I am ashamed of having seen this (until the end)..

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was way better than the first film in the series - less of the horrid adoptive family, a more coherent story, a better villain - but still suffers from the same problems as the first's bloated, faithful adaptation. It's much too long at 2 hours 40 minutes (are you KIDDING me?!!), and you can easily see where they could have trimmed at least 40 minutes. For example, there's yet another Quiddich scene that isn't really integrated into the film's plot. It's just there because it's synonymous with Harry Potter. And it's not the only culprit. Kenneth Branagh's poser of a wizard has some good moments, though by now, I'm pretty sick of Santa Claus/Bumblebore's wispy voice and preferential treatment of certain students; I know it's sad the original actor died before the third film, but bring on Michael Gambon, he won't be such a caricature. Nevertheless, I'm warming to the series now that the world has been set up, but I'm nowhere near a place where you could make me say it's a good movie.

Another nice Harry Potter movie! Loved Snape and the spiders (although I'm really scared of spiders)... nice one.