finally ended. After a period of ten years and $6.3 billion dollars, one of the world's most successful and well-made franchises has come to a conclusion. Happy I am that despite the trajectory of the recent Harry Potter films becoming less and less interesting with each movie, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" is truly exceptional, the most exciting since the second ("The Chamber of Secrets") and the third ("The Prisoner of Azkaban").

Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends (Rupert Grint as Ron and Emma Watson as Hermione) are still on the run. They have not returned for another year at Hogwarts, their beloved school, now taken over by a new headmaster, Severus Snape (Alan Rickman), the puppet of the Dark Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). There were all sorts of details I should explain but I had forgotten about them from previous films. There's something about a horcrux, whatever the hell that is, that they have to gather and destroy before Voldemort finds them, but he's not really looking for them, or he's waiting, or something. Wasn't there a prisoner of Afghanistan, or somewhere? He was a bad guy, too, right? But then he became good, and all the professors who we thought were good--ah, to hell with it. Who cares? By this point, there's no need for it to be "Harry Potter and the Exposition." Harry and his friends are going to fight Voldemort and the bad guys. That's all you need to know.

This film series has never failed to look terrific. Even if the story lags or becomes too repetitive or crowded, you can still tell that the producers have found the most talented directors, composers, editors, visual effects creators, makeup artists, cinematographers, and costumer designers in town. It looks so good that even though I did not view it in 3-D, I can confidently recommend that (unless you have a bizarre attraction to hurting your eyes, insulting your brain, and lightening your wallet) you can skip viewing it in 3-D. I suppose that one of the faults is that in this film everything is so dark and morbid and depressing that I have to remind myself it's a children's story. The cinematography of John Seale and then Roger Pratt in the earlier films looked quite brighter than the cinematography of Bruno Delbonnel and then Eduardo Serra in the most recent ones. One character's throat is slit, and another falls into a ball of fire. Young girls scream terrible screams. Yes, I understand that in the tradition of Brothers Grimm all children's stories should have some darkness to them, but instead of "Snow White" this film at times becomes "Harry Potter and the All Quiet on the Western Front."

Another disappointment is that yet again, because there's so many characters, some of them just sort of show up and stand there. Helena Bonham Carter just snickers a bit, while Jason Isaacs looks drunk and sleep-deprived (for a reason I'm sure explained at one point). Jim Broadbent's bumbling about in "The Half-Blood Prince" is hardly ever found in this one. But fortunately some characters are given more. Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall takes over the school, and even gets to use a spell she's been aching to give a try. And Rickman as Snape, after practically a cameo in "Part 1," is given better treatment here, allowing him to once again portray everything that is appealing about the character, the pathetic yet sympathetic flawed and deeply ambiguous witch. Finally, Fiennes, as always, looks as if he is having an absolutely terrific time as one of cinema's greatest villains.

The series has been about a school for witchcraft and wizardry, but in reality it has been an actor's studio for its young stars. They--especially Radcliffe, Grint and Watson--have acted with practically every famous British actor working today. By now the list is quite high and certainly impressive: Richard Harris, Michael Gambon, Warwick Davis, Robbie Coltrane, Kenneth Branagh, Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent, Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Julie Walters, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Jason Isaacs, Timothy Spall, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Richard Griffiths, John Hurt, Rhys Ifans, Toby Jones, Julian Glover. And so Radcliffe, Grint and Watson and the others have profited greatly from such education, and I'm sure the world looks forward to their next great performances.

I couldn't help but notice at the midnight showing on opening night/morning that the vast, vast majority of viewers were young people--people my age, some slightly younger and some slightly older. These young people have grown up with these books and movies. It was ten years ago that the very first Harry Potter film was released, about one month after 9/11. I was a freshman in high school then. About two months before the release of this final Harry Potter film, bin Laden was finally killed. If my generation is to be known as the "9/11 Generation" as USA Today called us, then we have known a great deal--the rise of the internet, the return of "Star Wars," social networking, Y2K. Some have called us the Peter Pan generation for obvious reason--a sense of entitlement and stubbornness, youthful idealism, and not growing up (how many of us still live with our parents?). But we in a sense grew up on 9/11. We lived through the day and its aftermath, the Great Recession, global warming and a whole host of other problems. It's nice to be able to escape from all that with films like these Harry Potter movies, perhaps the last film series to consistently capture a sense of wonderment in the escapism of movies.

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The Funniest Videos on Youtube

Sometimes I think Youtube was made for me. Buried deep in the vast pit of self-made cat videos, archival footage of historical events, and your favorite old TV shows are the most absurdly hilarious videos imaginable. In my opinion, some of them include the following:

McDonalds Custodial Training Video

One of my first jobs was working at Arby's while in high school, but I can fervently proclaim that my experience was nothing like this video, portraying a hopelessly naive new custodian--a McC--at McDonalds. This new customer comes into work and ready to get his hands dirty. His manager really defines cheeky as she gives him the training wheels to succeed at McDonalds. The staff humiliate him as he cleans up the McDonalds restaurant so he can see McC. Who is McC? McC is the fast-food spirit who makes his presence known only when McDonalds restaurants are really, really clean (which is never). To further elaborate on just how bizarre this video is, the main character tells himself--nay, orders himself--to "finesse that wall--that's the way!" And finally, thank the Lord, he finds McC--in his own reflection! Now that's McDonalds--helping to destroy America one day at a time.

I Have a Bad Case of Diarrhea
I used to live in Korea and was an observer of the uniqueness that is Asian languages. According to Wikipedia, this video originated from a Japanese program called "Zuiikin' English" from 1992. The host of the show, some guy named Fernandez Verde, explained his odd pedagogical theory that individuals learn languages like they exercise. Whatever validity that theory had was eliminated by what followed.

Now, being a certified English teacher myself, I can confidently say that many English language-learners, and learners of any new language, want to know important phrases that they will likely use while interacting with native speakers. I sincerely doubt that "I have a bad case of diarrhea" is one of those phrases, but Mr. Verde and his team at "Zuiikin' English" disagree with me. This particular lesson opens with a young Japanese girl presumably in an English-speaking country, sitting down and in tremendous pain. She instructs a man with an American or Australian or German or something accent to "call an ambulance, please." He says he will and asks her where it hurts. After replying that her "stomach-uh" hurts, she cannot explain specifically what the problem is, so she resorts back to Japanese. Now we will be taught how to properly say the important phrase.

There's something in Japanese, then in a narrative, mono-tone voice comes, "I have a bad case of diarrhea." That would be absurd enough, but now here's where the pedagogy comes into play. Three Japanese women in spandex pump their firsts up as they sing, "I have-eh baed case of diarr-i-a!" (In the exercise, the word "diarrhea" is signaled by the crossing of their arms around their stomach.) Other useful expressions learned are "take anything you want" and "spare me my life" (for the same girl who is mugged by two men--what an awful trip she is having) and "hasta la vista, baby!" which, obviously, isn't English.

First of all, I cannot plausibly think of a situation where an ambulance is necessary for diarrhea. Second, if I'm learning another language, that's probably one of the last things I want to learn how to say. Damn you, Verde!

Hippie Gets His Own Show Teaching Yoga With the Help of a Giant Cock

Of all the creepy children's TV show hosts, this is undeniably the creepiest. This video starts with a middle-aged man named Yogi-Oki-Doakee (I think) and he's in an odd, aerobatic position I could never imagine Mr. Rogers in. Then, instead of Big Bird, in storms some sort of stereotypical, Jar Jar Binks-esque Jamaican rooster cocking his way around the set as if he's in need of a restraining order. The rooster says something along the lines of, "Yeah, man. You can milks (inaudible, inaudible, inaudible)." Then a bunch of children enter at great apparent risk. One is dressed as a soccer player, another as a karate kid, another as a ballerina, but they cannot enter until they give Yogi a very uncomfortable-looking hug. This video is in many ways similar to the previous two, and hell, probably the rest, in that with each passing moment, it gets more and more unexplainable. For example, Yogi uses some weird wind analogy to explain the importance of breathing, and then his fucking cow keeps mooing "remember to breath!"

At this moment, it becomes unethical at best and frightening at worst. As the children, all of them appearing younger than the age of ten, construct their yoga positions, Yogi moves about "helping" them. He whispers to one, "Are you breathing, Christian?" as he hovers above the boy who probably just pissed his pants from fear. Okay, now I really can't explain this guy's fucking behavior, because he then has his head under his ass as he mimics a chicken (I guess); two disturbed young girls stand by, not quite sure if crying will help or hinder their chances. My comments, desperate as they are to humor, will not do justice to the remaining minute of the video, so just watch, and keep your kids away from Yogi-Oagi-Doakee and his creepy yoga. As Youtube commenter RaymondIsWin wrote, "this guy is in prison, right? Right?"

Siskel and Ebert Uncensored
Siskel and Ebert have been mentioned frequently (here, here and here). One thing that I miss most about them is their humor, which was evidenced when this youtube video surfaced four years ago. The video contains three segments from the 1980s where the two are preparing promos for their show. The first part of this video is rather tense and awkward to watch as the two come close to screaming at each other. "This is not the part that's supposed to match, slick," an angry Ebert says. "Give it a moment's thought. What are we doing now? The promo. Do you know what they have to match? Nothing...welcome to the exciting world of television, a holy new field for you to begin to learn in." Siskel is clearly shaken. "Well-spoken, Roger," he mutters. "Well," is the reply, "that's something you rarely hear." Siskel does eventually get the last line. "That's this week on 'Siskel...and...Ebert...and the Movies'...and the asshole--and that's Roger!"

The next one, which appears to be from the same shoot, features the two burying their hatchet in the best way men know how to--ignoring it, refusing to apologize, and instead ridiculing somebody else. In this case, those who will be ridiculed are Protestants (Siskel was Jewish and Ebert is Catholic). Siskel insists that WASPs run the country and everyone should ban together to overthrow them. Ebert is a little hesitant to get involved, but he eventually does, teasing Protestants as people who "sort of want a religion." Now Ebert's really having fun, noting that Jews and Catholics were "burning each other when Martin Luther was just a gleam in his mother's eye!" Then Siskel claims that the biggest decision a Protestant has to make is "what color yellow tie to fucking buy," and then Ebert says that Protestantism is "the only fucking religion that has the Reader's Digest as a prayer book."

The final segment (in this Youtube post it's played in the middle) is probably the funniest, as the two do what they did best--mock each other. Ebert mocks Siskel's stumbling of the English language and Siskel makes fun of Ebert's weight. Winner: Siskel comes close, but Ebert wins in all three.

For additional laughs, view one of the many clips of the two on Letterman.

Orson Welles Drunk Outtake

You may have thought that Orson Welles gave his best performance as a drunk man in "Touch of Evil," but then you haven't seen these outtakes from the 1970s. Welles--the man behind the War of the Worlds panic, "Citizen Kane" and guest star of "The Muppet Movie"--is really, really drunk in this footage of a commercial for, ironically, wine, constantly missing his ques and (if not for the respect the other actors and stand-ins likely had for him) really annoying the others. The best moment is when he utters "aaaghghaaagghaha" before delivering truly Shakespearean lines.

Hitler Reacts to Harry Potter

"Downfall" from Germany in 2004 is one of the greatest films ever made. Detailing Hitler's final days in his bunker, it featured a brilliant performance by Bruno Ganz. But Americans will always be amused by the German language; whether it's the Augustus Gloop/Guten Tag Hop Clop version or the angry Hitler version, it's always funny to us. So, some folks have taken one scene in which Hitler is very angry at his generals and re-dubbed it so that Hitler is addressing current-day topics. The topics are as varied as Kanye West to Second Life, but the funniest is certainly Hitler's reaction to Warner Bros.'s decision to postpone the release of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." Informed of the decision, Hitler shakes as he removes his glasses and instructs anyone not a part of the "Harry Potter fandom" to leave, before screaming and shouting. His subordinate recommends they see "Twilight" instead, which really gets Adolf going. It's funny because of the German language, but also funny because Hitler was probably mad enough to complain of such a thing.

Olsen Twins Gimme Pizza
Recently, a paranoid Irishman watched archival footage of the release of Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus" from 1928. In barely a moment of footage, he spotted an elderly woman holding what appeared to be a cell--I'm sorry--mobile phone. Concluding that there was no other explanation, he posted at least one video and explained his conclusive hypothesis: that a time traveler dusted off the DeLorean and went back to 1928 to the premiere of a Chaplin film. By now it's been debunked as most likely being a hearing aid, but the point I'm trying to make is that nobody on Earth thought that the time-traveling lady with a cell phone would end up being analyzed by historians eighty years later. That lady is long gone and we will never know who she was. She is historically irrelevant, except for the fact that someone years later thought she was a time-traveler.

Similarly, for years people have pounded their chests telling us that there was a Munchkin who committed suicide on the set of "The Wizard of Oz." During the Tin Man scene in the forest (in which, if you pay very close attention, you will you notice several birds walking around the set), Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man dance away, and just before the next scene, it's there: a Munchkin, who we're told was depressed and heartbroken because of another Munchkin, hanging himself. Now we're also supposed to believe that several hundred people on the set didn't notice it, that the editing team didn't take out the shot and order re-takes, that a Munchkin was there even though the little people weren't filming their scenes yet, and that for decades nobody noticed a hanging person on the set of one of the world's most famous movies. It has since been clearly identified as a zoo bird, but the point is the same. Nobody, seventy years ago, thought that people would go back-and-forth about something so minuscule.

Which brings me to the Olsen twins. Filmed sometime in the early 1990s at the height of their popularity, the Olsen twins made a musical piece about a group of young girls cravin' for some pizza. Since then it has become lost in the closets of dusty VHS tapes, until somebody thought it would sound a lot funnier slowed down. They were right. This video is hysterical. To bring the previous points into this, nobody during the filming of this video ever thought that years later they would see something like this. The three supporting actresses probably regretted their performances (particularly the girl with brown hair saying something about "whip cream poured like waterfalls") but if you were them, you would probably be content with the fact that years later nobody would be able to identify you from the videos. Then comes somebody who has way too much time on their hands and releases a four-minute version of your worst performance for over two million people to see. The rest is history.


Youtube is only about a decade old. Lets hope there are many, many more decades to come of comedy gold.

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

None of the Harry Potter films are finer than the second installment, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” It is in this film, Chris Columbus’s second and final as the director of the series, that there was an absolute perfect balance of magic, innocence, and darkness. Some of the Harry Potter films before and since were too childish (like “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” the first) or too dark and/or boring (like “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which is, as of early 2010, the most recent). It seems that of the six films so far, it is “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” that receive the most appreciation. Along with “The Sorcerer’s Stone,” “The Chamber of Secrets” currently receives the lowest ratings of the films on IMDb. Alfonso Cuarón’s “Prisoner of Azkaban” does come a close second to Columbus’s “Chamber of Secrets” in my opinion, and Mike Newell’s “Goblet of Fire” is exciting yet a bit boring (but was elevated due to Ralph Fiennes’s awesome presence as Voldemort). However, “The Chamber of Secrets” still reigns as the most enjoyable and magical of them all.

Harry Potter, despite a successful first year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, is still living in the household of his uncle (Richard Griffiths) and aunt (Fiona Shaw), who proclaim that Harry should be grateful to them for giving him, among other things, their son’s second bedroom. Harry is warned by a house elf named Dobby (voiced by Toby Jones) not to return to school, for there are malevolent plots against him. Harry insists that he return, and is rescued by his friend Ron (Rupert Grint) and Ron's brothers in a flying car. The one who is plotting against Potter is of course the one “whose name must not be spoken”—Voldemort, who appears in the film but not in his snake-like appearance that was later brilliantly portrayed by Fiennes.

The film also saw two new great roles—the incompetent and narcissistic professor Gilderoy Lockhart and Draco Malfoy’s (Tom Felton) sinister father Lucious Malfoy—and two great actors to play the roles, Kenneth Branagh and Jason Isaacs as Lockhart and Malfoy respectively. Lockhart is not at first necessarily a bad person, wishing Harry good luck before he duels with Draco. He seems concerned for the children, at least somewhat, and rushes to help Harry when he is injured. Of course, he is probably doing this to benefit his own reputation, and his magic heals Harry’s injury yet simultaneously turns his arm boneless and flabby. “Ah, yes, well, that can sometimes happen,” he explains. “But the point is you can no longer feel any pain and it’s very clear that the bones are no longer broken.” Much in the Potter films are not initially understood, and so Lockhart therefore has a more cunning background as revealed near the climax of the film. Branagh, the man who diligently and meticulously brought “Hamlet” to full life in 1996, looks like he is having unlimited fun. Isaacs as well, who played the villain in “The Patriot” two years before and later the greatest of them all—Captain Hook in “Peter Pan”—is terrific in the film.

The film series, and the world, would have to say goodbye to Richard Harris, who played Professor Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films. Harris died only several weeks before the release of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” and there was a profound sense of respect and awe for the late Harris and the aurora of his personality in his final performance. He was replaced for the later films by Michael Gambon.

This film works like a great detective story, with John Williams’ eerie music accompanying a group of spiders that exits the stage as each victim is “petrified.” The events are not clear to Harry or the audience at this point, but students are being petrified, or stunned, by an apparent monster hidden in the secret Chamber of Secrets, which was established by the wizard Salazar Slytherin. Slyhterin believed the school should be more selective of which students were accepted. Because of this, Harry and his friends believe that Malfoy and his family are up to it. Harry also discovers the diary of a Tom Malvo Riddle, and the diary can communicate with him. It visualizes for Harry the mysterious events that took place fifty years ago at Hogwarts. In this episode, Harry sees the mysterious Tom Riddle (Christian Coulson), whose fate is later explained.

Williams’ score demonstrates the master at his best. There is his theme for Dumbledore’s bird, named Fawkes the phoenix, a bird that can literally be reborn from the ashes. Williams was very busy and due to scheduling conflicts was not able to deliver a fully-developed score, so the assistance of William Ross was needed to finish the score and orchestrate it. The post-“Prisoner of Azkaban” films do not feature Williams’ score, though the succeeding composers were able to understand the need to use Williams’ “Hedwig Theme”—so vital to the Harry Potter films. The cinematography by Roger Pratt helps make this a very beautiful film. It is dark when it needs to be and also bright to make sure there is a payoff. Columbus allows everything to be an improvement over the previous film—even the Qudditch match is more entertaining.

“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” is filmmaking at its best. Films of the fantasy genre often try too hard or simply not hard enough to establish an environment of magic in their films. “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” finds the total perfect balance, and despite its near-three hour length, there is hardly ever a boring moment or a scene that should have been discarded. What a wonderful film it is.

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