Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Revisited

My review of this movie will largely be cut/paste from the review of Sorcerer’s Stone because my thoughts overlap just the same. I wish I could provide a more detailed review comparing with the originals, but simply cannot do so:

My Harry Potter collection is very dusty. That means I have not touched those in a long time. I cannot remember when I even saw this movie. I watched the latest edit that was released. I am unable to compare to my prior experience, but it definitely feels so much better based on the little I do remember.

The movie also felt visually superior and I liked the revised musical score matching the rest of the franchise. I intend to go through the rest of the revisited series when released. This one was excellent.

For those who have the movies gathering dust, this is a highly recommended and excellent way to revive the Harry Potter experience.

This was an improvement over the last edit for several reasons. First Chamber of Secrets is just a much better film than Philosopher's was. Not only are the kid actors on a whole much better, but Chris Columbus’ directing isn’t as limp and boring. Second is that the editing for this edit is just much better than it was for the previous one. Most of my complaints from the previous edit are gone. There are still scenes cut that shouldn’t have been because they make later scenes feel as if they happen too fast or for no reason, getting the letters at the burrow is necessary for them to go to Dragon Alley because now we have no idea why they’re going there, and cutting out Lockheart deboning Harry’s arm makes the editing too obvious. However, now all these problems are contained to the first act and after the first petrification, there are no editing foibles except for one and before continuing on to what the film does well I have to get this out of the way.

On my first viewing not knowing about this edit before watching it, not revealing it was Ginny who was taken into the Chamber until Harry’s in it didn’t work because knowing it’s Ginny whose been taking really adds to the urgency. However, on a subsequent rewatch that change doesn’t bother me anymore. Now to go onto some more of the positives. The film feels more confident in its new tone than the first one did. The only time a musical choice feels jarring is in the very beginning of the film when the opening titles end and Hedwig starts screeching, and when Riddle explodes, because the original can be heard underneath it. I also thought adding music from films other than Harry Potter worked really well. I enjoyed hearing the musical track that you used during the 3rd petrification and when Harry figures out what the monster is. Does anyone know what that song is and where it’s from because I really love that track?

Most of the cuts you make I have to compliment. Removing the hand sequence from Borgin and Burkes and cutting right to Harry in Nockturn Allery is something the original should have done. I’m also glad that most of the deleted scenes were added into the film. I’m glad to see the flashback from the previous movie back into this one. This time it’s used sparingly, only twice, proving that in this case less really is more. Also, the ending is just too jarring. Yeah, I know the original ending is too cheesy, but so is the ending for Prisoner. Also, it now feels like a tease or a trailer for the next movie rather than an actual ending. However, it just seems that with the goal of this edit it was really impossible to have the ending work all that well. Overall I’d recommend this edit because it’s despite some of my gripes it was well done.

The second installment in the Harry Potter: Revisited saga, HP and the Chamber of Secrets: Revisited succeeds in taking Chris Columbus' view of the Wizarding World to a whole new perspective.

As per Sorcerer's Stone: Revisited, the visual editing is seamless, the A/V quality is spot on (and at times equivalent to that of an actual Blu-ray, the reworked narrative is rock solid, and the new score certainly helps to breathe new life to its respective scenes. And as far as I can tell, the oversaturated pinkishness of SS was taken up to 11 with this film, and this has thankfully been taken care of thanks to Andreas' fantastic colour correcting.

One teensy little qualm — the new score for when Harry stabs Tom Riddle's diary with the Basilisk fang is a little too loud to my ears, but I guess this is understandable since Andreas wanted to hide John Williams' original score as much as possible.

As I stated in my SS: Revisited review, if you Potterheads are looking for a darker, more mature take on the Columbus era, this beautifully-crafted fanedit is for you!

Next to Goblet of Fire this was my least favorite movie in the Harry Potter series. This edit brought new life to the whole movie! The pacing was so much better, and the tone with the music changes really brought this movie together. I liked this edit more than his edit of the Sorcerors Stone. I'm excited for more.

Same as the previous edit Andreas brings the characters to feel more realistic rather than over the top. Especially with Draco. I think the whole restructuring of Lockhart was well done as well.

First off, I'd like to say that this is a great replacement for the original movie. Andreas has masterfully rescored and regraded this movie masterfully making it fit in much more with the rest of the series. Although not staying 100% faithful to the book, making it a surprisingly darker movie.

Although this is just my opinion, I feel that sometimes Andreas went a little bit overboard with the scoring, sometimes the music is trying to make you more emotionally involved when you really shouldn't be, I'm not saying that the scoring was done poorly however, it was just sometimes a little bit too much.

Overall, Andreas is an amazing editor and deserves much credit for turning a dull children's movie into a worthy installation of the Harry Potter franchise.