Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets (2002) and The Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe, and Emma Watson

Hello Harry Potter fans! (and Millie readers, as these two categories, so I've learned, are most certainly not synonymous) I've been so engrossed in my reading that I've neglected immediate postings, so Millie has suggested that we kill two griffins with one sorcerer's stone and report on movies #2 and #3: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).

Note: Any time I double up brevity, takes a front row seat and I appreciate your understanding. Well then, let's to it, shall we!

Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets (2002) -

Ginny (Bonnie Wright) and Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) in the chamber of secrets

The basics: Young Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), along with trusty sidekicks Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), are back at Hogwarts for their second year, with everyone a little more mature and just a tad bit wiser. The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher has been replaced by renowned magical creature slayer, horticulturalist, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award Gilderoy Lockhart (a perfectly pompous Kenneth Branaugh). However, one by one faculty and students are picked off and petrified by the evil creature living within the infamous Chamber of Secrets, somewhere far beneath the castle. Hearing the creature's call, Harry investigates, only to discover, once again, the Dark Lord Voldemort may be mounting another comeback . . .

The Weasley's flying car chasing the Hogwart's Express

Like Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone (2001), the first in this seven part series based on the books of J.K Rowling, Chamber of Secrets is very faithful to the book. Naturally there are minor changes, but have you not read the book (and I imagine many of you have not) you'd still glean nearly everything you need from the film, with only nuance and character deepening descriptions missing. Director Christopher Columbus plays it safe once again, creating a picture that is enjoyable, entertaining, but aesthetically and structurally safe. In their desire to render a close approximation to the book, an admirable cause no doubt, the producers and director have created a picture that somehow presents an imaginative story somewhat unimaginatively. (Though I must admit, this reading wasn't entirely clear to me until I saw Msr. Alfonso Cuaron took the helm with The Prisoner of Azkaban).

Hermione (Emma Watson) preparing an illegal potion, naughty . . .

Remember now, I did say the movie was entertaining, and the acting, once again, takes Chamber of Secrets to a level that would be utterly unattainable had it been improperly cast. Our three child actors remain adorable but not annoying and the bevy of talented Brits are in exceptional form, per usual: Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Branaugh, Julie Walters, Richard Griffiths, Mark Williams (who plays Arthur Weasley and whom you might recognize as the stutterer from Shakespeare in Love and the goat in Stardust), and of course, the one and only Alan Rickman.

Close to the book, yes. Worth the Hogwarts Inter-House Cup? No.

Millie's bees to knees meter (1 boo = blah, 10 bees = hoo-rah!): 6

and now dear readers, let's make a drastic switch, just like producers Michael Barnathan, David Heyman, and Chris Columbus felt they should . . .

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Cuaron's vision of a werewolf, we like!

The basics: After enduring treatment that would make Cinderella feel she had it easy, Harry finally runs away from his Muggle (non magic folk) aunt and uncle's, only to discover there is a mad, mass murderer on the loose named Sirius Black, recently escaped from the dreadful Azkaban prison. Consequently, the soul sucking Dementors, guards of the prison, are placed at every entrance to Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft and the students on constant alert. Through a series of naughty rule breaking incidents, Harry begins to piece together the story, linking Sirius, Voldemort, and his own father James Potter, which leads to exciting revelations about Harry's family, past, and future . . .

Hermione (Watson), Ron (Grint), Professor Snape (Rickman), and Harry (Radcliffe) against the werewolf

Clearly the Potter film contingent was faced with a choice: continue to play it safe and make a series of enjoyable family films or bring in visionary directors who virtually ignore the Hollywood rulebook and create and build rather than merely represent. Thank goodness these disturbingly well compensated producers decided on the latter course! So they hired Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)and Children of Men director Alfonso Cuaron (2006) and set themselves on the Peter Jackson path: making movies that stand outside of the books they are based upon, imaginative spectacles that add their own style to a pre-existing series.

Buckbeak, the Hippogriff and Harry (Radcliffe)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is fantasy-tastic and here's why: by recognizing that a page for page treatment is not necessary for making a successful film version of Azkaban, Cuaron freed himself to add original nuances to create the atmosphere Rowling spent hundreds of pages writing. It's a brilliant choice and gives the audience a palpable understanding of the intangible force surrounding the characters in these books. Need an example? Okay, contained over the course of two books is a description of the Whomping Willow, an aggressive, violent tree planted directly outside Hogwarts castle. Through a detailed scene where it brutally attacks Ron and Harry in Chamber of Secrets, we know this tree to have a mind of its own, defend itself, and that it's an old, sacred plant. To give us the same feeling that took Rowling two books and dozens of pages to set, Cuaron gives the tree an attitude and a series of shots that belong solely to revealing its behavior. In one, a single leaf falls angelically to the ground and we follow its hazy descent and earned rest upon the ground. Looking back up at the Willow, in one gruffy shake it rids itself of every leaf, like a dog shaking off loose water after a river romp, then it sighs gratefully and settles comfortably, readying itself for the next season.

The set design, compared to the first two films, is completely revamped, and the creatures, magic, and spectacle of it all graduated to a level only those crafty Spanish speaking geniuses, like del Toro and Almodovar, can really attain. What else is so completely wonderful, on top of all of this visual excellence? Oh you guessed, yet another stellar Potter cast, headed by two men that simply make the film: Gary Oldman and David Thewlis.

The future Mr. Jenn Jarecki, Gary Oldman as Sirius Black

Honestly reader, and I do double dog dare you to tell me, when is Gary Oldman not incredible? His Sirius Black is inspired, clever, sincere, and really quite sexy (he even got Millie's blood boiling!). David Thewlis, as the Defense Against the Dark Ages Professor Lupin, delivers a calculated, exceedingly well thought out character, very much identical to how I imagined him after reading the book. Did I mention he's also quite handsome?

Delicious dish David Thewlis

And then of course there's the second-to-none Emma Thompson, one of the best British exports of all time as far as Millie and I are concerned. She plays the airy Trewlaney, Professor of Divination, reading the stars and planets and whatnot, to a batty, spacey tea!

Check out the coke bottle specs, Emma Thompson having a well deserved good a time

Now I can't speak to the others still to come, but this is certainly my favorite of the films so far, despite the fact that it's the farthest from its book. My one criticism, other than some plot changes where I preferred the book's version, is that this rendering is very dark. I hear from those that have read the entire series it continues down a very dark path, but the book, to me, still had a light to it that foreshadowed darkness that Cuaron seems to have stretched a bit. Still, top drawer, bravo!

Millie's bees to knees meter (1 bee = bah, 10 bees = hoo-rah!): 8.5