It's the bespectacled wizard's second year at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry and, as the spells become harder, the plot becomes darker. There are messages written in blood, giant spiders and a terrifying basilisk (that's a bloody great snake to you and me) ratcheting up the fear factor tenfold. Meanwhile, some hilarious comic relief arrives in the strutting form of Ken Branagh's nincompoop sorcerer Gilderoy Lockhart and CG house elf Dobby.

The development of characters like Robbie Coltrane's hairy Hagrid and some neat effects-work from ILM make this a slicker movie than the original, though a bum-numbing running time (154 minutes!) and some shaky kiddie acting prevent director Chris Columbus from turning the franchise into fireworks.

DVD Extras:

This is a beautiful two-disc package, featuring fantastic menus, a host of animated activities and some self-guided tours of the Chamber Of Secrets world. The interactive elements are also pretty impressive, offering loads of games, quizzes and DVD-ROM extras featuring puzzles and printable trading cards. All of this might lure the under-12s away from their GameBoys for a few hours, but won't prove as captivating for Harry's older fans. The additional and extended scenes are pretty redundant (although Lockhart's revelation that he wants to market his own range of haircare products is priceless), and there's no commentary, zero production features and only one decent interview - - where Potter creator JK Rowling and screenwriter Steve Kloves chinwag about adapting her bestselling books for the screen. So while Master Potter's army of younger acolytes will find this a magical package, anyone hoping for insight into the filmmaking process will find this is a little half-arsed - all `abra' and no `cadabra'.