Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets


Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"

Here we go again, back for more wizard adventures at Britain's most exclusive private school. This was supposedly going to be a darker and more complex episode. But for all the scary computer-generated effects - giant spiders and the like - director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Steven Kloves have contrived an ultra-faithful page-by-page translation of the JK Rowling book that's actually as unreflective and uncomplicated as ever. The dark forces are about as real here as they are in Teletubbies.
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, Emma Watson as Hermione and Rupert Grint as Ron look distinctly older than they did the first time around. It's like seeing how the Blair children had shot up when they appeared in front of Downing Street last year. Poring over quarto volumes in the library late at night, Radcliffe has the look of a young Simon Schama. Emma Watson continues on her well-made-up journey from baby to babe. Rupert Grint has started doing something I must say I don't remember from HP1: pulling the same silly, gurning face to indicate all emotions from shock, to dismay to fear. Whatever happens, it looks like Columbus has just said: "Do the funny face, Rupert!" I wish he'd tried something different occasionally.
Things have changed at Hogwarts, and this is the valedictory performance from Richard Harris as Professor Dumbledore. Surely the time has come for Stephen Fry to take over the headmastership.
How do you keep it fresh? Well, this time Rupert and Harry don't manage the trick of running through the wall at King's Cross; they arrive for the term in a flying Ford Anglia. Do the Americans realise that its wacky design hasn't simply been invented for this film - that unfortunate Britons used to drive the bloody thing, and for it actually to start and go along, never mind fly, was the real miracle?
There are new characters too. Kenneth Branagh gives a nice turn as the new teacher Gilderoy Lockhart, a conceited and preening fellow, and Jason Isaacs demonstrates what a lock he has on bad-guy roles, playing the ghastly Lucius Malfoy. The other new entrant is Dobby The House Elf: a tiny bug-eyed creature who has the mad person's habit of referring to himself in the third person. I greatly feared - and still slightly do fear - that this creature presages a descent into a fantasy nerdfest of Tolkienesque pomposity and orotundity. But actually Dobby is a great comic turn, voiced by the redoubtable Toby Jones, uncrowned king of the current London West End theatre smash The Play What I Wrote.
So The Chamber of Secrets has loads of chutzpah, with likable hints of Indiana Jones and even a Luke Skywalker-ish flash of paternity-related fear for Harry. But much of the drama of the first picture was Harry coming to terms with his magic identity in the first place. Now that intestinal conflict has gone. Chris Columbus has come up with an entertaining picture, as comforting as nursery food and as devoid of artistic depth as a sports event. It will be interesting to see if Alfonso Cuaron, the mooted director for HP3, wants to do anything more. If he does, he risks a direly pretentious Tolkien quagmire - and we've already got one of those. But if he doesn't, he risks boring us with more of the same. So it's a problem. But for the time being, the Harry Potter thrill ride is whizzing along very satisfactorily indeed.

and the like - and similar things - I tym podobne
chutzpah - imaginative and shocking behavior involving taking risk but not feeling guilt - pełna inwencji brawura, bezczelność (w sensie pozytywnym)
conceited - having to much pride or to much confidence in your general ability to perform particular actions or to achieve particular aims - próżny, zarozumiały
to contrive - to invent or make cleverly and possibly in an unusual way - wymyślić, wykombinować
devoid of - lacking, without - pozbawiony, wolny od
entrant - a person who becomes a member of a group or organization - nowoprzybyły, początkujący
flash - shine - przebłysk, błysk
ghastly - unpleasant and shocking - okropny, upiorny, straszny
gurning - The pulling of grotesque faces.
This British term—much better known in Britain and Commonwealth countries than in the US—has at times been applied to the pulling of faces as a competitive activity. A surviving example is that in the Lake District, where the Egremont Crab-Apple Fair has an annual contest, which they call the World Championship Gurning Competition and which they say dates back to 1266. There is also an Australian national competition that I know of, and there may be others, too.
- groteskowe miny
intestinal - internal - wewnętrzny, dosł: jelitowy
loads of - lots of dużo, całe fury
mooted - suggested, introduced for discussion - sugerowany, poddany pod dyskusję,
nerdfest - nerd - a person who is unattractive and awkward or embarrassing socially, usually one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits , -fest - meeting or occasion marked by (such) activity “songfest “ - święto kujonów, celebracja kujoństwa
orotundity - pomposity - górnolotność, pompatyczność
pore over - to look at and study - zgłębiać, ślęczeć nad
to preen - to feel proud or satisfied with yourself, puszyć się, być dumnym z siebie
to presage - to show or suggest that something will happen - zapowiadać, wróżyć
quagmire - an area of soft, wet ground which you sink into if you try and walk on it - grzęzawisko
redoubtable - formidable, causing fear - groźny, straszny
valedictory - pertaining to farewell - pożegnalny
wacky - unusual in a pleasing and exciting or silly way - kopnięty, stuknięty
to whizz - to move very fast - pędzić, gnać, mknąć
wizard - a man who is believed to have magical powers - czarownik


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Główna Czytelnia Filmy Recenzje filmowe z Guardiana Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
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