Here at NEWSWEEK we were, like, the same way. Last year we talked to dozens of kids who loved the first Potter movie, critics be darned. The follow-up may be an even bigger hit. Most of the kids we talked to this year preferred the new “Chamber” to “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”–even Hayley Smith, 8, who saw the first movie “a thousand million hundred times.” “Chamber,” which carries a parental warning for “creature violence,” is scarier than its predecessor, she said, particularly that nasty business with the four-ton spider. Emily Sen, 8, covered her eyes for that part, but she did enjoy the scenes with Hermione, who’s “very good at fake crying,” and with Gilderoy Lockhart, a new character played by “the guy who did the voice of Miguel in ‘The Road to El Dorado’.” That’s, uh, Kenneth Branagh. Also turning in a virtuoso performance was Rupert Grint as Harry’s redheaded friend Ron, whom little girls insisted they didn’t like–well, not that way–even as they praised his personality.
There were a few complaints. “I expected Dobby to be a little less elvish,” said Susannah Jones, 13, who liked the rest of the movie. That’s more than her 11-year-old brother, Spencer, could say. He didn’t think much of the film–“it wasn’t bad or anything, but it didn’t improve”–and he thought less of the books. “I don’t like reading,” he said. (His dad, by the way, is a book critic for this magazine.) But Sobel, a reader, was more enthusiastic. “Chamber” was her favorite novel, so the movie had a lot to live up to. Here’s her one gripe: “The dialogue was really nice. I would have liked more of it.” With sequels on the way, she may well get her wish.
