Like the first movie, it is abridged and new parts have been added. It runs at an impressive 2 hours 50 minutes with the credits been 10 minutes long. It's worth staying till the end though for an added scene, which I unfortuantly didn't get chance to see.

The film starts off once more at the Dursley's house where we get to meet Dobby for the first time. From when I first saw Dobby in the trailer and on the poster, I knew he wasn't how I imagined him to be. However, it's certainly humorous when Dobby begins to bang his head on various furniture in Harry's bedroom. The new scene where Dobby drops the desert on Mrs Mason's head makes a nice touch as well, although we don't get to learn that the Dursley's now know that Harry can't use under-age magic.

The music has excellent parallels with the first movie. Just as Hagrid drops out of the sky on his motorbike in the first movie, the second film has the same music and timing when the Weasley's flying Ford Anglia drops down on to Privet Drive. Uncle Vernon falling out of the window makes a nice comical moment, although better parts of the book scene were missed out.

The motion of the car flying is often jerky. It's not as smooth as the animation should be and gives the sense of being unrealistic. The Burrow on the other hand, is fantastic. It looks outside and in, exactly how a wizard house should look. Ginny running upstairs after seeing Harry at the breakfast table is perfect.

There's a nice extra detail in Flourish and Blotts, showing Draco rip out a page of a book that he wants, rather than buy it. Ron and Harry flying the car to Hogwarts is a tad melodramatic with Harry falling out of the car and having to be rescued by Ron. The Whomping Willow, although positioned wrongly in the castle grounds, is certainly violent enough though.

Lockhart is excellent in the film. Branagh has the right amount of self-loving and smugness down to a tee. Professor Sprout though, is certianly nothing to write home about but her Mandrakes are a scream! Lucius Malfoy is another great casting choice, as well as Moaning Myrtle. You really want to slap her with her pathetic-sounding voice and mannerisms. There's still no Peeves though, which is a considerable let-down again.

Quidditch is impressive as before but the chasing of the snitch between Malfoy and Harry goes on for far too long. Ron's use of "bloody" in the film is over-used considerably. It was funny in the first film; this time it is just plain annoying. Rupert Grint however is perfect in the forrest with brilliant facial expressions when they meet the spiders.

The Slytherin dungeon scene is amusing with Ron and Harry pretending to be Crabbe and Goyle. Tom Felton, again steals this scene with his attitude and surprise over Crabbe being able to read! The other villainous teen, Tom Riddle, isn't as convincing as Lord Voldemort, he just doesn't seem evil enough. The diary flashback scene used sepia beautifully with Harry remaining in colour to represent the future, although we don't get to see Hagrid properly as a teenager.

The Chamber of Secrets is visually impressive as well as the scene in it but the final scene seems to be lacking. However, we do get to see a bit of foreshadowing with Hermione running to hug Harry but Ron and Hermione looking sheepish and only shaking hands. An obvious set-up for their future relationship in the books.

Overall, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is certainly an improvement on the first film. It doesn't seem as annoying when they miss out parts of the films and they tend to stick more closely with the books plotline. The acting from the cast has improved drastically, especially that of Daniel Radcliffe as Harry. Harry's eyes also start out green but do end up going back to being blue. The hours just fly by but you may feel cheated because you don't get to see as much of the minor characters as you'd like to. It's still a great film though and richly deserves 8.5/10.