Video
Codec: VC-1 (15.40 Mbps) Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1 Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: LPCM 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit) English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps) French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps) French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps) (more)
English: LPCM 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit) English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps) French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps) French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps) Catalan: Dolby Digital 5.1 Danish: Dolby Digital 5.1 Dutch: Dolby Digital 5.1 Flemish: Dolby Digital 5.1 German: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps) Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps) Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1 Swedish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (less)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Blu-ray delivers great video and superb audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
Harry returns for his second year at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry along with his best friends Hermione and Ron. He ignores warnings not to go back to Hogwarts by a mysterious house elf named Dobby. Soon into the school year strange things start happening. Students are found in a petrified state, messages written in blood appear on the walls and Harry starts to hear voices in his head. It becomes apparent that someone has opened The Chamber of Secrets... but who is responsible and can the dark forces that lurk there be stopped?
For more about Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Blu-ray release, see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Blu-ray Review published by Greg Maltz on December 17, 2007 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.0 out of 5.
How confusing. After the Blu-ray version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix proved itself a
technical knockout and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone appeared
lackluster, I had no idea what to expect from the Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets BD. Thanks to Warner, Harry's second year at Hogwart's appears
in stunning detail and clarity, with excellent sound quality as well. The acting, especially from Harry
himself, is also an improvement, with a bit more emotion and passion shown from young Daniel
Radcliffe. The plot and effects are also handled in a more engaging way, and the saga starts to hit its
stride.
Friends triumph in Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets.
Chamber of Secrets kicks into high gear when Harry is visited by Dobby, a troubled house elf who
warns the young wizard not to return to Hogwarts because of a mortal threat. After the elf gets
Harry into trouble with his abominable aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley (Fiona Shaw
and Richard Griffiths), Harry is locked in his room with bars installed on the windows. But Ron
Weasley (Rupert Grint) rescues Harry in a flying car. At Hogwarts, they are reunited with
Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Richard Harris), friend Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and the
rest of the students and faculty. Harry soon realizes that the elf was not bluffing. A menacing force
is emerging from within Hogwarts itself. Together, Harry, Ron and Hermione must use their
resourcefulness and burgeoning magic skills to pursue a series of clues. Some lead into the darkest
of places, including a nest of giant spiders in the middle of the forest. Eventually, Harry unlocks the
mystery of the Chamber of Secrets, but can he defeat the evil that lies within it?
While the first film appears soft and diffuse, Chamber of Secrets has very good definition and
contrast. With rich colors and convincing skin tones, it also shows none of the slight digital sheen
within the grain
noise observed in Sorcerer's Stone. Detail in textured clothes, facial expressions and hair are good.
But the predominant beneficiary of the definition is the barrage of special effects, which are handled
better this time around compared to the first film, where they appeared more
canned.
Even the trickly integration of the basilisk is very good, if not seemless. The CGI
animation sacrifices some depth in the picture, but it does not get in the way of the overall quality,
and is actually quite convincing. Watch the climactic scene in the chamber when the blinded snake
lunges repeatedly at Harry. He scrambles for safety on a sculpture, stabbing at the basilisk's head
with a sword. Though the animation does not convincingly address "weight" or "gravity", te CGI
integrates well with the film, with a realistic, unpixellated characteristic to the edges of the snake.
The visual details add to the overall interaction between Harry and the basilisk, making the scene
more convincing.
The sound definition also adds greatly to the impact of the special effects. Again, taking the example
of the scene with the basilisk in the chamber, each element of the serpent's movements is
characterized by a tonally distinct sound. When the basilisk strikes, there is plenty of deep bass and
mid-bass rumble, as the rocks of the sculpture break apart from the impact. Although the sounds
are palpable and convincing, they occasionally have a canned quality that does not perfectly match
the visuals. For exampls, in the quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, the broomsticks
sound more like flying jets than brooms moving through the air. Yet the overall impact is very
impressive, and the audio quality has as much to do with this as the video. Surrounds are
aggressive and so is use of the LFE channel. I would have liked to hear this mix in 24-bit resolution,
but clearly Warner is unprepared to deliver the best that Blu-ray can offer.
Unfortunately, the features remain in standard definition and the BD boasts nothing new beyond
what was included in the standard DVD release more than four years ago. Those featurettes were
quite good. They include a quarter-hour conversation with J.K. Rowling, who discusses the story,
and with Steve Kloves. Another featurette of the same length, Building a Scene: Filmmaking
Magic,
delves into the costumes, lighting and sets of Chamber of Secrets in a way that children will be
able
to understand. The bonus material includes 18 minutes worth of deleted scenes. They are
more
significant than the Sorcerer's Stone deletions, and some of them appear good enough to be
included in the theatrical version--well, they aren't presented in 1080p, so it's difficult to judge.
The
20-minutes "Interviews with Students, Professors & More" offers question-and-response
selections
with members of the cast. The answers aren't earthshaking, but it is an opportunity to "virtually
interact" with Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Tom Felton, Richard Harris, Maggie
Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Kenneth Branagh and Jason Isaacs. Rounding out the supplementary
material is a brief recap of The Sorcerer's Stone, entitled "Year One at Hogwarts" and the trailer
for
Chamber of Secrets, albeit in standard definition. Clearly, Warner is producing content for the
lower-
capacity HD DVD, and simply porting it over onto BD.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a step up from The Sorcerer's Stone in every way. It
does not live up to the intensity and quality of what would come later, but it gets an easy
recommendation for adolescent audiences and for adults who want to see a good screen adaptation
of an imaginative story. The technical merits of the Blu-ray are strong, although one wonders how
much more fulfilling they could be if Warner fully capitalized on the advantages of the format.
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