I just saw the Potter movie, and I liked it, more so than the first one. Perhaps it's a bit long, and they still had to cut out much of what made the book so great, but the actors were more comfortable in their roles, the action more gripping, the direction tighter, and the funnies funnier.

Is it a great movie? No. It's good, but there are a few annoying problems: It's too dense. Some scenes are way too short, and everything happens at a breakneck pace, which makes it hard to follow unless you've read the book, and remember the details. There's little sense of time passing, of the school year progressing. No one appears to be studying anything at Hogwarts, and that's a shame, because the books really make a point of it. That's part of the appeal, this amazing school where you get to learn magic instead of boring stuff like mathematics and French. It's evident that the filmmakers wanted to include all the great ideas from the book, but they didn't have the time to really linger on anything, to dig deeper, to explore characters other than Harry, Ron, and Hermione, which weakens the movie. What happened to Gilderoy Lockhart, for example? Kenneth Branagh is brilliant in the role, but in the movie he appears almost plastered on -- a comical distraction, but little more. And Moaning Myrtle? What's with that adult playing a supposed teenager? In the novel, she's not just annoying...she's frightening. She's a dead girl! Here, she's been reduced to a dripping, overacting thirty-something woman. It doesn't make sense.

As with Philosopher's Stone, Chamber of Secrets also has a lull about two thirds of the way through, before picking up again for the climax (which is loads better than that of the first one), and ending in a rather embarrassing finale. Again, it's too long, and the story isn't quite compelling enough to compensate for the length. Then again, the books should have been made into (British) television miniseries -- to spend an hour and a half at a time, and maybe six hours in total, at Hogwarts would have worked much, much better, I think. But that wouldn't have generated as much cash as these movies have -- a billion dollars plus, and counting -- so it's a no-brainer for Warner Bros. And, so far, the movies have done a good job of sketching out the Potter universe. I look forward to the next one, which is due in November 2004.  ¶ 00:09